Foundations for Composition

Description: This course covers a variety of skills and types of writing to prepare a student to take on almost any type of modern writing assignment. Using the extremely practical and effective materials of Institute for Excellence in Writing, students will be guided through sequential, step-by-step lessons that provide firm structure, thus creating confidence. Students will be provided with outlines that organize content into effective, logical, and coherent presentations and will learn to outline as well. We will review the parts of speech, phrases and clauses, sentence structures, as well as figures of speech, and students will have the opportunity to deliver oral presentations from their prepared outlines. Students will learn key word outlines, paraphrasing, narrative writing, summarizing a source, writing from pictures, research papers, and inventive writing. This class is worth 1 high school credit.

Grade Level: 8-12 (ages 13-18)

Prerequisites & Workload: Foundations of Composition is not a remedial writing course and there are prerequisites with respect to grammar. Students who struggle with English grammar and naturally require more time to complete assignments should consider taking Foundations of English and our Fable and Narrative class instead of Foundations of Composition. Students must be organized and able to follow and check their work against a rubric with specific requirements. There are weekly writing assignments and the course workbook will provide source material for some of the assignments, while other assignments will allow students to choose a topic. While initial assignments and others during the year will be shorter, eventually students should plan to spend at least 60 minutes per school day on their work. Students should also have a parent available to proofread for spelling and basic grammatical mistakes if needed.

Required Materials: IEW Structure and Style for Students: Year 2 Level B [Binder & Student Packet], a Dictionary, Thesaurus, Grammar reference book. Fix It! Grammar Cards are an optional supplement. Students will also need access to a USB headset microphone (built-in microphones also work well).