This is our catalog of courses. We will occasionally adjust the course listing to reflect the addition of new courses and the retirement of others.
Help your middle school student gain writing confidence and become a skilled writer with an introduction to informative, expressive, and persuasive writing, including choosing strong and clear words, crafting strong sentences and paragraphs, and understanding how to write the parts of an essay with personal help and feedback on your work. Take the 7/8-2 course with this course to gain a full semester’s credit of writing.
Total classes: 8
Prerequisite: The writing courses build upon one another and 7/8 students are responsible for previously-learned content in the 6/7-series of courses. Therefore, 6/7-1, 6/7-2, 6/7-3, and 6/7-4 are required. The prerequisites may also be taken in recording through the Unlimited Access program. To check eligibility to skip the prerequisite, an assessment is available. Visit https://awa.homeschoolconnections.com/assessments/ for details.
Suggested grade level: 8th or accelerated 7th
Suggested credit: ½ semester Writing or English. Follow with MS 7/8-2 for a full semester credit
Description
In the 7/8 Series, your student learns the critical skills and habits of strong and clear writing. Filling in the gaps that may be missing in middle school writing, students learn the foundational writing concepts of long form writing needed to be ready for excellent high school writing, including the purposes of writing (expression, informing, and persuading); how to write for the different purposes; the effect of an audience on writing; and how to sculpt a piece of writing with direction. Students also learn the characteristics of an effective introduction, body, and conclusion in an essay and how to create effective paragraph sentences (the point, using examples/evidence/exposition, analysis, and “So What?” endings); linear writing (answering reader’s questions); and transitions (creating smooth connection) for excellent sentence and paragraph writing. Through specific writing feedback from the instructor, students get direct help for their writing to become clear, understandable, and complete.
Outline
Class 1: Writing for a purpose and audience: the “why” of writing
Class 2: Great word choice: how to choose the “right” word
Class 3: Strong sentences: how to write a great sentence
Class 4: Clear paragraphs: what makes a great paragraph/linear writing that makes sense to the reader
Class 5: Writing with direction: great introductions and the hook
Class 6: Writing with direction: great introductions and the thesis
Class 7: Writing with direction: the body (of your paper) and how to make it “shapely”
Class 8: Writing with direction: the conclusion
Materials and Homework
Course Materials: Course materials are included free. Microsoft Word or the ability to convert a document to a Word-compatible document is required, as all assignments are submitted in Word. If you do not own Microsoft Word, you can use a system such as Google Docs that converts to Word documents FREE.
Homework: Weekly writing assignments, with grading and direct feedback from the instructor. Estimated three to four hours per week for homework outside of class time, depending on the student’s ability.
