**If you do not see a time that works for you, please message me**
In this ongoing course students will be researching, reading and writing about African people, concepts, and places throughout ourstory and the diaspora. Often times, English/Language Arts classes only focus on texts from European/European American figures. Our children deserve to learn from the mothers and fathers of written language itself. This is an ongoing course, students can hop in and begin their research or leave at any time. Meeting once per week, students will get step-by-step instruction on how to craft their research papers. We will be writing in the styles of explanatory, persuasive, critical analyses, and more. Once a student joins, they will choose a topic of their interest as it pertains to African people. Each class after the initial brainstorm will go into specific mechanics of research, such as: finding sources, creating a thesis statement, properly citing and quoting, formatting (MLA), developing ideas, transition words/phrases, counterarguments, and more. The goal is to get students to produce a 2-4 page essay for each topic that we go through. For the best experience, students should anticipate being enrolled for a minimum of 4 weeks in order to fully develop their paper and get the necessary instruction needed. 

The following is a breakdown of possible topics and the progression of each topic monthly:
September-October: Afrikan arts or sciences
November-December: Kwanzaa concepts


*EXAMPLE WEEKLY BREAKDOWN FOR EACH PAPER*
Week of 10/11   Brainstorm topic, create thesis statement, begin research
Week of 10/17    Begin outline, continue research, find supporting quotes & add comments
Week of 10/24    Complete Introduction paragraph, create topic sentences, convert comments to complete sentences
Week of 11/1    Insert transition words, begin editing & substituting vocabulary, discuss formatting
Week of 11/14  Conclusion paragraph, bibliography