Saints Alive
Lively Faith. Lively Writing.
Does your seventh-grader amaze you with his
insightful paragraphs, witty prose and creative
characterization and plotting? Do you sleep soundly, secure
that your child will breeze through the more rigorous high
school requirements that are coming? Congratulations! And
please share your secret!
For the rest of us, Saints Alive is presented as
individualized writing tutoring for junior high
homeschoolers. This course focuses on crafting interesting
narrative paragraphs. It's tailored for students who want to
hone their writing skills before hitting high school.
For its foundation, the class uses Once Upon a Time
Saints stories by Ethel Pochocki, the best written
chapter length saint stories I've ever read. They are
presented like fairy tales: "Once upon a time in the country
of Burgunday there lived a princess named Alice." For three
weeks out of four, the student would read one of two options
each week, and then write a three paragraph summary of the
saint.
These three paragraphs will be broken down into a standard
format with room for creativity within: setting and
characters, rising action to climax, and then "the rest of
the story." Students learn to take notes on the portions they
want to include in their narrative. They practice writing
with exciting verbs and adverbs, varied sentence structure
and descriptive nouns. Finally, they get to know the saints
as real people who led interesting lives rather than
paper-dolls of Mr. and Miss Perfect.
Students submit a rough draft early in the week and may share
their final draft on a private online forum. I give tailored
feedback between these two submissions on plotting, character
description, style, and the mechanics of writing.
And on that "off week"-- what then? One week out of four is a
freebie for the student to escape the normal schedule. Write
a letter to a friend or grandparent or neighbor using these
same techniques: strong verbs, interesting nouns,dynamic
sentences. These skills don't exist in a bubble-- go out and
share them!
Book List
- Once Upon a Time Saints
—Ethel Pochocki - More Once Upon a Time Saints
—Ethel Pochocki - Around the Year Once Upon a Time Saints
—Ethel Pochocki