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Friday, August 12, 2011

FAQ: Arthurian Literature with Writing (7th to 9th Grade)

We received a recent email regarding the writing component of the English: The Heroic in Arthurian Literature course (click on course title for more information).


Q:     I am interested in the junior high literature/writing course for my 13-year-old son, but I'm wondering how much of the course is focused on essay writing instruction and how much is focused on literature study with the expectation that the students will already know how to write essays. My son needs more help writing essays. He's not done very much and I don't want to sign him up for a course that is going to frustrate him by expecting him to be more proficient in essay writing than he is. Thank you for your help!

A:     Miss Brock will work with any level a student is currently at when entering in the class. The classes will be lecture based and she will give very specific instructions for their responses. The goal is for the students to learn how to develop a thesis and find evidence to support that thesis in order to become more confident in their opinions on a particular topic. Miss Brock will give them opportunity to take a stand on a topic for each essay assigned and so it will hopefully become an exercise of rhetoric and learning to build an argument. Efforts toward development of a thesis and support will be rewarded. We know that students of this age are learning how to write and so Miss Brock will not expect them to come in knowing how to write a full fledged essay of great awe and wonder. However, we believe that the training wheels need to be put on at middle school to early high school age to develop their ideas through writing with support.


If you have questions about this or any course, please don't hesitate to leave a comment below.

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