In this year-long writing course, students will develop strong foundational writing skills while learning to think critically and express ideas clearly through both writing and speaking. Using Books 1 and 2 of Classical Academic Press’s Writing & Rhetoric curriculum, learners will be guided step-by-step through the art of well-crafted storytelling.
During the first half of the school year, students will explore the structure and purpose of fables. They will read culturally significant examples, practice reading short texts, copy sentences accurately, and strengthen memory skills through dictation. Students will imitate sentences and short fables, learn to identify main ideas and character traits, and begin forming their own thoughtful responses to what they read.
In the second semester, students will expand their skills by studying parables, myths, and other traditional tales. Instruction focuses on developing longer and more complex writing through an understanding of beginning, middle, and end; conflict; narration; and description. Students will practice both written and oral narration, rewrite given stories, change story order, and add dialogue and descriptive details to enrich their writing.
Throughout the course, students will practice and master key skills such as:
-Narration and “telling it back” to develop a natural sense of sequence and structure
-Comprehension and identifying the main idea
-Analogy—comparing stories to see how they are alike and different
-Sentence play and word play
-Rewriting and summarizing texts
-Amplification by adding detail, dialogue, and description
-Oral storytelling (“Speak It”) to build confidence and communication skills
By the end of the course, students will have grown as confident beginning writers who can organize their thoughts, tell stories clearly, and express ideas effectively—both on paper and aloud.
