Course info

Give your middle school student the mastery needed for punctuation — creating strong sentences and getting rid of the most common writing mistakes. This critical course helps your student write clearly, free of punctuation and grammar errors. Take the 6/7-4 course with this course to gain a full semester’s credit of writing.

 

How to get the most out of the Writing Essentials 3: Punctuation and Grammar 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 review, watch the recording and/or go over the PowerPoint again. Repeat until all 6 classes are complete. If a student is taking the course in Unlimited Access / Recorded Format and has an Instructor Access one-on-one grader for the course, there will be extra worksheets for the student to complete (beyond what is noted on your Moodle page). Please coordinate submitting the extra assignments with your Instructor Access instructor (for grading). If a student is taking the course in Unlimited Access / Recorded Format without using Instructor Access during the course and the student has quiz grades below 80%, feel free to sign up with the Instructor Access instructor for additional help. 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

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) and Writing Essentials 2: Excellent Sentence & Paragraph Writing I (MS 6/7-2) 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: ½ semester Writing or English. Follow with MS 6/7-4 for a full semester credit. To make a full and complete semester of middle school writing, sign up for the 6/7-4 course that follows this course.

 

Instructor: Natalie Schira
Instructor Email: N.Schira.HSC@gmail.com

 

Course Description: This is an essential writing course for all middle school students, to further the student's ability and confidence in using punctuation and grammar correctly (and well!). Your student will learn to identify and use correct punctuation in longer passages of text, including additional work with the use of commas, semicolons and colons, and quotation marks. Special emphasis will be placed on using punctuation correctly in systems of testing, such as standardized tests, and increase your student's ability to identify wrong uses of punctuation, to self-edit, and to make corrections easily.

 

Course Outline:

• Class 1: Correct comma use with clauses, compound sentences, and commas vs. semicolons in lists
• Class 2: Odd punctuation challenges with colons, semicolons, and capitalizations
• Class 3: Correct usage of quotation marks and their surrounding punctuation
• Class 4: Complete Sentences vs. fragments in academic work vs. Advertisements and informal writing
• Class 5: Punctuation, capitalization, and form with formal letters
• Class 6: Common punctuation and grammar mistakes with pronouns, questions, compound sentences, and more

NOTE: To get the full experience when watching the recorded classes, make sure to click on the video icon at the top right to see the instructor.

 

Course Materials: Course materials are included free as PDF files. 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 that converts to Word documents FREE.

 

Homework: This course has weekly quizzes, requiring an estimated one to three hours per week for homework outside of class time (depending on the student’s skill level upon entering the course). Quizzes are graded automatically by the computer for instant feedback.