𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫 & 𝐅𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞: 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐬𝐨 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬.

After years of teaching grammar to middle and high school students, I couldn't understand why their writing still had so many errors. They had trouble writing a complete sentence, even after a semester of diagraming sentences! They could identify articles, subjects, nouns, direct objects, and more, but they couldn’t write a sentence!  🤯  I launched into research to find out why. 

At the time, I was also learning to build furniture as a hobby. I needed to learn how to use the tools of the trade, such as a Kreg jig, which allowed for function—to connect two pieces of wood, and for aesthetics—to hide the screw. To learn this, I didn’t just look at the Kreg jig, name it, and explain how to use it along with hammers, screwdrivers, and saws. I grabbed hold of it and used it to build! 

Seeing the correlation between the tools of a craftsman and the tools of an author, I started to think like an artisan builder as I taught writing. We shouldn’t just talk about absolute phrases, a complicated sentence part. Students need to use them to build, keeping function in mind—to communicate and express ideas, and for aesthetics—to craft a beautiful syntax.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐬𝐚𝐲?

Learners need sentence-writing instruction through middle and high school, but lessons like these usually stop when learners leave elementary school. When students learn parts of speech, phrases, clauses, and how to diagram a sentence in isolation from the actual writing of sentences and paragraphs, they do not know how to transfer that knowledge into an art form: prose. It’s like trying to learn how a screwdriver works without ever touching it.

𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬!

Crafted to develop sophisticated and mature writers, this class allows students to work on sentence combining, deconstructing sentences, adding on, unscrambling, moving sentence parts around, and learning to manipulate phrases and clauses to write something beautiful. I love this class and these methods because students make RAPID progress in their writing. In fact, their writing will stand out from the majority of people, students and adults alike! 

Join us as we study and imitate the function, beauty, and sophistication of writing by published authors, our mentors: 
Rick Riordan
Katherine Applegate
R.J. Palacio
Michael Crichton
J.K. Rowling
Susan Patron
John Steinbeck
Cynthia Voigt
*many more!

Pop in and out as you please! The more repetition, the better. It's precisely what students need! 


📆 𝘾𝙇𝘼𝙎𝙎 𝙎𝘾𝙃𝙀𝘿𝙐𝙇𝙀:

✅ August 1-31--Learning the foundation of all sentences (subject & predicate), learning to see chunks of meaning in sentences, proper punctuation, and segmenting, and prepositional phrases
✅ September 1-30: Writing Complete Sentences: Subject & Predicate (no more run-ons and fragments)
✅ October 1-31: Sentence Composing Tools (phrases and clauses)
✅ November 1-30: Fixing Broken Sentences with Sophisticated Solutions
✅ December 1-31: Imitating the Greats
✅ January 1-31: Advanced Sentence Composing
✅ February 1-28: Using Adjectives and Adverbs to Write Interesting Sentences
✅ March 1-31: Using Phrases Part 1 (Absolute, Appositve) 
✅ April 1-30: Using Phrases Part 2 (Prepositional, Participial, Gerund, Infinitive) 
✅ May 1-31: Using Clauses (Independent & Dependent)
✅ June 1-30: Using Clauses (Adjective, Adverb, Noun)
✅ July 1-31: Phrases & Clauses Review Along with Punctuation
*This is a skills-based class, so the above tools are taught and repeated throughout the year. 

🍋 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙨-𝘼𝙞𝙙 𝙒𝙖𝙮 🍋
𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐋𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬-𝐀𝐢𝐝, 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐲, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬! CLICK THROUGH TO GET A SURPRISE COUPON CODE!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JwlFnta1ZYAlNn8t2GMMA8Bb6dd0ums1IbdtpzZwuRc/edit?usp=sharing

𝘚𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘔𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 & 𝘈𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺
𝘌𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨
𝘏𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬
𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘤 𝘖𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘳𝘴
𝘚𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘔𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘺
𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘍𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬--The back-and-forth work between a student and teacher significantly benefits a student if done well. We follow best practices in designing class time, assignments, and routines. According to Pennington Publishing, effective writing feedback (or grading) is:
• Specific, not general
• Immediate, not postponed
• Routine with a revision / feedback cycle
• Explanatory
• The right amount
• Targeted to the most critical issues
• Varied (written, audio, and video comments)
• Holding students accountable

🎥 𝙏𝙤 𝙨𝙚𝙚 𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙤𝙨, go to the Lemons-Aid profile page, where you can view the video and read bios. 
https://outschool.com/teachers/Karen-Lemons?usid=0BAnv5zn&signup=true&authTrigger=follow_teacher&follow=true&utm_campaign=share_leader_link