Level: Form II (4th–6th grades)
Subject(s): English
Description:
Upper-elementary students will participate in activities aimed to inspire a love of words, sentences, and word-play. With the support of guided group discussion, brainstorming, and critique, students will learn to write with appropriate structure while enlivening their prose with stylistic flare.
Roman hoplites, tornadoes, Leif Eriksson, and other interesting subjects will captivate students as they learn to write with structure and style. Moving through Units 1-7, students will take notes, summarize narrative stories, write from pictures, put together a mini research report, and compose creative essays.
Over the course of the year, students will gain a growing awareness of sentence structure and grammar that goes hand-in-hand with their growing ability to amplify and manipulate the parts of a sentence. We will focus on developing vivid vocabulary and sentence variety in a range of compositions including both fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. As a class, students have the opportunity to participate in ongoing reading and typing challenges to develop skills and habits essential to competent communicators.
In addition to weekly class sessions, students should plan to spend another one to three hours each week completing assignments at home.
Materials:
Families will need to purchase the following curricular materials before the start of class:
- Student Copy of Discoveries in Writing
- Fix-It Grammar Level 1: The Nose Tree Student & Teacher book combo
- Dedicated 3-ring notebook binder with tab dividers (binder will be used exclusively for Writing class)
Families will also need to secure the following supplies before the start of class: (Linked brands are suggestions.)
- Pens, black ink, 2 or more
- Pencils, 3 or more, pre-sharpened and ready to use
- Colored pencils, erasable, including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, and brown
- Erasers
- Lined notebook paper (reinforced recommended)
- Three-hole punch and stapler (kept at home; used by students to prepare assignments for submission)
- Dictionary & Thesaurus—for home use. Consider apps such as the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and the English Thesaurus.
- Recommended/Optional: Reinforcing stickers for strengthening/repairing holes in notebook paper and handouts
Students will also need to be able to type, print, and email assignments using a sharable word processing program such as (or compatible with) Microsoft Word.
