*This is an optional, supplemental Flex-course, with no live meetings, for students currently enrolled in or having recently completed one of my English Language Arts courses.  
**This course is listed as four weeks; however, for students needing or wanting the course to be extended to an 8-week format, please message me and we can make those arrangements.
***This course will be made available beginning week 3 of scheduled ELA courses.

This course will incorporate the books read and activities completed within those courses to teach students how to better write essays for high school. While the books may vary within the individual ELA courses, the overall class structure and lesson design remains the same, allowing this course to be linked with any course in my ELA series.  While my ELA courses do include short writing assignments in an effort to master individual writing skills, this course will look to combine and expand those skills as they apply to essay writing.

In my live ELA courses, students will go through a variety of learning and writing exercises. These exercises include but are not limited to: short summaries, identifying key details, selecting significant quotations, explaining the significance of those quotations, character analysis, understanding literary devices, identifying and explaining theme, etc. These assignments will provide the foundation for the essays students will write in this flex-course. During the course of the four weeks, students will write one essay each week. In order to assist with writing these essays, students will be provided with video instruction as well as a prewriting packet to be completed in order to assist in the planning and writing of their essays. 

Students should complete the prewriting packet prior to writing the essay.   Students are encouraged to use their prewriting packet, and this should make the writing process even easier.  Students are also encouraged to submit their prewriting packet for review prior to writing their essays.  The prewriting packet can be done at once or over the course of multiple days; however, all essays are designed to be "in-class" style, or timed essays. Essays should be written as a single draft and should not go through an editing or revision process except as time allows within the time allowed. Parents should monitor students writing and allow no more than 45 minutes per essay.  Ideally, students should be able to complete the essay in 30-40 minutes.   Essays are encouraged to be handwritten but may be typed at parent's discretion. Essays will be graded and evaluated as first draft essays as described in the assessment section.

Essay 1
Informative essay: Students will learn how to organize and write a simple informative essay. For this essay, students may choose to write about something they learned in class, or they may choose to research a different simple topic of their choice (eg: explaining lifestyle in the Victorian Era or informing me on the history of pizza).

Essay 2
Character analysis: Students will choose a character from the books we read in class.  Students will explain and analyze the character, selecting specific scenes and quotations to explain how the character adds the novel's "MOWAW" (Meaning of the work as a whole).

Essay 3
Literary analysis of theme: Students will identify one theme in one of the novels read, then explain how symbolism, allusion, and other literary devices serve to illustrate that theme.

Essay 4
Simple argumentative essay: Students will be given a variety of essay topics to choose from, then will present an argument. These topics will present themselves as quotations, ie: Mr. X said, "yada, yada, yada..."  Explain Mr. X's argument and to what extent you agree or disagree. Be sure support you position with examples from modern society, history, literature, or your own real-world experiences.

Course design
All instructional videos and assignments shall be posted on Tuesday by 1:00pm EST (00:00GMT).
Students may post their assignments anytime throughout the week but must post before Monday at 1:00pm PST.
In addition to posting assignments, students are expected to comment on each other's work.

Teacher feedback
-I will comment on all work that is posted prior to the deadline, in the order that they are received. Comments may or may not be immediate, so please be patient. Late submissions may be commented on if time allows.  Comments and feedback may be in written or video form.
-Students may contact me directly with question or for assistance. I typically respond within 24 hours; however, please note that I usually schedule Sunday and Monday EST as my off days, and this could cause a delay.
-Four optional, 1:1 sessions (office hours) are available throughout the course by request for a reduced fee of $10 USD for 25 minutes (subject to availability)