Write from the Heart is an online composition and literature program designed primarily for homeschoolers in middle and high school. If you have any questions about our annual or semester classes or workshops please feel free to reach out!
Find the right fit for your student. Browse our annual classes, semester courses, workshops, printed curriculum, and Write To Publish program.
Full credit, teacher guided online writing and literature courses running September through April.
Flexible half credit courses designed to meet a semester requirement with focused, targeted support.
Four week workshops that provide short term, focused writing support for any learning environment.
Annual classes run for 30 weeks September-April.
Workshops start the first Monday of every month throughout the year except December.
Semester classes are flexible and students can start the first Monday of any month except December.
Annual Classes are our most comprehensive option. Running 30 weeks, they are designed to fulfill a full language arts or English credit. Students follow a daily schedule with structured deadlines throughout the week, and a coach engages with their work after each assignment so students receive consistent, step-by-step feedback as they progress. Every annual class also includes structured peer interaction on writing and literature assignments, so students write for real readers, not just a grade.
Semester Classes offer focused writing instruction in a flexible format and fulfill a ½-credit requirement. Each semester is built from three one-month units that can be taken back-to-back or spread across the school year. A coach provides feedback on every assignment and is available throughout the week. This class focuses on individualized, one-on-one work with your coach; others may be in the class, but peer collaboration is not required.
Workshop Classes are four-week, skill-focused courses designed to help students go deep on a specific type of writing. Assignments are due each Friday. A coach provides feedback on every assignment and is available throughout the week. This class focuses on individualized, one-on-one work with your coach; others may be in the class, but peer collaboration is not required. Workshops are supplemental and do not independently fulfill credit requirements, though multiple workshops completed across a year may be considered for credit depending on your state or umbrella school’s standards.
All workshops and semester classes are refundable until start of class.
All annual classes are refundable (or partially refundable) until October 1.
Coaching cancellations can be refunded for unused sessions.
View refund policy for full details.
The technology fee is a fee for all online classes to cover administrative and technology maintenance fees. The fee is charged once per order, not per class.
Yes, we welcome adults in our Workshops and Independent Study classes. Coaching Reviews are also a perfect way to get professional feedback on a paper before you turn it in to a professor or boss.
All of our annual classes are intended for middle and high school students, though. Recently graduated students taking a gap year are welcome to contact us to ask for an enrollment exception.
No. There is no spiritual or religious content in our instructional materials, but we encourage our students to write about what is important to them, including their faith, identity, and life experiences.
One of Write from the Heart’s guiding principles is to help students become better written communicators. We encourage them to choose topics that are important to them and express themselves fully. Our hope is that they learn critical thinking skills so that they can interact with compassion and empathy.
Writing coaches will not use their personal beliefs to influence a student’s faith, politics, or worldview; instead, they work to encourage students to increase their writing skills to better articulate their beliefs.
Absolutely! We’re happy to accommodate students’ learning schedules during travel. We kindly ask that parents notify instructors at least two weeks in advance of any travel plans. This allows us to make necessary adjustments and ensure your student stays on track without any added stress.
Absolutely! Workshops, semester classes, and individual coaching are perfect for these students. These are intended to supplement skills or work on extracurricular writing.
You are also welcome to take our annual classes. However, please be aware that these classes are intended to meet a full language arts credit and have a workload to match. In paired assignments and student-led discussions, other students rely on your child posting work on time. We expect all students to put forth a full effort.
It depends on the class.
The Annual Composition classes all require our resource guide, Write from the Heart: A Resource Guide to Engage Writers. This book can be used for multiple classes and shared between siblings if desired. It is also available as an ebook. Either version can be purchased in our online store.
Our Literature classes have specific book lists for each class. These books can be purchased though our online store. We offer packages with discounts for several of the resources.
Our semesters and workshops do not require any books; we provide all materials.
All our Write to Publish classes require a student workbook, but it is provided in ebook format as part of the class. A hard copy is available for purchase if you prefer.
Yes! We are listed in many states on the Marketplace, and are DirectPay vendors in several others. We are approved as a reimbursable material for grants and other funding options. You can see our most current lists here. If you do not see your school or program listed, be sure to contact us–we are always adding programs, and some require a parent request. We would love to work with you to make sure you have the funding you need.
We teach literature by movement rather than by national origin – because the greatest literary movements crossed borders. British and American writers were often responding to the same ideas at the same time, and teaching them together gives students the historical context that makes literature come alive.
All three courses include both reading and writing instruction as a single, full-credit English class.
Literature 201: Renaissance to Romanticism – Shakespeare, Romantic-era poetry, Gothic fiction (the Brontës, Stevenson), and early American literature (Hawthorne, Poe). Covers major British and American authors from the 1600s through the mid-1800s.
Literature 202: Modern World – Victorian literature (Dickens, Eliot, Hardy), American Realism and Regionalism (Twain, Wharton, Cather, Fitzgerald), and early 20th-century voices (Woolf, Walker, Lawrence). Covers British and American literature from the mid-1800s through the modern era.
Literature 301: World Literature – Ancient and medieval texts (Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, Beowulf, Canterbury Tales) alongside Russian, French, Scandinavian, and African literature (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Ibsen, Achebe). A global scope that goes beyond the British and American canon.
For your transcript: Families who complete Literature 201 and 202 have covered a thorough survey of both British and American literature. Literature 301 provides dedicated World Literature and Classical Literature coverage. Together, the three courses give students a breadth of literary study that most programs spread across four or more separate classes.
Students should plan to spend about 5-7 hours a week on the Composition classes, and 7-10 hours a week on the Literature & Composition classes (this includes reading assignments).
Workshops and semester classes vary based on the subject matter, but are designed to take about 2-3 hours a week, and can be taken in addition to annual classes.
For our annual and semester classes, students receive a weekly homework grade based on the completion of assignments and writing revisions. Rubrics filled with coach comments will be provided for each major writing assignment. Additionally, at the end of the year, every annual student will receive a comprehensive coach evaluation that comments on the student’s growth areas throughout the year.
Our workshop activities are graded, but parents are welcome to use this feature as a pass/fail grade or ignore that component of the class. Detailed evaluations on all writing assignments are provided, and students receive personal feedback from a writing coach on every activity.
Yes, we do.
However, we focus on practical grammar rather than what is called “artificial grammar learning” (using worksheets and similar methods). Studies have consistently shown that students retain grammar rules far better when used practically.
At Write from the Heart, we believe that content and expressing your voice is the gateway to good grammar. If a student can write clearly and with confidence, then the grammar pieces will eventually fall into place—when a child is particularly invested in a piece of writing, they usually want everything to be perfect! Get a student excited about writing something, and better grammar generally follows.
With that said, it is important to learn the rules before we practice these skills. We offer several Workshop Intensives focused on grammar, a Grammar Workbook to accompany our Resource Guide (available in our online store), and our first few weeks of our annual classes include a review of grammar rules with some worksheets.
For the rest of the year, we get our practice through practical grammar. On every major writing assignment, students practice identifying common sentence errors and checking for spelling, capitalization, usage, and punctuation errors in one another’s work. Coaches tutor each student throughout the year on their specific grammar struggles, and a year-end evaluation is provided to discuss grammar growth.
Usually, this is not possible in annual classes. However, we believe that voice comes first and the writer who cares about what they are writing is going to be far more successful. We never pick a topic for assignments, but leave them wide enough to accommodate all interests. For example: “Write an informative paper about an invention that made a difference in society” has elicited topics from refrigeration to the lifeboat system on ships to –yes, really!—sliced bread. We have had students with special interests like space or horses find a way to make every paper tie in to that idea, and we loved watching their creativity and passion shine through!
We value the flexibility of families who are coming to us and will accommodate you as much as we can. We are more than happy to help you blend specific workshops or semesters together to make a unique credit for your student.
We also offer an Independent Study option for creation of a class designed around your objectives. We also provide Coaching for individual papers that you would like to have professionally evaluated—and these do not need to be for English class! Check out our Coaching & Review page for details.
This depends on your preference.
Write from the Heart is designed to teach your child composition and literature completely: you can pass off all the assignments, discussion, and grading to us. We will provide you with feedback rubrics for every major assignment, a comprehensive gradebook, and a final evaluation of your child’s growth. All you need to do is print out these documents and present them to your evaluator to receive credit for the class!
However, some parents want to be more involved in their child’s progress through the class. That’s great, too! Coaches are available to parents and respond to emails within 24 hours. We also provide parents of Composition students with a Parent Handbook in ebook form free of charge. This handbook gives you tips and suggestions for what to ask your child regarding their work. The Composition classes also feature a “Parent’s Guide” sidebar on all weekly instructions with color-coded guidance suggestions.
We do ask that parents hold their children accountable for turning work in on time and communicate with coaches if problems arise.
Write from the Heart is built for students who have something to say, whether they know it yet or not.
Our classes serve a wide range of writers: the student who fills notebooks on their own and the one who stares at a blank page, the confident communicator and the reluctant writer who hasn’t yet found their voice. What our students share isn’t a skill level. It’s a willingness to engage. Students who come ready to think, try, and apply feedback are the ones who grow the most, and that growth often surprises them. Many students who begin convinced they hate writing finish the year with real confidence and a voice that’s distinctly their own.
Our approach blends creative freedom with genuine academic rigor, so there’s room here for every kind of writer. Beginning writers build a solid foundation. Experienced writers are challenged to go deeper. Advanced students find the intellectual stretch they’ve been looking for.
One practical note for families: our classes are text-based and involve a meaningful volume of written instruction. Students who process information more easily through conversation may benefit from a parent reading directions aloud or talking through assignments together. This doesn’t limit what a student can gain; it just means some families build in that extra step. We also offer video coaching in a one-on-one Zoom to help support students as an optional add-on for families.
We offer several services to help you!
● You can get help using our Course Placement Questionnaire
● You can submit a paper your child wrote in the last year for a free evaluation by emailing it to us at info@writefromtheheart.org.
Our goal is to challenge your child without overwhelming them. We can move your child to a different class at any time, but that rarely happens. We do regularly offer advanced students the option to slide up to a higher level partway through the year. Additionally, our coaches work closely with their students to challenge them in an individual way within every one of our classes.
In the annual classes, the students are given instructions that lists their tasks for the week. All tasks are due by midnight, EST. Some tasks last several days, while others require the students to finish in one day. Following the due dates is important—a variety of daily and weekly assignments are given to help students grow in time management. Our coaches are available daily for questions and support.
Our Workshops and Semester classes have weekly assignment lists that are due every Friday at midnight, EST. Coaches respond over the weekend so that students are prepared to begin the next week. However, our coaches are available daily for questions and support.
Yes! You can see our list of charter schools, ESA programs and grant participation here. If you do not see your school or program listed, be sure to contact us–we are always adding programs, and some require a parent request. We would love to work with you to make sure you have the funding you need.
Literature & Composition classes are a complete, combined English course –
literature and writing taught together with daily coach engagement and peer interaction. One class, one credit, one transcript entry.
Composition classes provide comprehensive writing and grammar instruction. Students also engage with fiction, poetry, and nonfiction throughout the year, including short stories, an independent novel with a written book review, a poetry writing unit, and a research project with multiple sources. Many families use a Composition class as their full English credit. Families who want structured literary discussion alongside composition should consider the Literature & Composition track.
Semester classes each fulfill a ½-credit requirement.
Workshops are supplemental and do not independently meet credit requirements, though combining several across the year could be considered for credit depending on your state or umbrella school’s standards. We are happy to work with you to create a class and will include a letter with an official course description and title to verify that it meet your credit requirements as necessary.
Our classes are placed by writing ability, not by age or grade. A strong 6th-grade writer and a developing 9th-grade writer need different things, regardless of what grade they’re in. This also means no student is ever embarrassed to be in a class that feels “below their grade.” They’re simply in the level where they’ll grow the most. Our free placement quiz takes under five minutes and will recommend the right starting point.