Paragraph Practice Writing Club, Beyond the Basics (With Feedback)

A well-written paragraph is the building block to all other writing. This class goes beyond the basics, allowing learners to grow in their ability to add details, begin sentences in a variety of ways, and write cohesively in different styles. Skills learned in this class can be applied well beyond paragraph writing into essays, short answer test questions, creative writing, and more. In this weekly class, students will expand on basic writing skills to become confident, skilled, independent writers.  They will follow steps to write narrative, informative, and persuasive paragraphs, responding to a variety of writing prompts.

Each week walks learners through steps to writing paragraphs, and then applies them to a specific type of paragraph.  We focus on one specific writing strategy / skill each week that adds onto the basic paragraph structure.  This might include adding details, clearly rephrasing a prompt in a topic sentence, or looking at creative ways to vary sentence beginnings. Students will follow steps together (modeled by me), while working on their own paragraphs independently. 

This class is highly practical, with lots of discussion and hands-on practice.  We will cover the entire paragraph writing process, including brainstorming, organizing, topic sentences, supporting details, and concluding sentences each week. This class rotates through narrative, informative, and persuasive paragraph types every three weeks, but three unique topic options are given in each class and students are able to choose from those topics.  (For example, each informative paragraph week will include different prompts and a different minilesson.) 

Learners grow in their understanding of how to write quality paragraphs, and gain greater confidence in their writing ability.  In order to do well in this class students should be able to write a simple paragraph on their own.  While all learners are welcome, this class is great for reluctant or struggling to intermediate writers, and gives them tools to become more independent and confident in their writing.  

Students do not share their writing out loud during class, but are welcome to post in the classroom if they'd like others to see it. Most learners will not finish their paragraphs during class time but do finish it after class ends. All students are welcome to send their paragraph to me each week in an Outschool message. Students who chose to submit original paragraphs for feedback will receive a personalized video outlining strengths and areas for growth. 

This class is designed so students can start and stop at any time; there is not a true "beginning" to the order of lessons. 

Paragraph types are listed by week below, as well as the specific skill focused on in class.  


Week of January 6: informative (beginning sentences with -ing words)
Week of January 13: persuasive (using conjunctions, FANBOYS)
Week of January 20: narrative (descriptive clauses) (no Monday classes, MLK day in US)
Week of January 27: informative (clear topic and concluding sentences)
Week of February 3: persuasive (word choice, avoiding vague, repeated words and phrases)
Week of February 10: narrative (show don't tell)
Week of February 17: informative (clausal sentence starters where / when / while / since / although / because / if)
Week of February 24: persuasive (punctuation: semicolons, commas and AMA-- ask me anything about punctuation)
Week of March 3: narrative (explode the moment-- focusing supporting details)
Week of March 10: informative (beginning sentences with -ly adverbs)
Week of March 17 (no classes-- Spring Break)
Week of March 24 : persuasive (varying sentence length)
Week of March 31: narrative (dual quality adjectives before a noun, joined with a conjunction or punctuation)
Week of April 7: informative (eliminating second person)
Week of April 14: persuasive (tone) 
Week of April 21: narrative (consistent verb tense and point of view)
Week of April 28: informative (beginning sentences with -ing words)
Week of May 5: persuasive (adding anaylsis, CER method, focus on reasoning / explanation)
Week of May 12: narrative (honing in on the five senses)


This class is great for reluctant or struggling writers, as well as those who just need an extra boost in honing their writing skills.  Learners do need a basic understanding of paragraph writing, and an ability to write simple paragraphs on their own to succeed in this class. 

If your learner could use a more basic class, please check out Essay Essentials: Paragraph Practice Writing Club.  This class is fully collaborative; learners do not need to be able to write paragraphs independently to do well in this class.  
https://outschool.com/classes/essay-essentials-paragraph-practice-writing-club-gPHWfsy6

If you do not see available seats in a section that fits with your learner's schedule, several key concepts from this class are covered in two self-paced / asynchronous classes. In those classes students watch prerecorded lessons and complete assignments whenever its convenient for them. They receive the same quality feedback on all work submitted that students in this live class do. 

https://outschool.com/classes/essay-essentials-perfecting-the-paragraph-beyond-the-basics-flex-NQnKtzaA

https://outschool.com/classes/perfecting-the-paragraph-beyond-the-basics-advanced-style-with-feedback-Bh6EX0Y2