This eight-week course is the first of two courses focusing on “boosting the basics” at the middle school level. Basic Writing Mechanics A allows students to strengthen their foundation writing skills. The course teaches the fundamentals of writing such as: sentences vs. fragments, subjects and predicates, subject-verb agreement, and capitalization.

Week 1 – The Sentence, The Fragment, and The Run-on

By the end of the first unit, the students will be able to differentiate between complete, fragment and run-on sentences and use this knowledge to write their own proper sentences.

Week 2 – Nouns, Nouns, and More Nouns!

By the end of the second unit, the students will be able to form the plural and possessive forms of nouns.

Week 3 – Subjects of a Sentence

By the end of the third unit, the students will be able to identify and use the simple and complete subjects of a sentence.

Week 4 – Predicates of a Sentence

By the end of the fourth unit, the students will be able to identify the simple and complete predicates of a sentence.

Week 5 – Subject – Verb Agreement in a Sentence

By the end of the fifth unit, the students will be able to make common subjects and verbs agree.

Week 6 – “Tricky” Subject – Verb Agreement

By the end of the sixth unit, the students will be able to make tricky subjects and verbs agree.

Week 7 – Capitalization

By the end of the seventh unit, the students will be able to correctly capitalize words both individually and within sentences.

Week 8 – Sum it ALL UP!

By the end of the eighth unit, the students will be able to demonstrate mastery of writing proper sentences, making subjects and verbs agree, and using correct capitalization rules. The students will also proofread their own writing to check for and correct any errors in these areas.