flynn057

Dear friends, In my 7th-8th grade English class in our Providence Home Educators co-op, we've been doing a unit on Medieval Legends.  I've been sending home handouts with the legends in them, as well as comprehension questions and related writing assignments.  The two main source books I've been using are: Medieval Legends (Imitation in Writing series) by Matt Whitling , where I found the legends of Roland and of St. George and the Dragon.  I did not use the writing component of this book, which I found at a used curriculum sale. Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons   by Lori Verstegen, which is published by the Institute for Excellence in Writing ( www.excellenceinwriting.com/ ).  In the this book, I found the story of "Genghis Khan and His Hawk" as well as instruction on sentence starters and descriptive writing.  (This is a $35 book, but I found it at a used curriculum sale for about $1.) I also pulled my vintage copy of Hero Tales from History ...

Sentence Style Variety for Writing by Virginia Knowles These handouts, which I have used in my 7th-8th grade English class in our home school co-op, are loosely based on concepts from materials published by Institute for Excellence in Writing ( www.excellenceinwriting.com ).   Using a variety of sentence styles in each paragraph makes your writing more interesting. Very Short Sentence: Very Short Sentences contain only 1-5 words. Use them to contrast with longer sentences, or put two or three in a row for effect. • You won! Congratulations! • Your mother is gorgeous. • God loves you. I do too. Begins with Subject These tend to be boring if there are too many of them strung together in a row, so don’t use them all the time. • Kate couldn’t believe what she saw in the box. • The red kite dipped and swooped on the strong breeze. Begins with Prepositional Phrase: The prepositional phrase lacks either a subject or a predicate, so it is not a clause. • In the house, we found a complet...