Writing Well with Sentences

Course Description

This class will be filled with fun activities to inspire great sentence writing. Writing sentences works so much better when you know how they are built and how to get them to clearly say what you want to say.

We will look at strong sentences and identify what makes them work well, and we’ll also model sentences using strong nouns and vigorous verbs. To add distinct descriptions to our sentences, we will look at great modifiers, too. Finally, we’ll work on building strong sentences that focus on the central idea of each paragraph.

This course is designed to be a precursor to Creative Composition 1, which takes writers through paragraph writing to writing a short essay and finishes with story writing.

Course Structure

This class starts by focusing on the sentence. Students will learn to build simple, compound, and complex sentences. We will focus on the fundamental parts of sentences–nouns, verbs, and modifiers, as there are so many ways to use these parts of speech to create strong sentences. Next, we’ll move on to sentence types: interrogative, declarative, imperative and exclamatory. We will be looking at excellent examples of strong sentences and modeling them.

Most of the work will be done in class together. The homework that students will have will be set up to reinforce the concept covered that week in class.

Who Should Enroll?

This class is for rising 4th–8th graders. This class is a great start for elementary or middle school students planning to take their first Aim Academy English class this fall.

Technology Requirements

• High speed, broadband Internet

• Sound card and microphone (for live sessions)

• Streaming video capabilities to watch recorded lectures

Evaluation and Feedback

Assignments will be explained and worked on during class and students will then finish the work during the week. Once the work is submitted, I will give positive feedback for every assignment sharing what was done well and what needs to be further developed.

My feedback will be the main focus for students to grow in their understanding and in their writing. Students will also be able to share their finished work in class with their classmates.

 

Required Texts

 

No text is required for this class as I will provide material taken from Debra Bell’s Writing in Residence, Volume 1, Apprentice curriculum, and other children’s authors.