Art of Composition Year 1

Help students bridge seamlessly to traditional high school composition assignments! Simply Charlotte Mason’s The Art of Composition is a teacher- and student-involved, step-by-step course. Over the 4 years of this program, students will transition from writing narrations to writing essays, researching, and completing creative writing assignments, and eventually will be ready for college-prep assignments. As a prerequisite, students should be comfortable writing narrations (or what Charlotte Mason called “oral compositions”). This composition course requires that students write 4-5 narrations weekly, which will be taken from their reading assignments in their other courses (such as history, language arts, etc.). These narrations will serve as the “rough drafts” of their weekly composition assignments.

Each text assigns one weekly 30-minute lesson. However, don’t let this time limit fool [RT1] [JB2] you. These weekly lessons aren’t the only tasks in the course—or the only composing. Each lesson provides an excerpt of a skilled author’s work: perhaps a newspaper article or a Reader’s Digest article, a passage of fiction, or even a sample student narration. Weekly, students will select one of their own narrations (from their other courses), practice applying that week’s writing instruction in their narration, and then follow their text as directed. Periodically, the text will give the student an additional Creative Narration assignment that will include thought-provoking questions to answer. Students will also record interesting quotations from their reading and write their responses in their own “Commonplace book” (space provided in the back of the text).

Consistent with the Charlotte Mason method, regular student/teacher interaction and discussion is expected. Each week’s assignment guides the student step by step. Teacher directions are often placed first, followed by the student directions. These sections are clearly identified. Sometimes, the teacher and student are addressed simultaneously. Each yearlong course is divided into 3 modules, each with a unique focus. Each module ends with a written exam. As the teacher, you’ll be grading these exams and writing assignments based on provided checklists.

Eventually, this curriculum will span 4 full years (36 weeks per level). Each year builds upon the previous. Throughout the 4 years, you’ll see specific skills emphasized within each level; previously taught skills will still be developed. Year 1 skills start with focusing on editing and creating strong sentences. Then students learn “reverse outlining” to study how selected authors have organized their content. Finally, this course ends with writing introductions, conclusions, and transitions. The first unit of Year 2 begins with editing, with a focus on strong word choice. Then, students learn to write essays from outlines and compose three essays. Essay types are primarily narrative and descriptive. The third unit emphasizes writing to an audience and developing a point of view and an individual writing style. Year 3 teaches research writing, including thesis development and how to cite sources. In unit 2, students practice advanced editing skills. The final unit helps students analyze and write creatively, exploring tragedy/comedy, point of view, poetry, and even fan fiction. Year 4 (coming in 2026) reviews concepts taught in the previous 3 levels. Then, students will be guided in persuasive writing, and the course ends with a 12-week senior writing project. After completing these 4 courses, students will be prepared for college-level composition. For details on each level, see individual course descriptions. ~ Ruth