I am keeping this class short to accommodate young learners attention spans. I will explain and model each lesson and then get the learner started. They can then take a break and finish their writing project sometime that week and submit it to me for feedback and encouragement. The "homework" assignments should not take more than an hour each week. Also, I have sections that are longer, for the same price. that I would be happy to transfer the learner to if appropriate, but I feel this is a good place to start for new writers. 

Writing Lessons for:
Beginning to Write 
Coming Up with Ideas 
Staying Focused 
Editing with an Editor’s Checklist 
Painting a Picture with Descriptive Words 
Sequencing 
Developing a Plot 
and many more

In this class new writers will learn to “talk on paper” -  telling about their ideas, dreams, fears and more. They will use their imagination to go anywhere and do anything they want. We will write letters and poems, riddles and articles, recipes and stories. We will clarify, describe, explain, and invent. We will write and then write some more. We will also be learning how to polish. We will strike, rewrite, revise, and edit. There will also an emphasis on talking about their creations as a writer should.
The emphasis will be getting their thoughts onto paper. Things like grammar, mechanics, usage, genres, organization, voice, will be effectively taught in the context of real writing. The idea is to get excited about writing and actually appreciate knowing the mechanics and techniques that will help them to become better writers. Each new lesson will start with me modeling, so that children can observe me writing and thinking (aloud) about writing. 
What makes the most sense to students is learning in context, seeing for themselves the hows and whys of grammar and mechanics and all they need to know why do you need to know of word is a verb or an adjective? Why does it matter if a comma goes here or there? Why do we need to learn the format of a letter? How are directions written, and what is a good format for writing them? Students need to see this first hand in real writing, not in isolated exercises in a grammar workbook. The lessons in this class will be brief and to the point, but still serve as an illustration of how and why a skill is useful in writing. 


Here are the first few lessons. I will keep this updated as we go. There are two classes a week. We will always spend both classes on the same topic, and some may go for multiple weeks. 

Week of September 5: Coming up with Ideas (Using a Jot List)
Week of September 12: Coming up with ideas: Using childhood and family memories. 
Week of September 19: Extended Writing Over Multiple Days
Week of September 26: Formatting
Week of October 3: End Punctuation 

This class would work well in tandem with my "Beginning Reading Comprehension: Finding the Meaning" class - to create a robust Language Arts curriculum.