This academic year-long writing course will consist of three consecutive sessions to be held virtually from August 2024 – May 2025 by a credentialed English teacher with over 20 years of experience. Lessons will be based upon Common Core State Standards.
Students will be exposed to many interesting nonfiction topics (literature, history, science, current events, technology) as they practice their writing across the curriculum. We will brainstorm, organize, and begin writing their essay together. Then they will complete the essay for homework.
In my small classes, students will be given a new writing assignment each week. All of their writing will be edited for grammar and sentence structure by me. For a student to learn how to write they must be taught how to improve their writing properly, otherwise, it is a useless exercise. At that time, students will be required to make the necessary changes to their essays.
Learning new vocabulary is essential for good writing. Many students can memorize a list of new words but then forget the meaning long-term. I will not only teach students new vocabulary, but they will learn how to appropriately use the new words to elevate their writing.
In their schools’ classrooms, students have to move quickly from one writing style to another. This can be confusing as the template for each is very different. However, during my classes, students will work on one type of writing consistently until they have reached a level of success before beginning another writing style. This approach gives students the additional repetitive practice necessary to succeed with confidence.
This course will include the following:
Narrative Writing
Narrative writing tells a story based on real or imagined events. Students will use descriptive language, sensory details, and dialogue to tell their tales. They will learn how to develop a plot to include: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
Opinion Writing
When writing an opinion essay, students will learn how to clearly state their claims, and then support their claims with strong reasons and facts in each paragraph. They will include textual evidence and state their explanations. They will learn how to write effective introductions and conclusion paragraphs.
Compare and Contrast Writing
This rhetorical style discusses the similarities and differences of two or more things: ideas, concepts, items, places, etc. This rhetorical style is often seen as a complete essay. However, it is used within paragraphs of many essays in which a comparison is necessary to help illustrate a point.
Informational Writing
Students will introduce a topic, explain a process, or describe an idea. Then they will include contextual evidence from the text and state their reason for selecting the quote. Students will organize related information into paragraphs to write the most logical essay.
Course Schedule
This small group class will be held weekly for 90 minutes on the following days:
Sundays at 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. beginning August 17, 2025 – May 24, 2026.
Thursdays at 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. from August 14, 2025 – May 28, 2026.
Parents have an opportunity to create their own groups. Please contact me for more details.
Register Here!