Online Programs

What we'll do

Each week, students will read a lesson on literary concepts and/or writing techniques followed by a selection of chapters from the course texts. Students will then apply this knowledge in a reading comprehension quiz that will test their critical reading skills, discuss the book with peers in asynchronous discussion forums, and produce a longer piece of writing that will challenge them to apply analytical, argumentative, and creative writing skills. Units are broken up by week with a Sunday night deadline. Each week, instructors will also provide written feedback that students will apply to their own writing.

What we’ll learn

• Critical reading and comprehension skills
• How to analyze and discuss literature in writing
• Writing techniques for fiction (e.g., short stories/poems)
• Writing techniques for non-fiction (e.g., persuasive/informative essays)

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

• Engage collaboratively in online discussions about various topics, texts, and issues, determining the development of themes and central ideas in a text, and citing strong and thorough textual evidence to support your analysis
• Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology's capacity to link and display information flexibly and dynamically
• Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events, using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences
• Analyze an author’s choices, including their development of complex characters, structuring parallel plots, manipulating time, mystery, tension, suspense, and more in a text, and the ways those choices advance the plot or develop the theme
• Write informative/explanatory texts and arguments to support claims and to convey ideas clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence
• Strengthen writing by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience

How we'll measure learning

Instructors evaluate student work using rubrics and provide constructive feedback on writing assignments. The course is aligned to ELA Common Core standards for grades 9 and 10.