Literature & Composition: Fiction & Fantasy

Our literature will be our guide for analyzing writing and cover a broad range of pieces and styles. We start each semester with a review of Active Reading strategies and use of our reading journal.

Students and families need to provide the following for each their students:

• Pencil case with:
  • 2-3 typical (non-colored) pencils
  • Pencil sharpener with a COVERED blade (one that captures it’s own shavings and keeps blade from being exposed)
• Double pocket folder for handouts
• A Pocket Style Manual, by Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers
• Write It Right: A Handbook for Student Writers (Oak Meadow Books)

All other books and materials will be provided.  Books will be loaned to students and cannot be written in.

Additionally, students will need technical ability to access Zoom, Nearpod.com, Discovery Education Streaming, Study.com and Schoology.com (Schoology will require an e-mail address for student access).

At home, students will need access to the internet (home or library) to look up information, related published materials and/or videos and do work through our class learning management system.  Some videos will be subscription-based and issued by illuminat-ED (all students will have accounts for Discovery Streaming and Study.com for additional video support).  Some videos will be freely available

Amount of time will depend on your student’s speed/fluency with writing, reading or the topic at hand and the content of the week. Families should allocate approximately 2-3 hours/week (depending on student’s work speed with regards to writing) of individual work in preparation for live class. Some of this can be done during Flex Work Time at our facility. Students will always have a piece of content to read and prepare for as well as ongoing writing assignments.  On weeks without a directly assigned writing assignment, they may need to be working on a previously assigned writing assignment.  This course has 2 pre-scheduled Asynchronous Learning weeks during Fall Pause & Mid-winter Pause; but does not have additional assigned work during Thanksgiving Week, Winter Break or Spring Break.

Combined with our live class time, this is a total of 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 hours/week (except for our 2 asynchronous weeks which will have 2 hours of work to replace class) for a course total of 121-153 hours.  This equates to one full credit of English Language Arts using the Carnegie unit methodology.

This course will require students to analyze literature that can sometimes be more mature or unpleasant–sometimes dealing with death or difficult life circumstances, sexual orientation, race issues, etc. and we will all work on how to discuss difficult topics productively.  However, students should be at a maturity level to be ready for this type of learning.  Students will perform weekly writing assignments that can include an essay each month as the course moves onward.

If your student has never written an essay or your feel they are not already familiar with many of these concepts but you feel they are ready to take these on, there will be support for them to grow in these areas.  Letting the instructor know so that accommodations can be made ahead of time can be an enormous help in this matter.

If you feel your child would be challenged, but not completely overwhelmed with this level of content, then your child would be a good fit for this course.  If you are unsure, please contact us to discuss further.

Course time will be devoted to discussion related to the content that is the culmination of the students pre-reading and other assigned activities for the week. Pre-reading and asynchronous work is an essential component for this class. In addition to listening and taking notes, students are expected to actively participate in the course, through asking and answering questions and doing research to expand on the material.

Discussion may cover varied cultural and religious factors, more mature or unpleasant content–sometimes dealing with death or difficult life circumstances, sexual orientation, race issues, and the students will need to participate in these discussions in a respectful and mature manner.