Every writing curriculum claims results. Very few show you the actual paper.
So we are going to show you the paper.
Below are eleven pairs of writing samples from students in Redwood Literacy’s 2026 Summer Morning Intensives at our East Nashville and Evanston learning centers. Each student wrote the first sample in their first days of the program and the second sample at the end. In between: 75 minutes a day of Writing Our World™ instruction, four weeks, most of them alongside decoding instruction and assistive technology.
These are students with dyslexia, dysgraphia, and language-based learning differences. Several of them cried about writing before the summer started. The samples are reproduced exactly as the students wrote them — original spelling, original punctuation, nothing cleaned up. Student names have been removed.
We are not showing you these to argue that four weeks fixes everything. We are showing you because the thing that changes first is almost never the thing people expect.
What you should watch for
Read the pairs looking for three specific shifts, because these are the ones Writing Our World™ is built to produce:
1. Structure arrives before polish. Most of these students are still misspelling words in the second sample. What they are no longer doing is starting in the middle of a thought and stopping when they run out of steam. A position, reasons, and a conclusion show up long before conventional spelling does — and that is the correct order. Structure is teachable in weeks. Orthography takes longer.
2. The thinking was already there. In nearly every pair, the ideas in the “before” sample are good. What is missing is a way to get them onto the page in an order a reader can follow. This is what parents mean when they say “he’s so smart, he just can’t write it down.” It is not a thinking problem. It is an access problem, and access problems respond to instruction.
3. Transitions do the heavy lifting. First. Second. Finally. Although some people believe… I believe… Those phrases are not decoration. They are scaffolding that holds a paragraph up while a student learns to hold it up themselves. Watch how often they appear in the second sample and how completely they are absent from the first.
1. Rising 2nd grader · Nashville Summer Morning Intensive
He’s seven. Writing used to make him cry.
Before
wer i wold go si to the bech. ti so fun and wut i wold do ther si i wold suem.
After
Although some people believe that being a bystander is worse, I think being a bully is worse. First, if you are bullying someone, you will get in more trouble. Second, if you bully, you will be a bad person in your life. Third, if you are a bully, the people you want won’t have a lot of friends. For all these reasons, you should never be a bully in your life.
What changed: Two sound-it-out sentences became a full argument paragraph, conventionally spelled.
2. Rising 7th grader · Nashville Summer Morning Intensive
He wrote this sentence in June.
Before
we i playing my gamer i have a strategy we l am an a situation time need gamer plan . laerning that we a gamer plan to win victory royale
After
Although some people only use one success trick, I think all of them are the best. My first reason is, because you need them to be successful in relationships. You are very powerful, and they will push you to your goal. For example, in gaming. My second reason is, you need them to be successful in life. For example, in business. Finally, they can push you to be a better and happier person. Although some people would rather choose one, I would rather choose all of them!
What changed: One run-on sentence became a claim, three reasons, and a conclusion.
3. Elementary student · Nashville Summer Morning Intensive
Sound-it-out spelling. Every word.
Before
I woud what to go china because. I what to trir thay food and see a mouzandm thay woud be so cool. The oter reeson is I what see a shop thay get somting cool. A nuter reeson is I if I can lern ther laglush and Art.
After
Although some people believe that being a bystander is the worst, I believe that the bully is the worst, and here are my three reasons why. First, the bystander has not done anything, but the bully has been hurting or saying bad stuff. Second, the bystander could be scared or terrified from the bully. Finally, the bully is the one doing the real harm, and the bystander is the one wanting to help but does not know how. Given everything I said, I think the bully worse than the bystander.
What changed: Sound-it-out spelling to conventional spelling. Paragraph writing to essay writing.
4. Rising 4th grader · Nashville Summer Morning Intensive
This one only got THREE weeks.
Before
i would change the fucher becaus if thare was sumthing i wunt to change i can change it
After
When it comes to bullying or watching someone getting bullied, I believe bullying is worse than being a bystander. First, if you are a bully, you’ll get in a lot of trouble. Second, if you’re a bystander, you can get the bully in trouble. On top of that, if you’re a bully, you will grow up to be a bad person. I just wanted to say, I will tell them to stop, but if they didn’t stop, I would start watching. Fifth, bullies usually end up in a bad place. In conclusion, these are the reasons why I think it’s worse to be a bully than a bystander.
What changed: One run-on sentence became an organized paragraph. In three weeks, not four.
5. Rising 6th grader · Nashville Summer Morning Intensive
52 words in July. 106 by the end of the month.
Before
I chose to change the past. First I would see how people used to live back then. Then I would fix things I did wrong, and I could get money by knowing betting on the team I know would win. Also I would like to see my parates when they were kids.
After
Although many people, for good reasons, believe that being the bully is worse than being the bystander, I believe the bystander is actually worse for these three reasons. First off, the bystander could join the bully, and make it two times worse. Secondly, he could just watch the bully, and that would make the bully be mean, sense no one did anything. Lastly, the worst thing that he could do is overpower both the bully and the one getting bullied, because he’s stronger than the bully and chooses to be the bully himself. For all these reasons, that’s why the bystander is worse than the bully.
What changed: A list of ideas became a real argument. Writing screener: 25% to 63%.
6. Rising 8th grader · Nashville Summer Morning Intensive
The ideas were always there. The sentences weren’t.
Before
One problem I had in life was being bad at lacrosse. but luckily, I had a coach that could teach me and also I had teammates that could help me when I need it. my teammates helped me so much. I was able to get a hat trick this year. I also got hurt a lot this season by trying to help out my teammates in a game. in conclusion, I was bad at lacrosse at the beginning of the season, but my teammates helped me out and my coaches so I got better.
After
Although some people think that being a bystander is worse, I believe being a bully is worse. One reason is, bullies are the ones that are really hurting people. Another reason is, if you are a bystander, you don’t have to get involved or help the person in need. Lastly, the bully can be hands on with someone and really hurt someone. In conclusion, these are some of the reasons why I think being a bully is worse than being a bystander.
What changed: Same strong thinker, now with clean sentence boundaries and capitalization that holds.
7. Redwood Literacy Evanston · Chicago
From “it is so fun to woch” to a story with a plot.
Before
I was playing baseball becaus it is so fun to woch. my favrit team is La. I got to go on the feld and got my La card.
After
*Gamers
I found a gameing room in my old school. I play my favret video game in the world. You have five hours to beat the game. You can to go a diferin school to be a pro gamer.*
What changed: A loose recount became a titled piece with a setup, rules, and a stake.
8. Redwood Literacy Evanston · Chicago
Three unrelated sentences. Watch what four weeks does.
Before
A farmer walks to his castle with a buquay. An alien walks to his house and finds two swords. A doctor walks to the mountains with her backpack on.
After
Green Day is when you wear green clothes. People have parties on Green Day. On Green Day, people don’t have school. People stay up late. People wear green clothes because it’s where the name Green Day comes from.
What changed: Three disconnected sentences became one topic, held across a whole paragraph.
9. Redwood Literacy Evanston · Chicago
One sentence in June. A titled story with an outline in July.
Before
I’ll never forget the day I had a endoscopy it was horrible because I got a string in my throt.
After
*The New Holiday
There was a world of all stuffys. Thay had no holidays it was so dark and skarry, and thay all say there sorrys. Then, they thot V. Day. They all eat helthy stuff. It was fun.*
What changed: One sentence became a titled narrative, planned from a written outline first.
10. Redwood Literacy Evanston · Chicago
One sentence. Then a whole invented holiday.
Before
A robot will make a good frend becase it will do enething you wont and anser eny ques you have.
After
If I can make a holiday it would be called USA Day. It will have perads no school firewerks and free food. Music will be playing. It will last for a week.
What changed: A one-sentence answer became a multi-sentence piece with layered detail.
11. Redwood Literacy Evanston · Chicago
No transitions in June. Read the second one.
Before
I will never foret the day when I whent to a tswift consert. I meet t. swift it was the Best Day Ever! it was so so cool.
After
*Squishy’s Day
It is a day wher people buy squishys. First, people go to the store and buy squishys. Then people come together and squishy trade. It spreads happiness all over the world. And at the end people are so happy and made new friends.*
What changed: Excitement with no structure became First, Then, And at the end.
What is actually happening in these four weeks
Writing Our World™ does not teach writing as inspiration. It teaches writing as a sequence of decisions a student can be walked through, and then walked through again, until the walk-through becomes internal.
That means:
- A written plan before a written paragraph. Several of the students above were outlining in bullet points before drafting by the end of the month. One of the Evanston students who wrote a single sentence in June was planning on paper in July. That habit is the difference between “writing is impossible” and “writing is work.”
- Explicit sentence-level instruction. Look at sample 6. The ideas in the “before” are strong — lacrosse, a coach, teammates, a hat trick, an injury. The sentences run together and the capital letters drop out after every period. Four weeks later the thinking is unchanged and the mechanics finally match it.
- Argument structure taught as a frame, not a mystery. Although some people believe X, I believe Y, and here are my three reasons. Once a student owns that frame, they can fill it with anything.
- Decoding and writing taught together, not in sequence. Sample 3 is the clearest case: sound-it-out spelling in the first sample, conventional spelling in the second. That is not a writing trick. That is what happens when decoding instruction and writing instruction run at the same time instead of waiting for each other.
The honest caveats
We would rather tell you these than have you find them yourself.
- This is intensive dosage. 75 minutes a day, five days a week, for four weeks. A student getting Writing Our World™ once a week will get there — but not in a month.
- The prompts differ between before and after. These are program pre- and post-writes, not the identical task administered twice. What is comparable is the structure, the sentence control, and the spelling, not the topic.
- Eleven students is eleven students. It is a real sample from two of our centers in one summer, not a controlled study. We are showing you what we saw.
- Not every student moved this far. These are the samples we have permission to show and that illustrate the shifts clearly. Growth was not uniform, and anyone who tells you it was is selling something.
If you teach
Writing Our World™ was built by a dyslexia specialist for the students who are hardest to move — and it works in a general education classroom for exactly that reason. Everything above was produced by teachers following the curriculum, not by the person who wrote it.
Start free. The Writing Our World™ Starter Access Kit gives you the framework, the anchor charts, and the first sequence at no cost.
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Writing samples collected at Redwood Literacy’s East Nashville and Evanston Learning Centers, Summer Morning Intensives, June–July 2026. Reproduced verbatim with names removed.
