Example of content covered in a High School Writing Class

• What is plagiarism (including correct use of AI-influenced work) and how/why to avoid it.

• How to take notes using 2-3 key words only.

• How to write from notes without referring to the original source.

• How to retell narrative stories, summarize a reference, create stories from picture prompts, inventive writing, poetry, formal critiques, book reports, responses to literature and how to organize research then write reports that gather together information from multiple sources on the same topic.

• How to work in small groups and present to a larger group.

• Vocabulary through activities such as Rebus or metaphor puzzles, games like Balderdash, and our workbook Fix It! Grammar.

• Grammar and punctuation rules, including how to correct comma splices.

• Parts of speech such as nouns, pronouns (personal, possessive, demonstrative, etc.) adjectives, adverbs, verbs and their tenses, prepositions, articles, coordinating conjunctions, clauses (who/which, that, because and adverbial clauses), homophones, subject-verb agreement, descriptive nouns and adjectives, and other literary styles such as sentence opening strategies, topic-clincher pairs, quality titles, etc.

• What it takes to succeed in college (or any career for those who are not university bound.)

• Essays that explore their personal interests and analyze their character traits. These also double as sample college application essays that can be used in the Fall for college applications, if desired. Students see the prompts, which allow them to explore themselves as they approach adulthood, as part of our class, not necessarily as college application preparation. 

• A literature study of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson during Fall semester and Carry On Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham during Spring Semester. Fall goals include quality over quantity through careful, detailed reading and the creation of collaborative word clouds that are formed real-time and change shape according to the words and frequency. During spring, we read our novel more quickly and do a unit study that incorporates reading comprehension, math, science, astronomy, maps, world geography, nautical terms, Revolutionary and War of 1812 context, foreign languages, record keeping via ships logs and personal scholar compilations, and literature analysis.