YWI: Persuasive Writing: 5th/6th

Course Description

A good piece of persuasive writing demands organization of ideas, the development of logical arguments and careful word choice.

In this course, students develop critical thinking skills as they first choose a issue that matters to them, and then follow guidance to showcase the pros and cons of their arguments into a finished essay, helping them gain self-confidence in their writing techniques.

Persuasive Writing	Big Picture Lessons live class	Close Up Lessons (recorded, writing)	Looking Good (recorded, conventions)
Week One	motivation and purpose	overview/pacing	-there/their/they’re -sentence fragments
Week Two	choose the topic and organization	seamless transitions	-less vs fewer -compound sentences
Week Three	amazing beginnings	unity, coherence, order	-you’re vs your -faulty sentence structure
Week Four	powerful endings	layer caking action/description/dialogue	-affect vs effect -run-on sentences

This four-week course fits into a 16-week program that helps students develop content and improve writing skills in four areas of writing curriculum:

• personal narrative
• expository writing
• persuasive writing
• creative writing

The key to each of the courses is that students are guided through the completion of a project specific to the curriculum and in so doing will learn the foundations to apply to all of their other writing in those areas. They will improve their writing skills as they enjoy completing each project.

Over the 16 weeks of all four courses, students also receive a thorough review of writing components, building from parts of sentences, then to sentence structure, then paragraph structure, then most import of all, the editing process.

All of this is presented from an author with four million books in print, who offers perspectives on story and writing that complements and enhances their current curriculum, and more importantly, motivates them to apply what they learn.

Course Structure

Each of the four-week courses has in common nine recorded introductory sessions:

• three Big Picture lessons about developing content
• three Close Up lesson about improving writing skills
• three Looking Good lessons that focus on conventions
• writing activities to accompany each lesson

The course consists of four weeks of lessons. Each lesson is 30-40 minutes long. (the mini-lessons on grammar and word usage are about 20 minutes.) Each week looks like this:

• one live virtual interactive Big Picture lesson per week with focus on developing content
• one recorded Close Up lesson per week with a focus on improving writing skills
• one recorded Looking Good mini-lesson per week that each introduce students to one word usage concept and one grammar concept
• writing activities to accompany each lesson

Altogether, the four-week course contains 12 lessons, plus the introductory lessons. Students who are interested in learning to write from a bestselling author and former struggling student.  No previous writing experience is required.

Who should enroll?

Students in fifth or sixth grade who are interested in learning to write from a bestselling author and former struggling student.  No previous writing experience is required.

Technology Required

• High speed, broadband Internet
• Sound card and working microphone (for live sessions)
• Streaming video capabilities to watch recorded lecture

Evaluation and Feedback

While assignments are not graded, students are required to submit their activities each week for evaluation and feedback.

Communication

Parents and students are welcome to email the teacher at [email protected] Expect responses within 24-48 hours.

Required Texts

All materials provided by the instructor.