This course will focus on English grammar, literature, composition, and will include a small vocabulary component. The students will learn how to completely parse and diagram sentences, how to avoid common usage errors, and will review the rules of capitalization
and punctuation. Persuasive writing will be taught using The Lost Tools of Writing and selected literature. The students will learn to choose an issue, gather evidence from the text, organize that evidence, and present it in an organized and compelling manner. This “A” course is perfect for younger middle school students or students who are fairly new to parsing sentences and writing essays. Although, the same grammar text will be used as the “B” class, the pace will be slower, and the whole text will not be covered. Similarly, the same writing process will be used for both the “A” and ‘B” classes, but different novels will be chosen for each. Also, the entire text will not be covered, meaning the students will
practice the same writing skills but with different material about which to write and fewer total essays. Students in this course will read 6 novels and write 6 essays, adding a new component each time.