OBJECTIVE

The five levels of writing workshops at APLUS learning center seek to provide students with opportunities to focus on the skills and the practice of writing.  The workshops are designed with the ideals of the College Board’s Advanced Placement English courses in mind.  The workshops help students learn to read more challenging literature with greater skill, to write more complex and mature compositions, to develop independent analytical skills, and to develop disciplined study habits for continued academic success. 

Compared with regular academic school English courses, the workshops are more demanding, challenging and more focused.  A student who takes the full range of workshops will find that the skills taught and practiced in each workshop build on those of the previous one and prepare for the practice of the next. 

Workshops are focused on sets of writing and reading skills.  So, while students in a given workshop may tend to be in the same grade what they have in common is actually that they have mastered the skills that are the necessary prerequisites for the workshops.  Within a workshop grade range students are also likely to share common reading experiences.  Students in the same grade range will have been exposed to similar genres, texts and authors.  They will likely also have practiced writing in the same formats.

Students are placed into appropriate levels based on the writing skills they demonstrated in the writing placement test, which is required of all newly enrolled students. The placement test focuses on writing and reading skills and usually takes between 30 minutes to an hour to complete.

STRUCTURE AND DESIGN OF APLUS WRITING WORKSHOPS

The first two workshops – Pre Writing and Writing I – are preparatory and provide students with a strong foundation in writing basics.  Writing II is an important transition and represents a movement from the paragraph form to the essay format.  The movement from Writing II to Writing III is significant.  The focus moves from the form to the substance of the essay.  The final transition to Writing IV moves students to using the formal essay format with greater ease and variety.

All of the workshops incorporate grammar, peer review and vocabulary work.  All of the workshops share the common expectation that students will work at high levels.  All students can perform at rigorous academic levels.  The workshops provide students with the strategies and tools for success.  Each writing workshop is a one-year course, consisting of fall, spring, and summer semesters. Students are required to complete both fall and spring semesters before they can take next higher-level writing workshop. Summer semester is optional and is to reinforce the work of the fall and spring semesters. The workshops strive for alignment with Montgomery County Public Schools and Maryland State Content Standards: Writing Content Standard 3.o and Language Content Standard 4.0.

1. Pre Writing

Description: This is the entry-level workshop for many of our students.  In this class students will practice the writing process. 

Core Skills: The core skills targeted in this workshop are completion of a paragraph (topic sentence, supporting sentences and a conclusion), use of editing symbols, and grammar fundamentals.

Grade Level: Most of the students should be in the 4th – 5th grade, but 3rd grade students are accepted where testing demonstrates that they have the necessary skills.

2. Writing I

Description: In this class students will build on the skills of the previous workshop.  Students will begin close reading of a short novel and using textual details. 

Core Skills: The core skills targeted will include the completion of a three paragraph essay, multi genre readings, and vocabulary work.

Grade Level: This course is mainly for students who vary in age from 4th – 6th grade, depending on their writing abilities.  Most of the students should be in the 5th – 6th grade, but 4th grade students are accepted where testing demonstrates that they have the necessary skills.

3. Writing II A/B
 
Description: In this class students will focus on the five paragraph academic essay.  Reading selections will include several genres including prose and poetry.  Students entering this class should be able to organize their ideas into unified paragraphs, use varied sentence patterns, make inferences using textual details, and demonstrate control over the conventions of English.  

Core Skills: The core skills targeted will include understanding thesis, correct use of quotations, acquisition of literary analysis vocabulary, editing and revision. 

Grade Level: This course is mainly for students who vary in age from 6th – 8th grade.  Most of the students should be in the 7th-8th grade, but 6th grade students are accepted where testing demonstrates that they have the necessary skills.

4. Critical Tools for Advanced Writing

Prerequisite for Writing Workshop III

Suggested for students planning to study Advanced Placement or Honors English

Description: High-level critical analysis, as required in Advanced Placement, Honors, and college-level writing, demands the proper tools in order to gain entrance into the collective consciousness where literature resides.  This course provides those tools.

Beginning with an in-depth study of archetypes, symbols, and allusions and their roles in literature, this course equips students with same background knowledge authors have and draw on to enrich their texts.  During an intensive genre study that spans the history of literature, students will be challenged in the second semester to apply what they have learned, to critically analyze all genres of literature written throughout history.

Course Outline

Texts:  How to Read Like a Professor and various assigned readings, including excerpts from novels, short stories, and poetry 

Examples of course coverage:

• The Hero and His/Her Quest
• Heroes in Literature and Film
• Meals and Eating in Literature
• Communion and Vampirism in Literature and Film   
• Allusions – Biblical
• Bible Stories in Literature and Film
• Christ Figures and Baptism in Literature and Film
• Allusions -- Mythological
• Myths in Literature and Film
• Allusions – Other Literature
• Fairy Tales and Children’s Literature

 5. Writing III

Description: The student entering this class is expected to have some mastery of the form of the five-paragraph essay. The student should also have some experience identifying literary stylistic devices.  The Writing III student should be able to generalize and transfer themes from literature to observations about humanity.  Reading selections will be drawn from the sixteenth century to the present and may include readings from past AP exams.  

Core Skills: The core skills targeted will include creation of individual thesis statements, use of precise language with an awareness of connotative, figurative and symbolic meanings of words, and interpretation of textual evidence in support of the controlling idea beyond the literal level.  

Grade Level: This course is mainly for students who vary in age from 7th-9th grade.  Most of the students should be in the 8th-9th grade, but 7th grade students are acceptable if they show excellent writing and reading ability.

6. Writing IV

Description: This class is the final workshop in the series.  Students entering Writing IV are expected to be able to write complex and mature prose, incorporate explanations of literary techniques and their effect into their essays, and demonstrate interpretive skills.  

Core Skills: The core skills targeted will include critical analysis of various genres, rhetorical argumentation and style analysis, and choosing appropriate organizational structures given topic and audience.  

Grade Level: This course is mainly for students in 9th-10th grade.