For students new to Holly’s writing program.
This class is an introduction to writing a strong, well-structured paragraph.
We start with the basic building block of a paragraph—the sentence. Students learn/review what makes a sentence complete. Then each week they learn new techniques for expanding a boring sentence using modifying adjectives, adjective clauses, powerful action verbs, adverbs, and adverb clauses. They also learn how to fix common mistakes like sentence fragments and run-on sentences.
These lessons teach useful, practical grammar skills; and, from the very first week, students get to practice those grammar skills in paragraphs they write. I have found that grammar is best taught in the context of writing, and this class allows students to immediately practice what they learn.
The class includes eight weeks’ worth of videos and materials. Each week students receive instruction on different ways to expand and improve their sentence structure, and then write a paragraph that incorporates those techniques.
Students learn the basics of taking notes from fun, kid-friendly articles about fascinating animals. They learn to write a topic sentence, supporting details, and concluding sentences, using just their notes.
Students receive a 60+ page student workbook (as a pdf to print at home) with practice materials that correspond to each lesson.
Student papers are turned into Holly by email for editing and feedback.
For students who have taken Holly’s Level 1 class, or its equivalent.
This class builds on the skills learned in the Level 1 class, with more emphasis on story writing. Students learn the basic elements of a story, and how to develop stories of their own, using familiar fables as a starting point. They continue to learn methods of adding descriptive details to make their writing come alive. This class also introduces the importance of varying sentence structure to make writing flow.
For students who have taken Holly’s Writing I and II classes, or their equivalent.
I have had so many students really love and flourish in the Writing II class, that I have expanded on that class with Writing III. This class covers units III and V in the IEW program, and allows students to spend more time with story writing using the Story Sequence Model and Writing from Pictures techniques. This class introduces additional decorations to add more fun and flair to story writing. If your student enjoyed Writing II, I highly recommend this class!
For students who have taken Holly’s Beginning Writing Level 1, 2, and 3 classes, or their equivalent.
This class builds on the skills learned in the Level 1, 2, and 3 classes. Students will learn to write a five-paragraph report including an introductory paragraph and concluding paragraph. They will also learn to write reports from multiple sources. These skills will be taught one step at a time, so students don’t get overwhelmed. Students continue to combine sentences, vary sentences structure, and add descriptive details and interesting clauses to make their writing stylish and sophisticated.
