The Story Behind The Write Foundation

The Write Foundation writing curriculum is designed for a homeschool setting and or a homeschool co-op classroom setting. The curriculum is step-by-step lesson plans that teach basic grammar and teach the writing process. It has been used to give hundreds of students the necessary tools to easily organize and write a college level essay. The Write Foundation develops independent confident writers.

An upper-level co-op teacher frequently stated. “Students from Rebecca’s writing classes know how to write.” (B. Frazier – former teacher of David Quine’s Worldviews of the Western World)

Rebecca Celsor was born in California and reared in Texas and Colorado. After graduating from the University of Texas in Austin, she taught language arts in public school. She loves teaching and assumed she would return to public school teaching after her children were school age. Homeschooling was way out on the fringe. It was assumed that the Celsor children would attend public or private school.

Pioneers in home education were leading the way in the 1980’s. It soon became clear that many home educated students achieved excellence. Universities were encouraging homeschooled students to apply because they were excellent students.

Rebecca's children were ages 6, 4, and 3. Using ABEKA and Bob Jones curriculum, Rebecca decided to try the “homeschool” thing for a year. And then another. "I'll try it" led to a firm conviction of the benefits of teaching her own children at home.

After 5 years as a home educator, she was asked to lead a Christian homeschool support group. A little later, she helped organize a homeschool volunteer co-op where she taught creative writing.

She ended up home schooling her children all the way through high school. As her children matured, they became more involved in local homeschool co-ops. A number of good writing teachers were already teaching at the co-op.

Rebecca had a heart for those who struggled. She knew that many students find writing too abstract. They struggle to see any logic behind writing. Some students need to learn some basic writing mechanics and then they are ready to master the writing process. They need more hand holding to learn how to clearly communicate their thoughts. They needed the writing process broken down into simple steps and drilled into them. “Repetition is the price of knowledge.” (Keith Lamb)

She had an array of students from gifted to average to struggling. She found no matter the student, they needed a solid foundation to become independent writers.

The hunt was on for a writing curriculum. She needed curriculum she could use to teach even struggling students how to write. She ideally wanted one with organized lesson plans. Finding a writing curriculum suitable for homeschool classes in a co-op setting would help her even more.

Many of the available curricula had strengths, but none had exactly what she knew was needed. So, Rebecca pulled the cream from the top of 10 different writing curricula.

Many writing curricula focus on different types of writing: creative writing, story writing, poetry writing, persuasive writing, argumentative writing, informative writing, descriptive writing, book writing, fiction writing, novel writing.

The basic foundation of writing, however, is assumed more often than taught in many writing curricula. Students were not given the necessary writing tools. Often, they were just told to write what they feel. They were not taught some basic writing mechanics or how to use the writing process. They were given a fish to eat for a day. They were not taught how to fish.

Rebecca attended an IEW seminar but it didn’t meet her standards. Her main concern was IEW did not teach writing using the standard writing process. She came in contact with many who had been through IEW. Many had not developed independent writing skills. The IEW methods work for some but not all.

Rebecca relied heavily on The Lively Art of Writing by Lucile Vaughan Payne. A high school English teacher had taught her how to write an essay using this book. It had clicked with Rebecca. She learned how to easily write using the writing process. The writing principles taught were excellent. But it needed to be developed into lesson plans.

So, while teaching, she developed and saved her own lesson plans. Rebecca wanted plans she could use each year without having to rewrite them every year.

Most homeschool moms feel lost in teaching writing to their own children. As Rebecca listened to other's frustrations she wanted to help. She realized her step-by-step lesson plans might help others. All this input helped her format teachable lessons.

Rebecca knew writing 5-paragraph college level essays was vital for making it through any college or university. The Write Foundation teaches how to easily write a college level essay. When students learn how to use the writing process, they become successful skilled writers.