Juni English

This course challenges students to master middle school level skills in reading and analyzing literature, based on the Reading Literature category of Common Core State Standards for 6th-8th grade English/Language Arts. As students develop mastery of reading comprehension and analytical writing skills, they practice writing short pieces of original fiction by employing the same elements of craft that they are learning to notice in their reading and analysis.

Each of Juni’s core English courses is designed with flexible text sets that our curriculum team curates and authors in-house to suit a range of reading levels and student interests. With 32+ projects and 90+ short texts that students can choose, Middle School A provides students with frequent and diverse opportunities to practice and master the skills of reading and analyzing literature.

This course challenges students to master middle school level skills in writing, both analytical and creative, based on the Writing category of Common Core State Standards for 6th-8th grade English/Language Arts. The first half of the course is a deep dive into analytical, arguable writing about works of fiction, including modules about writing claims and counterclaims, integrating and analyzing evidence, and revision. The second half of the course is a deep dive into creative, fiction writing, including modules about character development, generating conflict, structuring plot, and manipulating point of view. With 24+ projects, by the end of this course, students will be able to write a compelling and precise arguable paragraph and an original short story.

Grammar doesn’t have to be boring; by weaving grammar instruction into fun writing projects, this course introduces students to the joys of writing both creatively and correctly. The curriculum challenges students to master middle school level skills in grammar and mechanics, based on the Language category of Common Core State Standards for 6th-8th grade English/Language Arts. As students develop mastery of language skills, they will apply those skills to writing original, personal narrative essays, making visible to each student the purpose of learning correct grammar and mechanics. Topics include parts of speech; sentence types; correct punctuation of phrases and clauses; and correct usage of commas, dashes, parentheses, and ellipses.

In this ambitious, project-based, creative writing elective, aspiring authors will write an original novel or long form work of their choice. Writing a novel is no small feat for most adults, but at Juni we believe that with the right instruction and coaching, middle and high school students are up to the challenge!

Through the ongoing project of writing an original novel, students build fundamental creative writing skills. At the beginning of the course, each student sets a word count goal with their instructor. Students expand their creativity by drafting scenes of their novel in almost every session with their instructors, and they practice accountability by hitting word count targets before moving onto subsequent modules. Along the way, students learn and apply the foundational elements of novel writing, including character development, narrative structure, setting description, plot creation, and dialogue craft. This course is open to middle and high school students.