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Self-Paced Class: Building Better Writers, Level 2

Completed by 14 learners

Ages 11-15

Self-Paced Class

Continue building those writing skills by reviewing from level 1 and adding more devices to your repertoire.

Dana Lorelle, Writing, Vocabulary, Essays

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5.0

Number of reviews:

(1,323 reviews)

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4 pre-recorded lessons

4 weeks of teacher support

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1 year of access to the content

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Go at your own pace

Your learner can start learning when they want and progress at the speed that works best for them.

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About Learning Overview Schedule Teacher Reviews

What's included

4 pre-recorded lessons

4 weeks

of teacher support

1 year access

to the content

Homework

1-2 hours per week. I send an evaluation and a scan for each assignment, as well as video feedback.

Assessment

3-6 throughout the class

Class Experience

US Grade 6 - 9

Please note: This is a self-paced class; there are no live meetings. For each lesson, students watch a pre-recorded video, submit their assignment, and receive feedback. I always send a detailed evaluation, a scan, and often video feedback. 

Building on the success of Building Better Writers (Level 1), this class continues the systematic approach to writing by teaching and requiring different elements. The first class will contain a brief review of the devices from the first level, and the rest of the classes will subsequently build upon them by adding new requirements. 

Along the way, students will practice editing with proper proofreading marks, revising sentences, splitting longer writings into paragraphs, choosing words carefully, rewriting sentences to change their openings, and placing those pesky commas correctly. 

Each class will commence with a warm-up, followed by a mixture of instructor presentation and student practice. Following each class, students should submit their work to the instructor, who will respond with an evaluation.

Learning Goals

Understanding and usage of various literary and grammatical elements.

Syllabus

4 Lessons

over 4 Weeks

Lesson 1:

Lesson 1

 Rewrites. Students will review the following grammatical and literary devices: relative clauses, dependent clauses, prepositional phrases, adverbs, alliteration, similes, metaphors, and the importance of strong words. Also, we will formally ban all forms of “to be,” along with a list of other weak words. For homework, students will take notes and rewrite three instructor-written paragraphs using the devices.

Lesson 2:

Lesson 2

 Writing from a picture. Students will have their choice of artwork as inspiration; their job is to either describe it using precise details OR to research the piece and provide expository information about the artist, artwork, and/or historical context. Besides the basic requirements, this must feature at least one planned-out sentence that students write before composing the paper. This will be given to the instructor along with the assignment. An example is elevating the sentence “She wore a g

Lesson 3:

Lesson 3

 Summarizing from a short story. Students will read a short story (O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” and Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” will be supplied, but students may use any short story). Using a guided note-taking approach, students will retell the story in summary, being careful to use a variety of transition language. In this class, we will add the devices of appositives and parallelism, as well as focus on the importance of pronouns.

Lesson 4:

Lesson 4

 This week… students tell the story! They will be given the basic outline of a story (example: Susie went to the store. She interrupted a robbery. The police came. She saved the day!). Students will plan out the sequence of events, the details of the setting and characters, the dialogue, and how they will use the devices. This final project must show all of the devices that students have learned in class.

Other Details

External Resources

Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.

Meet the teacher

Dana Lorelle, Writing, Vocabulary, Essays

Joined February, 2019

5.0

1323reviews

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Profile

Teacher expertise and credentials

Bachelor's Degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Hi there! I've taught on Outschool for more than four years. Prior to that, I was a professional writer/journalist, and I hold degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill in French literature and journalism. 

I have five kids of my own, all of whom have different learning styles, but the one approach that works for all of them is to make writing fun. My goal is to help students understand that they CAN write, and, more importantly, they can write WELL.