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Writing Essentials 4: Excellent Sentence & Paragraph Writing II (MS 6/7-4) - Tuesday at 2:30 PM ET
Live course taught by Natalie Meyer Schira for Spring 2025 Middle School 6/7 Series: Essential Writing
Summary

    Help your student craft excellent sentences and paragraphs in writing practice through learning and using critical middle school must-haves for writing well — and gain understanding with practice in this hands-on writing course that goes beyond “normal” writing courses with practical writing using critical thinking (no workbooks). Take the 6/7-3 course with this course to gain a full semester’s credit for writing.

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Note: This course, is a continuation of the Writing Essentials series for 6/7 students. This is a two-part course; take the Essentials 3 and 4 courses together, for one full semester of credit (12 weeks of classes).

 

How to get the most out of the Writing Essentials 4: Excellent Sentence and Paragraph Writing II course

  • Read the course details below.

  • Prepare a notebook for notetaking and homework. Students -- be sure to take notes during class!

  • Students, begin the course by:

    • LIVE CLASS Students - Coming to the first live Class session on the scheduled date and time.

    • Unlimited Access / Recorded Students - Clicking on the "Recording" and watching Professor Brown’s lecture for Class One.

  • Review any supplemental materials (videos or readings)

  • Complete the Quiz(zes). The computer will automatically grade the quiz. Students will review with a parent.

    • *Note* If taking the course in Recorded format, the quiz will reset if someone else in the family takes it, so make sure the grade is recorded by a parent.

  • If you need to review, watch the recording and/or go over the PowerPoint again.

  • Repeat until all 6 classes are complete.

  • Once the course is completed to the parent's satisfaction, there is a Certificate of Completion at the end of this page (to be filled in for your records). Homeschool Connections does not provide record keeping

Total Classes: 6

Class Dates and Starting Times:

Tuesdays, March 4 to April 8, 2025. 

2:30 PM Eastern (1:30 Central; 12:30 Mountain; 11:30 Pacific)

Duration: 50 minutes per class

Prerequisite: Each course in the 6/7 series builds upon the next. Registration in the Writing Essentials 1: Punctuation & Grammar I (MS 6/7-1), Writing Essentials 2: Excellent Sentence & Paragraph Writing I (MS 6/7-2), and Writing Essentials 3: Punctuation and Grammar II (MS 6/7-3) courses is required so that your student has all of the tools and knowledge necessary to succeed in this course. You may take the prerequisite courses LIVE or in Unlimited Access (recording) before or during this course.

Suggested Grade Level: 7th or accelerated 6th grade

Suggested Credit: One-half (½) of a semester's credit for Writing or English. Precede with MS 6/7-3 for a full semester credit.

 

Instructor: Natalie M. Schira, BA

Course Description: This essential writing course continues to give your student the skills for how to create well-crafted sentences and paragraphs using specific nouns, strong verbs, appropriate adjectives and adverbs, prepositions and prepositional phrases, and compound sentence structures. This course specifically sets your student up to succeed in crafting longer writing (paragraphs and beyond). Special emphasis is placed on using words correctly in systems of testing such as standardized tests and the student's ability to identify improper word choice while making critical corrections in thinking and writing.

 

Course Outline:

  • Class 1: Identifying and building on specific nouns and strong verbs in sentences

  • Class 2: Identifying and building on appropriate adjectives and adverbs in sentences

  • Class 3: Identifying and correctly using prepositions, prepositional phrases, and compound sentence structures within sentences and paragraphs

  • Class 4: How to easily identify incorrect usage in standardized tests

  • Class 5: Creating paragraphs with strong transitions and connectives

  • Class 6: Critical know-how for writing multi-paragraph essays

   

Course Materials: Course materials are provided free of charge. Microsoft Word or the ability to convert a document to a Word-compatible document is required. If you do not own Microsoft Word, you can use a system such as Google Docs and convert to Word documents FREE.

 

Homework: This course uses an estimated one to three hours per week for homework outside of class time, depending on the student's abilities entering the course. Homework includes readings, activities, and writing assignments that get your student thinking critically and using the content learned while writing/composing. All writing assignments are graded by the instructor.

 

Note: All student work needs to be 100% the student's own work and the student's own writing. Nothing can be copied from anywhere else unless a source for the text is given on the assignment. Any students who copy work from elsewhere will receive a zero on the assignment. Repeated copying will result in failure of the course.

 Fee: $129 if you register on or before November 15. $149 after Nov. 15 for all 6 classes. (Registration closes one week before the first day of class. After that date, registrations are not guaranteed. There is a $25 surcharge for late enrollments after the course is closed.)

©2017-2024 Homeschool Connections and Erin M. Brown, MA, MFA (aka author Erin Brown Conroy/E. B. Conroy) All rights reserved.

This course is designed by Erin M. Brown, MA, MFA. 

  • This material is only to be used for its intended purpose by active subscribers of Homeschool Connections. Any other use without explicit permission is in violation of the seventh commandment (yes, the 7th commandment) and in violation of US and International copyright laws.

  • You may print or download to local hard disk extracts for your personal homeschool and non-commercial use only. This is not to be used for homeschool co-ops without express written permission from Homeschool Connections.

7c58a8b46f5c8fbf928eea74a532cf40074507d7.pngTechnical Help: If you experience technical difficulty with watching the recorded classes or have a question about course content, please email us at homeschoolconnections@gmail.com.

Course name
Writing Essentials 4: Excellent Sentence & Paragraph Writing II (MS 6/7-4) - Tuesday at 2:30 PM ET
Instructor
Natalie Meyer Schira
Semester
Spring 2025
Category
Writing ➤ 6/7 Series: Essential Writing
Grade levels
Middle School
Editors
Erin M. Brown, MA, MFA, Aubrey Heki, Sharon Hamric-Weis, Bonnie Donlon, Donna Graziose
Monitor
Christine Kupovits
Start time
March 4th, 2025 at 2:30 PM ET
Course type
Live
Price
$149
Seats available
25 seats available
Seats remaining
19 seats remaining
Relative due dates
Relative due dates are disabled for this course.

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Natalie Meyer Schira
n.schira.hsc@gmail.com

About Natalie Meyer Schira

Miss Natalie Meyer Schira, BA, proudly serves as a teacher of middle school English and writing. She graduated from Saint Mary’s College Notre Dame in 2012 with a major in English Literature and a minor in secondary education.

Since then, Miss Schira has dedicated herself to Catholic education, joyfully serving nine years teaching English in a Catholic high school in Iowa and for three years as a virtual instructor. Miss Schira has also been featured in publications and with awards and recognition for teaching and inspiration.

With a love of language and teaching, she is committed to cultivating students' academic and emotional development and using her teaching credentials to collaborate with and support families and students. Miss Schira’s greatest loves include Christ, commas, communication, caffeine, and her beloved Chicago Cubs while living a life grounded in faith, joy, and opportunity.

To quote one of her favorite pieces of wisdom from her mother, “When life gives you hold music, dance.”

Here at Aquinas Writing Advantage, Miss. Schira is a LIVE course teacher for the 6/7 and 7/8 Series middle school writing courses. She is also the Middle School Writing Support Specialist.

Click here for more info about Natalie Schira!

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Christine Kupovits

Christine is a cradle Catholic, wife and mother from Michigan. She has 2 teenage boys that are homeschooled and has been married for over 20 years. Besides monitoring she is a small group leader for the junior high youth group at her parish. She enjoys bike rides, reading (especially mysteries) and soccer. Christine has a degree in radiation therapy and also a theology degree from Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. Her favorite saints are St. Joseph, St. Joan of Arc, St. Gemma and St. Rita.