Foundations of Writing and Beyond: Explore, Write and Have Fun!

Writing effectively is an essential skill for all students. This ongoing course is designed to help learners elevate their skills and master many different forms of writing. This course can act as supplemental help or a full writing composition course. 

My goal is to ensure learners develop skills that go above and beyond their current grade level. I ensure this by taking a personal approach, building lessons week-by-week so they are tailored to the unique needs of the class. 

Whether your learner is writing sentences or essays, I will always meet students where they’re at and build on their skills.

Each unit is six weeks long and covers a different topic at length. We will learn about essays, book reports, creative writing, writing for business, grammar, audience, purpose, strong arguments and much more. Learners will be instructed to write, revise and share what they write.

The structure of class will be similar each week. We will start with a warm up question, and then dive into a mini lecture with a follow-up discussion. From there, we will read and analyze writing samples from students and teachers. Classes may also include quizzes, games, worksheets and more. Each class will use a variety of teaching methods to engage every type of learner. 

Every class will end with a writing task. The goal of the weekly writing task is to give learners consistent practice and get them familiar with writing standards. There will be time to write during class, but learners may have to finish their assignments outside of class. Learners can share their completed work with me for detailed feedback and advice on next steps. 

If you have any questions about the content level, please don’t hesitate to reach out.


✏️ What’s taught in this course? ✏️

Persuasive Writing
Week beginning 13/1/25: Writing about our opinions 
Week beginning 20/1/25: How to build an argument
Week beginning 27/1/25: What is rhetoric? The Rhetorical Situation
Week beginning 3/2/25: Identifying rhetoric in advertisements 
Week beginning 10/2/25: Writing a persuasive letter 
Week beginning 17/2/25: Write an essay to persuade your principal

Myths Around the World
Week beginning 24/2/25: What are myths, legends, and folktales?
Week beginning 3/3/25: Greek vs. Roman myths
Week beginning 10/3/25: Korean myths
Week beginning 17/3/25: Creatures and animals in myths
Week beginning 24/3/25: Native American myths and origin stories
Week beginning 31/3/25: Myths from the continent of Africa

Essay Writing
Week beginning 7/4/25: What is an essay?
Week beginning 14/4/25: Informative essays
Week beginning 21/4/25: Compare and contrast essays
Week beginning 28/4/25: Persuasive essays
Week beginning 5/5/25: Descriptive essays
Week beginning 12/5/25: Process essays

Fiction Writing 
Week beginning 19/5/25: What is a story?
Week beginning 26/5/25: Characters in stories
Week beginning 2/6/25: All about settings 
Week beginning 9/6/25: Planning our stories
Week beginning 16/6/25: How to "stretch the moment" 
Week beginning 23/6/25: Types of fiction

Writing for Businesses
Week beginning 30/6/25: How to write a formal email
Week beginning 7/7/25: Writing a formal report
Week beginning 14/7/25: Writing a resume and cover letter
Week beginning 21/7/25: What is grant writing?
Week beginning 28/7/25: Newspaper articles 
Week beginning 4/8/25: Proposals and pitches 

Writing about Books
Week beginning 11/8/25: Writing a summary
Week beginning 18/8/25: What is a book review?
Week beginning 25/8/25: How to write book reports
Week beginning 1/9/25: Biographies
Week beginning 8/9/25: Autobiographies
Week beginning 15/9/25: Writing a blog

The Writer’s Tool Kit
Week beginning 22/9/25: The writing process
Week beginning 29/9/25: Let’s write a complex sentence
Week beginning 6/10/25: Writing a complete paragraph 
Week beginning 13/10/25: Linking and building paragraphs
Week beginning 20/10/25: Grammar skills check-in
Week beginning 27/10/25: How to critique someone's writing

Poetry
Week beginning 3/11/25: What is a poem?
Week beginning 10/11/25: Form poems: haikus
Week beginning 17/11/25: Art + poetry = picture poems
Week beginning 24/11/25: Poetic meter
Week beginning 1/12/25: Spoken word poetry
Week beginning 8/12/25: Poems throughout history

Further topics to be added.


✏️ About my Qualifications ✏️
I have been an English teacher and tutor for more than 7 years. I have two degrees in English and writing, and have spent 3 years as a children's librarian where I developed literacy programs for young learners. If you'd like to learn more about me and my qualifications, please feel free to visit my profile. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have!

Let’s get learning!