Online Programs

What we'll do

This course is designed for advanced learners with a passion for reading and writing. We’ll read complex texts at or above the middle-grades level while learning critical reading strategies, literary analysis skills, and techniques for persuasive and creative writing. You will engage with your peers in written discussion forums, test your knowledge of the texts with weekly quizzes, and submit longer pieces of writing for your instructor’s review. Your instructor will provide in-depth written feedback on your work each week, too, helping you develop your reading and writing skills as the course progresses.

What we’ll learn

• Critical reading strategies
• Persuasive writing techniques
• Creative writing techniques
• Writing fundamentals (grammar, organization, sentence structure and clarity, etc.)
• How to use citations and textual evidence
• Important concepts for analyzing literature
• How to revise your writing using your instructor’s feedback

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

• Demonstrate reading comprehension of literature, such as stories, dramas, and poetry by independently answering factual questions about elements of the text
• Determine two or more central ideas in informational texts and analyze their development over the course of the text
• Determine a theme or central idea of a piece of literature and analyze its development over the course of the text
• Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, nuances in word meanings, and analyze their meaning in context
• Use technology, including the Internet, to engage in written discourse and interact and collaborate with others
• Construct effective persuasive writing pieces that support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence
• Construct narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events, using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences

How we'll measure learning

Student achievement is measured through comprehension quizzes, discussion forum posts, writing rubrics, and rigorous instructor feedback that students will receive in writing each week. This course is aligned to Common Core’s English Language Arts standards for Grade 7.