Fundamentals of Writing 1

Ages: 9 -18

Length of Class: 6 weeks

Time Required: Approximately 2-3 hours per week, plus 1-hour weekly online class time.

Description: Students will gain the ability to develop purpose, consider audience, and write clear and coherent sentences and paragraphs that develop a central idea. This class will also help the student to become knowledgeable and comfortable with using their computer so that it may be used as a valuable tool in their education. Students will be learning spelling rules, vocabulary skills and how to use reference materials, sentence structure and parts of speech, punctuation, capitalization, basic grammar, writing a complete, coherent, and interesting paragraph that has purpose and considers audience.

Method: Students will download and print weekly lessons from a passworded website. We will “meet” as a class online once a week to discuss the lesson and share any questions or ideas. Assignments will be typed in Microsoft Word and will be sent via e-mail attachment. I will make edits and return to students for revisions, and they will then return them to me again.

Ages: 9 -18

Length of Class: 6 weeks

Time Required: Approximately 2-3 hours per week, plus 1-hour weekly online class time.

Description: A continuation of Fundamentals of Writing 1. Students will gain the ability to develop purpose, consider audience, and write clear and coherent sentences and paragraphs that develop a central idea. This class will also help the student to become knowledgeable and comfortable with using their computer so that it may be used as a valuable tool in their education. Students will continue to expand their abilities with spelling rules, vocabulary skills and how to use reference materials, sentence structure and parts of speech, punctuation, capitalization, basic grammar, writing a complete, coherent, and interesting paragraph that has purpose and considers audience.

Method: Students will download and print weekly lessons from a passworded website. We will “meet” as a class online once a week to discuss the lesson and share any questions or ideas. Assignments will be typed in Microsoft Word and will be sent via e-mail attachment. I will make edits and return to students for revisions, and they will then return them to me again.

Ages: 10 -18

Length of Class: 6 weeks

Time required: Approximately 2 to 3 hours per lesson, plus 1-hour online class times as indicated.

Description: Students will learn to write interesting and inviting paragraphs using different types of figurative language and literary devices. Using these methods, students will use words to paint a picture of images and events in the mind of their reader. Students will write a paragraph describing a moment in time in addition to other paragraphs that create clear picturesof images, people, and other places important to the writer. Working on focus and specific word use will be emphasized while students continue to work on vocabulary, parts of speech, and sentence structure.

Method: Students will download and print weekly lessons from a passworded website. We will “meet” as a class online once a week to discuss the lesson and share any questions or ideas. Assignments will be typed in Microsoft Word and will be sent via e-mail attachment. I will make edits and return to students for revisions, and they will then return them to me again.

Prerequisites: Fundamentals of Writing 1 and 2 or the skills taught in those classes, and our instructore recommendation.

Ages: 10 -18

Length of Class: 6 weeks

Time Required: Approximately 2-3 hours per week, plus 1-hour weekly online class time.

Description: Students will learn personal event journaling techniques which will generate ideas for writing a short autobiographical account of an event. They will also learn how to write simple interview questions, conduct a short interview, and write a short biographical account of their interviewee. Included will also be instruction on how to write a friendly letter and address a letter. Journaling of daily reading of a book of the student's choice will be an ongoing part of the class. Focus will continue to be on setting up a paragraph, including topic sentences, details and closing sentences, as well as basic grammar, punctuation and spelling

Method: Students will download and print weekly lessons from a passworded website. We will “meet” as a class online once a week to discuss the lesson and share any questions or ideas. Assignments will be typed in Microsoft Word and will be sent via e-mail attachment. I will make edits and return to students for revisions, and they will then return them to me again.

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Wise Writers

Ages: 10 -18

Length of Class: 6 weeks

Time required: Approximately 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 hours per lesson, plus 1-hour online class times as indicated.

Description: Students will write for a variety of purposes and audiences, using paragraphs, articles, letters, and poems to express their ideas.  Using these formats, students will practiced the six traits of quality writing: conventions, sentence fluency, voice, word choice, organization, and ideas.  Each week, students will focus on one writing trait, one example of comma usage, and one grammar goal.  The class emphasizes the used of graphic organizwers as helpful writing tools.  The class also offers a review of writing basics and a weekly vocabulary journal.

Method: Students will download and print weekly lessons from a passworded website. We will “meet” as a class online once a week to discuss the lesson and share any questions or ideas. Assignments will be typed in Microsoft Word and will be sent via e-mail attachment. I will make edits and return to students for revisions, and they will then return them to me again.

Prerequisites: Fundamentals of Writing 1 and 2, Descriptive Writing, Narrative Writing and our instructor recommendation.

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Report Writing

Ages: 10 -18

Length of Class: 6 weeks

Time Required: Approximately 3+ hours per week, plus 1-hour weekly online class time.

Description: Students will gain the ability to do simple research and develop purpose, consider audience, and write clear and coherent sentences and paragraphs into a report that develops and supports a central topic. Students will continue to expand their abilities with spelling rules, vocabulary skills and how to use reference materials, sentence structure and parts of speech, punctuation, capitalization, and basic grammar.

Method: Students will download and print weekly lessons from a passworded website. We will “meet” as a class online once a week to discuss the lesson and share any questions or ideas. Assignments will be typed in Microsoft Word and will be sent via e-mail attachment. I will make edits and return to students for revisions, and they will then return them to me again.

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Beginning Creative Writing

Ages: 10 -18

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Presentation Class

Ages: 12 -18

Length of Class: 6 weeks

Time Required: Approximately 3 hours per week, plus 1-hour weekly online class time.

Description: Did you know that high school and college classes require the ability to create presentation slide shows for various projects? The program is easy and very fun to use! Students will use the presentation software, Impress (which is the free equivalent of PowerPoint), to create a presentation slide show to display their understanding of the different patterns of development, mainly compare-contrast. They will apply skills that have been learned in both the Paragraph Writing and Elementary Report Writing classes.

Method: Students will download and print weekly lessons from a passworded website. We will “meet” as a class online once a week to discuss the lesson and share any questions or ideas. Assignments will be typed in Microsoft Word and OpenOffice Impress and will be sent via e-mail attachment. I will make edits and return to students for revisions, and they will then return them to me again.

Prerequisites: Ability to type using Microsoft Word and strong understanding AND application of grammar, complete sentences, and punctuation. Narrative and Report Writing required as prerequisitie. Paragraph Writing recommended.

Paragraph Writing

Ages: 13 -18

Length of Class: 6 weeks

Time required: Approximately 4+ hours per week, plus 1 hour weekly online class time.

Method: Students will download and print weekly lessons from a passworded website. We will “meet” as a class online once a week to discuss the lesson and share any questions or ideas. Assignments will be typed in Microsoft Word and will be sent via e-mail attachment. I will make edits and return to students for revisions, and they will then return them to me again.

Prerequisites: Ability to type using Microsoft Word and good understanding of grammar, complete sentences, punctuation, and organization. Completion of Fundamentals 1 and 2, Narrative, and Report Writing and our instructor recommendation, or placement based on submission of writing sample (please contact us for requirements).

Writing About Books

Ages: 13 -18

Length of Class: 6 weeks

Time required: Approximately 4 hours per week, plus 1 hour weekly online class time.

Method: Students will download and print weekly lessons from a passworded website. We will “meet” as a class online once a week to discuss the lesson and share any questions or ideas. Assignments will be typed in Microsoft Word and will be sent via e-mail attachment. I will make edits and return to students for revisions, and they will then return them to me again.

Prerequisites: Completion of Paragraph Writing class and our instructor recommendation.

Creative Writing: Short Story Writing

Ages: 13 - 18

Length of Class: 6 weeks

Time required: Approximately 4 hours per week, plus 1 hour weekly online class time.

Description: Students will learn to improve their creative writing through the study and use of varied sentence structure, thesaurus use, descriptive writing, point of view, setting, mood, audience, characterization, plot, foreshadowing, suspense, and editing.

Method: Students will download and print weekly lessons from a passworded website. We will “meet” as a class online once a week to discuss the lesson and share any questions or ideas. Assignments will be typed in Microsoft Word and will be sent via e-mail attachment. I will make edits and return to students for revisions, and they will then return them to me again.

Prerequisites: Paragraph Writing or strong understanding of grammar, sentence structure, punctuation and paragraphing, and our instructor recommendation.

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Poetry Writing

Ages: 13 -18

Length of Class: 6 weeks

Time required: Approximately 3-4 hours per week, plus 1 hour weekly online class time.

Description: Students will learn various methods, techniques and styles of writing poetry. Each week students will be required to write one or more poems in the style being discussed. Covers poetry aspect of high school literature requirements.

Method: Students will download and print weekly lessons from a passworded website. We will “meet” as a class online once a week to discuss the lesson and share any questions or ideas. Assignments will be typed in Microsoft Word and will be sent via e-mail attachment. I will make edits and return to students for revisions, and they will then return them to me again.

Prerequisites: Paragraph Writing, Writing About Books, Creative Writing-Short Story Writing, and our instructor recommendation.

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Advanced Creative Writing

Ages: 13 -18

Length of Class: 6 weeks

Time required: Approximately 3 hours per week, plus 1 hour weekly online class time (as needed).

Description: In this class students will be writing a fiction story with an accurate historical background. Students will research an historical time period and use this as the setting for their story. Application of Creative Writing 1 concepts and elements as well as Expository Writing research and Works Cited page information is incorporated. Most of the class will be spent writing and editing the story. (This class may be repeated in different genres.)

Method: Students will download and print weekly lessons from a passworded website. Students must participate in the Creative Writing online class meetings for review of concepts. Assignments will be typed in Microsoft Word and will be sent via e-mail attachment. I will make edits and return to students for revisions, and they will then return them to me again.

Prerequisites: Creative Writing-Short Story Writing and Expository Writing.

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Expository Writing (research essay)

Ages: 14 -18

Length of Class: 6 weeks
This course can be repeated more than once, since this is a skill that improves with practice.

Time required: Approximately 4 hours per week, plus 1 hour weekly online class time (as needed).
Students will be required to choose topic (from list provided by instructor) and gather resources prior to start of class.

Description: Students will learn to write a research essay. Concepts covered and learned through writing one essay include: punctuation and paragraphing; choosing and narrowing a topic; choosing, documenting and citing resources in parenthetical references; choosing 3 or more main points (subtopics); note taking; using and documenting quotes; writing a thesis statement; writing topic sentences; MLA Format; writing supporting paragraphs; transition sentences; writing an opening paragraph; and writing a closing paragraph. It is recommended that this class be repeated more than once, especially for high school level students.

Method: Students will download and print weekly lessons from a passworded website. We will “meet” as a class online once a week to discuss the lesson and share any questions or ideas. Assignments will be typed in Microsoft Word and will be sent via e-mail attachment. I will make edits and return to students for revisions, and they will then return them to me again.

Prerequisites: Paragraph Writing and Writing About Books and our instructor recommendation. Strong, independent, writing with strong mastery of punctuation, grammar, paragraphing, and expression is required.

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Essays of Literature Analysis

Ages: 14 -18

Length of Class: 6 weeks

Time required: Once the class begins, approximately 4 + hours per week, plus 1 hour weekly online class time. About a month prior to class start date, students will be assigned a book to read and complete prior to the beginning of class.

Description: Students will learn to write an essay of literary analysis. This very challenging class includes learning concepts through writing one essay, and include: punctuation and paragraphing, choosing an aspect of the book to analyze, choosing 3 main points (subtopics), note taking, using and documenting quotes, writing a thesis statement, writing topic sentences, MLA Format, writing supporting paragraphs, transition sentences, writing an opening paragraph, and writing a closing paragraph. This is not a book report.

Method: Students will download and print weekly lessons from a passworded website. We will “meet” as a class online once a week to discuss the lesson and share any questions or ideas. Assignments will be typed in Microsoft Word and will be sent via e-mail attachment. I will make edits and return to students for revisions, and they will then return them to me again.

Prerequisites: Paragraph Writing and Writing About Books, at least one successful completion of Expository Writing, and our instructor recommendation. Strong, independent, writing with strong mastery of punctuation, grammar, paragraphing, and expression is required.

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Rhetoric 1: Persuasive Writing
*this class will be offered only when minimum enrollment is met, or on an individual basis. Contact for information.

Ages: 14 and up

Length of Class: 6 weeks

Time required: Once the class begins, approximately 4 hours per week, plus 1 hour weekly online class time.

Description: Students will learn first to recognize the rhetorical elements of logos, pathos and ethos through reading assigned speech(es). They will then write a persuasive essay using these elements. Concepts covered and learned through writing one essay include: punctuation and paragraphing, applying logos, pathos and ethos in writing, choosing 3 main points (subtopics), note taking, using and documenting sources, writing a thesis statement, writing topic sentences, MLA Format, writing supporting paragraphs, transition sentences, writing an opening paragraph, using Rogerian strategy to write opposing viewpoints, writing refuting paragraphs, and writing a closing paragraph.

Method: Students will download and print weekly lessons from a passworded website. We will “meet” as a class online once a week to discuss the lesson and share any questions or ideas. Assignments will be typed in Microsoft Word and will be sent via e-mail attachment. I will make edits and return to students for revisions, and they will then return them to me again.

Prerequisites: Paragraph Writing and Writing About Books, at least one successful completion of Expository Writing, Literature Analysis, and our instructor recommendation. Strong, independent, writing with strong mastery of punctuation, grammar, paragraphing, and expression is required.

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