In this class, students will develop a love of writing by being exposed to a variety of writing types and activities to strengthen their writing abilities. Students will learn about the 6+1 traits of writing (ideas, word choice, fluency, voice, organization, conventions, and presentation) and use these to bolster their writing to the next level.

This class is designed to help students become even better writers while preparing them for college writing, as well as doing some prep work for the writing portions of the ACT, the AP exam (specifically, the English Language and Composition Exam), the CLEP test (specifically the College Composition Exam and the College Composition Modular Exam), and the Accuplacer exam at KVCC.

This is the second level of Writing Workshop. In this class students will build on the concepts they learned in the first level. Students will acquire additional tools to further enhance their writing and increase their independence. They will learn more challenging modes of writing as they are introduced to several different types of essays. In addition, they will learn advanced style techniques, broaden their vocabulary, and expand their knowledge of grammar. This class is the perfect stepping stone to a high school writing class and can easily be taken in conjunction with a grammar class.

This middle school writing course is designed to take students through the writing process and help them to become a confident and effective writer. Basic grammar, spelling, and punctuation will be addressed along with how to read and take notes.

This course will explore many major types of essays, including: narrative (tells a story), descriptive (describes something/someone), comparison/contrast (compares and contrasts two items, ideas, or people), argumentative research (with the goal to sway the reader to accept the writer’s point of view), traditional research paper (exploring both MLA and APA formats), and timed writing (writing a response with only a certain amount of time to complete, which will be great preparation for college entrance exams as well as college courses). Kristen will take students through the entire writing process, focusing specifically on the type of essay at hand. Students will learn how to brainstorm, find research, take notes in an organized fashion, write an outline, edit one’s own work, edit other people’s work, and complete a final draft.