Writing Courses

Writing-I : 2nd and 3rd Grades

Writing-I students will focus on improving their writing with the 3rd Grade Writing Assessment in mind. Emphasis will be on practice writings in the three possible genres (narrative, informational, and persuasive) with individualized improvement plans based on strengths and weaknesses in the four grading domains (ideas, organization, style, and conventions). Students will work as both individuals and a group to recognize and implement strategies to better their writing.
 
Working independently, with groups and with the instructor students will learn and practice reading skills specifically suited for high-order thinking and comprehension.
 
Writing -II: 4th and 5th Grades
4th and 5th Grade students will focus on improving their writing with the 5th Grade Writing Assessment in mind. Emphasis will be on practice writings in the three possible genres (narrative, informational, and persuasive) with individualized improvement plans based on strengths and weaknesses in the four grading domains (ideas, organization, style, and conventions). Students will work as both individuals and a group to recognize and implement strategies to better their writing. Writing-III: 6th, 7th and 8th Grades
 
Writing-III: 6th, 7th and 8th Grades
6th Grade and up students will focus on improving their writing with the 8th Grade Writing Assessment in mind. Emphasis will be on practice writings in the three possible genres (narrative, informational, and persuasive) with individualized improvement plans based on strengths and weaknesses in the four grading domains (ideas, organization, style, and conventions). Students will work as both individuals and a group to recognize and implement strategies to better their writing. Duke Tip/PSAT: 6th, 7th and 8th Grades
 
Duke Tip/PSAT: 6th, 7th and 8th Grade
Each Duke Tip/PSAT Prep - I session will last 2-3 hours. Hour 1 will focus on the critical reading curriculum on the SAT and Hour 2 will focus on the writing. Hour 3 will be practice.
 
Each session will begin with a practice quiz/pre-test (10 minutes). As a small group we will then break down the practice quiz focusing specifically on what each of the questions is asking and vocabulary used on the test and in the questions (25 minutes). Vocabulary, reading passage analysis, and sentence completion practice will follow(25 minutes). As students become more familiar with the format of the test, and with the vocabulary and readings used on the test, their testing confidence and scores will increase.
 
Hour 2 will focus on writing preparation. The hour will start of with a practice writing prompt taken from old SATs and practice books (20-25 minutes). The remainder of hour 2 will be spent working through the essays to improve and develop ideas, add a variety of sentence structures, fix common grammar mistakes, incorporate a varied vocabulary, and increase the flow of the writing. Improvements in writing take time and lots of practice: the more students write, organize their ideas through writing and critique their own writing, the more they will improve.
 
The SAT Prep class will be individualized based on small group and individual need; it is therefore applicable to incoming high school students as well as students seeking help in improving their language and writing scores. The curriculum will focus on the language and writing parts of the SAT, but specific practice and instruction will be based on individual student need as assessed using a pre-test. Duke Tip students can also join this class.