Course Description:

Beginning in middle school and throughout high school, teachers task students with writing essays that analyze the novels, poetry, and short stories they read in class. To many students, this is not only a challenging task, but also an ambiguous one. In this course, students will master the necessary steps that will allow them to write a thoughtful and well-organized essay that examines a theme of a literary text. Over the course of the summer, students will read one or two novels (tailored to the student’s grade level and interests). In class, the student will learn how to conduct research on the novel’s context, annotate effectively, dissect essay prompts, find strong textual evidence, craft an argumentative thesis statement and topic sentences, and write a clear, on-topic essay.

Students will master the essay writing process through in-class work and targeted homework assignments that break essay writing into clear, distinct steps. Over the course of the class, students will write two essays to develop and demonstrate their skills. 

This course can be tailored for students from 7th grade through 12th grade to meet the expectations they will face in the upcoming year and set them up for ongoing success in their English classes.