A little more heresy!

Mainly I teach science classes for the local Co-op.  However, long, long ago I taught an English class at a private school.  It went fine. It’s one of those Co-op classes families like to delegate.  I teach a few literature or composition classes.  Now for a little heresy! When I teach a composition class, it’s not traditional.  Usually, these classes are all five paragraph essays.  Instead, I think a Comp class should be literal.  I view any form of writing as composition.  My teens write letters.  We wrote thank-you letters to the military police at the AFB in Columbus and Kadena, where my son was assigned. We sent a care package along with letters thanking them for their service.  

What else do we do? We met once a week and did enormous amount of writing.  The class wrote emails, lab reports, and stories.  I taught the kiddos how to write grants.  They created lessons for religious education.  Sure, we read books and wrote essays.  However, the essays often compared the book to the movie.  We did some grammar.  The kids edited with Editor in Chief exercises. (We spent a great deal of time editing all submissions—even letters.)  We made it a game to see who can find all of the errors.  The teens learned how to diagram sentences.  I use Picture Writing exercises and grab and go activities.  Essentially, Comp included any form of writing I could imagine. My teens wrote their own college  recommendation letters.  I explained that high-schoolers should ‘ghost’ these letters for teachers.  Teachers are busy.  Draft a recommendation letter the teacher can edit. BTW teachers seldom do.  I wrote many ‘ghost’ letters when I wrote grants.  

Do the same thing! Label anything related to writing as a separate subject, Composition. You might want to maintain a notebook marked ‘Composition’.  Read a newspaper article and review it.  Give it 0-5.  Write thank-you letters, use Picture Prompts, and create a resume. Would your family like to start a blog?  What about the Christmas letter?  Create posts.   Make the lab report for science part of Comp; it’s technical writing. Change a text message into a paragraph.  Read a book, watch the movie, and use a template to make the comparison.  Teens should have a  Warriner’s, a MLA handbook, and a thesaurus available.  Be sure, your children understand how to write a Five Paragraph Essay. Be sure to practice for a college application essay with writing prompts.  I just think any writing, editing, formatting, etc should be part of Comp.