Writing and Literature Co-op ideas for 7th graders?

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Is there a course that would make a great academic co-op for the target age of 7th grade?

[Lori D.]

Would this be a single class to cover both Writing & Lit., or separate classes? And if a single class, how much total time would you have? Would you expect all of the writing and reading to happen outside of class, or would some of it have to happen in class (which severely limits what you can do in a once-a-week co-op class, IMO).

 

I can't think of an all-in-one course, but there are some terrific books you can do with 7th graders for the Lit. portion of a co-op class, and a number of them have some really good guides to go with them. :) You could just pull some of the lit. guide writing assignment ideas for students to choose from every 2 weeks if the Writing is more secondary to the Lit. -- or would the expectation be that Writing instruction would also be a part of the class?

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Well, I don't really know, but here is what I'd desire:

 

My dd needs motivation and likes to share her writing, so it definitely would be very much about getting the kids to be excited about composition.

 

To me, composition and literature are so wonderful when they go hand in hand. And, I'm good at discussing literature. I would really make that aspect shine.

 

I would want all the work to be done At home and I would want the co-op to be about sharing literature discussions and writing samples and occasional enrichment (maybe a movie, etc.) and then a quick intro Into the next week's assignments.

 

And it can't be of books *everyone* has read by this age (Narnia for example)