Revision Learning, an NYC Charter School Center-approved vendor, partners with schools around the city to provide free and paid college essay & career support.
Free Resources
Revision offers a free student platform account, which includes:
StoryBuilder Writing Platform:
Students work through the five steps of the Moments Method® (Find Stories, Focus In, Tell It Out Loud, Map It, and Focus Out) to write a story-based essay draft.
Daily Story Writing Prompts:
Students can build storytelling skills with Daily Story, a feature that provides daily writing prompts for students to practice crafting stories.
Limited Self-Paced Course Library
These interactive, self-paced courses teach students how to use their stories for college admissions and career success. The free student account includes access to 2 courses, Introduction to Storytelling and Introduction to the College Essay.
Revision also offers resources to help educators who work with students directly, including:
4x4 Brainstorming Worksheet - help your students figure out which stories they want to tell for their college essays
Focus Out Worksheet - help your students go back into their writing to identify areas where they can replace generic language with Details, Dialogue and Descriptions.
Revision College Essay Rubric - use the Revision Rubric to assess your students’ work or have them self-edit or edit with a friend
4 College Essays and Why They Worked - share this resource with your students so they can see sample essays with a breakdown of what made them effective
Get started today!
Students can create free accounts that include access to StoryBuilder, Daily Story, and 2 of our self-paced courses.
Services
Revision offers various services to help students and educators with college essays and careers:
When an individual or organization works with Revision, they get access to our upgraded Revision student platform. For organizations, this includes access to our educator platform as well.
Workshops
Student Workshops: Our interactive workshops give students an opportunity to delve into the fundamentals of storytelling, gain insight about what colleges are looking for in admission essays, and actively craft, edit and refine their drafts. Our three most-popular college essay workshops include:
Essay Essentials: Students are introduced to the Moments Method® and the role of the essay in the college admission process. They complete a brainstorming activity where they build a portfolio of stories they can use to build admission and scholarship essays.
Personal Statement: Revision coaches lead students through the essay process, using our StoryBuilder storytelling software to write a personal statement. They end the course with a completed personal statement draft.
Essay Editing: Students take their rough draft and go through the editing process step-by-step, guided by Revision Learning coaches. They end with edited drafts of their personal statements.
For our career stories student workshops, our most-popular workshops include:
Intro to Career Stories: Learn how you can use the science of storytelling to succeed in your career and build a portfolio of stories that reveal your Skills, Experience, and Character (SEC) to current and future colleagues.
Interviews: Take control of the interview process with stories that reveal your unique fit for specific career opportunities and commonly-asked interview questions.
Elevator Pitch/Networking Stories: Networking can be difficult and awkward, but it doesn’t have to be. In this workshop, you’ll work on stories that you can bring to your next networking event.
Educator Workshops: Our engaging live sessions are designed for educators to explore the Moments Method® and discover our unique approach to feedback, which will allow them to better support their students.
Introduction to Teaching the Moments Method®: Educators learn how to use the Moments Method® to teach students how to use storytelling to build successful college essays, plus interviews for internships and jobs.
How to Provide Question-Based Feedback: Educators learn how to provide question-based feedback grounded in the Moments Method® on student essays.
Our distinctive feedback process for drafts, which includes a personalized letter, a score based on our finely-tuned rubric, and targeted, actionable in-line comments from a trained Revision coach. Students submit their drafts on our platform and get feedback there within 48 hours.
Letter
“[My favorite part was] when we got to act like admission officers, reading the example stories and comparing what actually makes someone or someone's story a memorable one.”
-Student workshop participant
Rubric
These services are often bundled into packages to meet the needs of each particular school/network that we work with. Below are some sample packages:
Sample Packages
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We recognize that for many teachers, there simply isn’t enough time in the day to provide feedback on college essay drafts for students. With this option, you can make sure your students get an extra set of eyes on their essays and have specific, concrete suggestions for how to improve.
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At some schools, there isn’t space in the curriculum to explicitly teach college essay writing to students. With this option, our coaches can teach your students the essential information they’ll need to write powerful essays that stand out from the crowd. They’ll also get personalized feedback on drafts to help them build upon their learning after our workshops.
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At some schools, college essay writing is already a part of the curriculum. With this option, educators can learn about our approach to storytelling and providing feedback and can use our custom curriculum (6 ready-to-go lesson plans with classroom materials) to supplement their existing college essay curriculum. Students will receive personalized feedback from our coaches, which teachers can build upon in their classrooms.
*A purchase of any of our packages includes access to the upgraded Revision Learning platform for all students and educators at your school.
Testimonials
“[A takeaway was] that colleges want to know the real you not an image you want to put on to make yourself look good.”
-Student workshop participant
“I was really worried about my essay, especially because of the topic I was writing. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out at all. But with the feedback I got, I was more confident in what I was writing and I feel more comfortable in submitting my essay. Thank you.”
-College essay feedback recipient
In-line comments
“I enjoyed being able to read the final essay. The student is a gifted writer. The imagery really made me feel like I was there! The broader scale that was given to rate/grade the essays was also refreshing.”
-Educator workshop participant
“I just wanted to let you (whomever is reading this) know that Mr. Carrero is the BEST!!! His feedback really helped improve my essays and I feel confident that they will show readers who I am. I'm am really happy that I am able to have him as my editor. :)”
-College essay feedback recipient
Sometimes, it’s easier to get live support from a Revision coach. Revision now offers one-on-one coaching sessions to support students at different stages of their college essay writing journey.
During these one-on-one Zoom sessions, students can get help with:
Brainstorming - share personal statement or supplemental essay ideas and get feedback
Editing - review an essay draft live and get feedback in real time
Other - bring any burning college essay questions, get tips about how to write a stellar college essay, and more
Full Self-Paced Course Library
The upgraded account includes access to our full library of 17 courses focused on using storytelling for college admissions and career success.
Revision also offers workshops for students and educators, depending on the needs of a school or organization.
Workshop Links and Recordings
If you’re working with Revision through a school or organization and you attend one of our virtual workshops, your account will populate with a Zoom link before the event. After the workshop ends, you’ll be able to go back to re-watch all of the content!
Feedback Submission
If you have feedback on your account, you’ll be able to upload your story directly within the platform. Simply go to the last step of StoryBuilder, click “Submit Story,” provide some information about your essay, then hit “Submit.” You’ll get an email from us within 48 hours letting you know your feedback is ready!
A Revision educator account includes:
Educator Dashboard Access
Within the dashboard, educators have the ability to create and edit their students’ accounts, view their students’ feedback, and more.