High School Reading & Essay Writing

This class is typically for students in 9th-12th grade, often ages 14-17.

Sept 2- Nov 18, 2025 Once weekly for 12 weeks

This wonderful biography follows the life and career of a country veterinarian working in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales of the British countryside. With humorous events, challenging animal healthcare environments, and wonderful human relationships shared in the pages, this personal recollection brings life from the pages. Students will deepen their skills in the writing concepts to complete full length 5-paragraph essays. Topics will include MLA formatting, intro to APA standards, advanced grammar skills, and high-school level prompts.

Skills Needed to Succeed in this Class

• Prerequisite: Intermediate Writing Foundations for ALL new students.

• Able to read complex novels with challenging vocabulary and mature content

• Practices the following study skills: 

  ○ Novel annotations and charting 

  ○ Summarizing 

  ○ Note-taking 

• Familiar with literary analysis writing and correctly weaving quotes into essay

• Shows a degree of mastery writing a 3 body paragraph essay and is ready to consistently write 5 paragraph essays 

• Ready to learn how to write a research paper 

• Shows evidence of time management skills 

• Able to complete 5-6 hours of homework weekly

Skilled Learned in this Class

• Fully developing a topic by writing multiple paragraphs 

• Following the essay format of an introduction with a hook, a strong thesis, three body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph 

• Providing specific examples from the novel to support assertions

• Explaining the examples with insightful literary analysis, using concrete details and supporting commentary sentences 

• Creating quality sentences by including many stylistic elements including strong vocabulary, varied sentence structure and length with proper punctuation, and adding figurative elements. 

NOTE: At the Advanced Level, at least one semester each school year, students will be required to write a research paper for their enrichment project. The research paper will in some way be related to the novel they are studying.

Other Class Details

12 weeks

Class meets for 2 hours per week. 

Maximum class size 15 students.

Supplies: pencil, paper, class novel (see Study Book), TWJ Writing Foundations Handbook

Gmail account to access Google Classroom and communicate with instructor

All Creatures Great and small

by James Herriot

ISBN #: 978-1250057839

This wonderful biography follows the life and career of a country veterinarian working in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales of the British countryside. With humorous events, challenging animal healthcare environments, and wonderful human relationships shared in the pages, this personal recollection brings life from the pages.

For families that pay out-of-pocket for homeschooling classes, The Write Journey, LLC offers a discount of 10% for those classes. Use code “PRIVATEPAY” during check out to apply discount. This offer cannot be combined with any other discounts. The reduced rates for private-pay individuals may be used by students enrolled in charter schools, but only if the family chooses to pay for the goods or services out-of-pocket.

Venmo, PayPal, or Check? Use code “PERSONAL” during check out to change the class cost to $0. After you complete the registration process, please send us your payment. Venmo @TheWriteJourney-Cordell PayPal (Friends & Family) – info@thewritejourney.net

Paying with Charter School Funds? Use code “CHARTER” during check out to change the class cost to $0. After completing the registration process, contact your charter school to order vouchers/purchase orders in three one-month payments. Contact us for assistance if you plan to use charter funds and do not find The Write Journey (or Writing with Kris or Kris Cordell) on your charter school’s vendor list.

To pay with a check, contact us at 916.696.1759.

Cancellation Policy:

Due to the administrative costs and preparations of The Write Journey team to prepare classes and offer reasonable class sizes of 8-16 students, we must charge a cancellation fee. Teachers typically begin communication 2 weeks before classes begin, and class schedules must be finalized in order to offer the correct number of spots open for families. 

A $25 cancellation fee will be charged up to 2 weeks prior to the start of the ordered class. Any time after 2 weeks prior to the start of class, the cancellation fee is one full month’s charge. For private pay families with more than 2 children, a flat rate of $50 will be charged.