Name of class:  Elementary Writing 1 
Code:  Elem1

Ages:  9 and up

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 and up

Length of Class:  6 weeks

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

Description:  A continuation of Elementary 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:  9 and up

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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Name of class:  Report Writing
Code:  ReportWriting

Ages:  10 and up

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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Name of class:  Beginning Creative Writing
Code:  BeginningCW

Ages:  10 and up

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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Name of class:  Presentation
Code: Presentation

Ages:  13 and up

Length of Class:  6 weeks

Time Required:  Approximately 3 hours per week, plus 1-hour weekly online class time.  Although meetings are scheduled as shown, in order to accommodate a more relaxed summer schedule, students will have until July 31^st to complete all work.

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.

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Paragraph Writing
Code:  Paragraph

Ages: 13 and up

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 (elements taught in Elementary 1, Elementary 2, Narrative, and Report Writing).  

Writing About Books
Code:  WAB

Ages: 13 and up

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 or strong understanding of skills taught in that class. 

Creative Writing:  Short Story Writing
Code:  CreativeWriting

Ages: 13 and up

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 (review Paragraph Writing class description to determine if your student has a solid grounding in these elements).

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Poetry Writing
Code:  Poetry

Ages: 13 and up

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:  Creative Writing-Short Story Writing class.  

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Advanced Creative Writing
Code:  AdvCW

Ages: 13 and up

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)
Code:  Expository

Ages: 14 and up

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 ((or strong mastery of skills taught in those classes).  Strong understanding AND application of  grammar, punctuation and format of paragraphs.  May require instructor approval.

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Essays of Literature analysis
Code:  LitAnalysis

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.  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:  At least one session of Expository Writing (writing a research essay) is required before taking this class.    May require instructor approval.

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Rhetoric 1: Persuasive Writing
*this class will be offered only when minimum enrollment is met.  Contact for information.

Code: Rhetoric

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:  At least once session of Expository Writing (writing a research essay), with strong mastery of elements taught in that class is required before this class.  Literature Analysis is recommended.  Instructor approval required.

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Microsoft Word and Windows File Management
Code:  MSW

Any age  - this class is recommended for anyone, parents and students alike.  Students who wish to enroll in any of the other writing courses should consider this class if you have not used Microsoft Word, or have not had to save and manage your files before.

Length of Class:  3 weeks  (or may be completed in a shorter period of time)

Cost:  $25 for lessons

Time required:  Independent  -- time varies.

Description:  Student will learn how to create folders to save files, how to locate those files, and how to attach files to e-mail.  In the Microsoft Word portion, students will learn how to use the various features of Word.  

Method:  Students will be e-mailed the lessons for this class, and will work independently  Assignments will be limited to practicing and applying concepts being taught.  Instructor is always available, of course, for any questions or help needed.

Prerequisites:  None, other than ability to keyboard (typing).  This is not a keyboarding class.

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