Teacher Profile
Mrs Grace Dunlop, BA
English Writing
I hold a Bachelor’s Degree in History and French from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada (2004). I am currently based in Northern Ireland (since 2020) and am a home-educating mother of five children. Over the years, our family has moved frequently due to ministry – my husband pastored on Vancouver Island for ten years, and we later spent two years in Kenya as missionaries, where my husband continues to train rural pastors. Throughout these changes, home education has provided consistency for our children and opportunities for me to grow as a teacher.
I have always loved teaching, so homeschooling was a natural choice for our family. However, while academic training developed my own thinking and and abilities as a writer, I initially found it difficult to teach these abstract skills clearly to my own children. In chatting with other mothers, I realised that writing can be one of the subjects that so easily gets pushed to one side and neglected. I noticed that many students were entering secondary school – and even college – without even knowing how to write a basic, short essay.
In 2020 I created an online, five-week essay course for students aged 9 to 14. Soon afterwards, I discovered the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW). I began to implement some of their ‘Structure and Style’ principles in the tasks I set my children. I soon saw the effectiveness of this and completed the IEW teacher training course for myself in 2022. I have now used this approach for over four years with my own children and in our local homeschool co-op.
I use this IEW method in my Key Stage 2 & 3 classes at PX Classrooms. The IEW method is based on the classical idea of modelling: teachers provide a set of tools to students and show them how to use these tools in the context of good literature. The Key Stage 2 & 3 levels correspond nicely with the ‘dialectic’ stage of the classical education method. This is when students are ready to move on from copy work, dictation, and narration, to focus on the structure, style, and grammar of writing. I would say these classes are skill-driven and tool-based.
These classes are also ideal for reluctant writers and also students with special needs. Writing is a multi-step process that can often feel overwhelming. Yet dysgraphia, dyslexia, spelling difficulties, and visual processing disorders should never keep a child from writing. Parents are welcome to sit in my PX Classroom and provide appropriate support in such cases, if they so desire.
I am convinced that as Christians we must teach the next generation to communicate well – in academic circles, in the marketplace, and in the Church. This process should begin at a young age. I am excited to offer these courses with PX Classrooms and to reach the broader Christian education community for the strengthening of the next generation, to the honour of Jesus Christ.
I offer the following PX Classroom courses:
- This is a one-year course of weekly sessions for children aged 9 to 11.
- This course is perfect for reluctant or struggling writers and for anyone who just wants to learn the joy of writing.
- Using the IEW approach, students learn the structure and style of writing through various compositions, essays, stories, and poetry.
- Essential grammar and editing skills are also taught in the context of literature.
- My aim is to take the mystery out of writing for children and inspire them to express themselves competently.
- This is a one-year course of weekly sessions for children aged 11 to 14.
- This course is perfect for reluctant or struggling writers and for anyone who just wants to learn the joy of writing.
- Using the IEW approach, students learn the structure and style of writing.
- Students learn how to write various compositions, essays, stories, and poetry as well as how to use advanced grammar and stylistic devices.
- My aim for this class is to have students well prepared for secondary (high) school where writing is an important part of every subject. I want my students to have the tools at hand for future academic success, and the confidence to propel them forward into any academic task.
Testimonials
Mrs Dunlop has taught three of our children at KS2, KS3, and GCSE level. With her enthusiastic and fresh approach to English Writing, she has encouraged, equipped, and motivated our children to achieve better results in this subject. All three children have enjoyed her classes immensely. We warmly and confidently recommend her as a teacher.
Mrs Dunlop has taught several of my children at different stages and with varying academic capabilities over recent years, and also with differing levels of interest in English as a subject on their part. However, without exception, she managed to engage each one of them with her kind and winsome personality and her simple and precise way of presenting the information. She has an obvious gift in patiently helping the student to reach their full potential at every level, and I have particularly appreciated how she has done this slowly, methodically, and consistently. Her input into our home-school has been of immense value.