Write Through Medieval History (Knights and Castles): The IEW Way

Summer session meets twice a week for five weeks.
Regular school sessions meet once a week for ten weeks.

Let's write through history together! We will focus on the later years of the Middle Ages, including the Black Death, Knights, and Joan of Arc. I will use the methods taught in Institute for Excellence in Writing to teach students how to write outlines and organized, engaging paragraphs and essays. They will write fiction and non-fiction papers that are between 1 and 5 paragraphs. This class will prepare them to write longer essays in the future. I will read all essays and give feedback on a checklist every week. (This checklist could become a grade as the parent chooses.) We will cover IEW units 4 and 6-8 and all the dress-ups and sentence openers as we march through time. (No prior experience with IEW is required! I will teach everything you need to know!)

 Classes will include teaching and student collaboration. Each class will begin with a text or review of information from or about the Middle Ages. We will read the text together, and I will teach or review how to outline and write a report for the type of text we are using. Students will collaborate to write the outline together. Additionally, students will brainstorm the dress-ups and sentence openers we will add to the paper. Collaborating together, students will be able to build upon the wide and varied experiences and knowledge of other students. Each class will also have homework assignments which I will discuss in class and on the classroom page. By the end of this class, students will have written a five paragraph report and three short essays after learning valuable outlining and writing skills.

Students that have a 3rd grade reading level or higher and the ability to write or type will have the most opportunity for success in this class. They do not need any prior experience with the IEW program or prior knowledge of the history we will cover. You do not need to purchase any materials. I will provide all the necessary handouts.

Schedule
Week 1: Magna Carta key word outline (KWO) and brainstorm; introduce the report (homework-Black Death KWO)
Week 2: Magna Carta summary, introduce quality adjective and who/which clause (homework-Black Death summary)
Week 3: Introduce the 5 paragraph report and other dress-ups (homework-Choose report subject from 3 mentioned in class. Find research materials. Practice adding dress-ups to last week’s summary.)
Week 4: Knights Source KWO 1 (homework-1st source KWO.)
Week 5: Knights Source KWO 2 and 3, dress-up games (homework-2nd and 3rd source KWO)
Week 6: Fused KWO, Introduction and Conclusion (homework-write fused KWO, intro KWO, conclusion KWO, write rough draft)
Week 7: Introduce sentence openers 1-3, begin writing rough draft, revising and editing (homework-revise and edit, final draft)
Week 8: Castle Descriptive KWO, sentence opener 4 (homework-write the 3-paragraph summary)
Week 9: Reflective KWO-Joan of Arc, sentence openers 5-6 (homework-write your KWO and paragraph, choose essay to bring to next class)
Week 10: Present your favorite essay that you have written.