The Curriculum:
From first phrases to research-based essays
June Writers Academy’s program is a bridge between basic physical writing skills and the higher-level analysis skills essential for learning sophisticated ideas and content. Our unique curriculum teaches your child the mechanics of writing and critical reading but also takes them much deeper. We teach kids why we use specific writing conventions and how to ground their writing in informed, complex arguments. Your child will learn higher-level critical reading, how to reason from evidence, find the connections within ideas, and adapt their writing to different audiences—skills normally not taught until high school or college—even in our earliest levels. And we have fun!
Grammar & Punctuation
Writing
Arguments
Critical
Reading
Rigorous
curriculum
✔️ Five levels with 10 lessons per level
✔️ Five writing practices per lesson, including parallel critical reading skill development and instant skill checks
✔️ Schoolwork & application guidance on demand
Comprehensive
feedback
✔️ 24 hrs for individualized feedback on each writing practice from highly-trained master teachers who specialize in working with bright children
✔️ Weekly overall progress report for each child
Assessment
✔️ Skill quizzes covering all lessons
✔️ In-depth skill test at the end of each level - See how we assess
Levels
Goal
What kids learn
Sample practice
1: Complex Sentences
Consistently write complex and compelling sentences with intellectual and physical ease
Concepts: Sentences, foundational grammatical, basic editing, poetry, audience
Skills:
Spacing: word, line, punctuation
Punctuation: Periods, question marks, commas, capitalization, apostrophes
Grammar: types of sentences, subjects, predicates, nouns, pronouns, verbs, common nouns, proper nouns, adjectives, proper adjectives, plurals, subject-verb agreement, possessives, clauses, dependent clauses, independent clauses, appositives, conjunctions
Morphology: Greek & Latin roots, other roots, prefixes, suffixes, formality, dialect, syllables, phonemes, contractions, spelling, vocabulary
Editing: editing marks, editing process
Form: phrases, complex sentences, memes, haiku
Critical Reading: poetry analysis
2: Arguments in Microcosm
Consistently write compelling, three-layer paragraph-length+ arguments and narratives with intellectual and physical ease
Concepts: Arguments, ideas, connections, themes, pre-writing, organization, chronology, classical rhetoric, opinion, style, mood, tone, genre, beginning civics, poetry, story structure
Skills:
Argument Development: finding themes & connections across ideas, ideas, argument sentences, bubble webs, outlines, ethos, logos, pathos, kairos
Punctuation: clock and date time, formatting, paragraph breaks, addresses
Grammar: clauses, dependent clauses, independent clauses, sentence structure, conjunctions, connecting phrases, active voice, passive voice
Morphology: Greek & Latin roots, other roots, prefixes, suffixes, formality, dialect, syllables, phonemes, spelling, vocabulary
Editing: editing marks, editing process for paragraphs+
Form: lists, pre-writing, expository paragraphs+, narrative paragraphs+, persuasive paragraphs+, fiction, metaphor, simile, haiku
Critical Reading: non-fiction analysis, poetry analysis
3: Texts Under Scrutiny
Consistently write compelling and fully-reasoned essays based on a critical reading of a text
Concepts: Essays, audience, inspectional reading, analytical reading, deep argument analysis, rhetorical analysis, debate vs. discussion, poetry, facts
Skills:
Argument Development & Dissection: finding themes & connections across ideas, ideas, argument sentences, bubble webs, outlines, ethos, logos, pathos, kairos, dissecting the logos of an argument, dissecting ethos, dissecting pathos, summaries, rhetorical role, developing an informed opinion, straw men, steel men, logical fallacies, logical extensions, counter-argument
Grammar: verb tense, dependent clauses, independent clauses, sentence structure, conjunctions
Morphology: Greek & Latin roots, other roots, prefixes, suffixes, spelling, vocabulary
Editing: adapting a text to an audience, editing marks, editing process for short texts
Form: expository essays, persuasive essays, narrative stories, sonnets, allegory, debate
Critical Reading: inspectional reading, analytical reading, defining critical terms, identifying assumptions, identifying the conversation, identifying genre, non-fiction analysis, poetry analysis, philosophy
4: Grammar & Punctuation for Life
Consistently use grammar choices, punctuation, and rhetorical tools to communicate subtle meaning in analytical essays and fiction writing
Concepts: Descriptive grammar, prescriptive grammar, the fuzzies, emotional formatting, literary analysis, humor
Skills:
Grammar: Word class, phrase class, sentence roles, sentence word order, direct objects, indirect objects, preposition phrases, subject pronouns, object pronouns, active voice, passive voice, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, antecedents, antecedent-pronoun agreement, collective nouns, modal auxiliary verbs, restrictive versus nonrestrictive appositives, compound predicates, interrupters, interdependent clauses, run-on sentences, fused sentences, comma splices, polysyndeton, adverbs, transitional adverbs, coordinate adjectives, non-coordinate adjectives, direct address, dangling participles, the subjunctive, grammatical moods, conditional clauses, simple verb tenses, perfect verb tenses, continuous verb tenses, perfect continuous verb tenses, negatives, compound adjectives
Punctuation: dialogue commas, punctuation marks, font, hyphens, en dashes, em dashes, parentheses, ellipses, soft hyphens, hard hyphens, colons, semicolons
Rhetorical tools: alliteration, allusion, anaphora, assonance, conflict, epiphany, imagery, metaphor, onomatopoeia, sibilance, simile, emojis, euphemisms, caricature, hyperbole, lampoon, irony, parody, satire, rhetorical fallacies
Morphology: Greek & Latin roots, other roots, vocabulary, British versus American spelling
Editing: undoing the fuzzies, fluff statements, editing process for short texts
Form: analytical essays, fiction stories, plays, allegory, ads, rebuttal, odes, analogies, extended metaphor, synthesis essays
Critical Reading: speeches, civics, assumptions, defining terms, scientific writing, philosophical writing
5: Advanced Solo Editing
Consistently use a deep argument editing, line editing, and style editing process on essays
Concepts: Argument editing, line editing, style, flow, fiction editing, source analysis, synthesis reading, data analysis, citations, paraphrasing, plagiarism, deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning
Skills:
Grammar: infinitive, split infinitives
Morphology: Greek & Latin roots, other roots, vocabulary
Editing: line editing, deep argument editing, style editing, parallel construction, eliminating repetitive or unnecessary words, pacing, split infinitives, preposition placement, story editing, editing character development, editing story arc, editing action in fiction
Form: analytical essays, press releases, science writing, philosophical writing, fiction stories, limericks, speeches, proverbs
Critical Reading: synthesis reading of scientific texts, literature, news, data, poetry, and other sources
Research: Primary sources, secondary sources, research questions, research source types, Dewey Decimal System, Library of Congress system, citation style, footnotes, end notes, Author-Date citations
Poetry: Poetic rhythms, Iamb, Trochee, Dactyl, Anapest, Spondee, meter, synthesis analysis
The authors we feature in our critical reading lessons include: Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Aristotle, Bill Gates, Charles Darwin, Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson, Emma Lazarus, Guy Steele, Jane Addams, John Keats, Justice Louis Brandeis, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Plato, Robert Frost, Thomas Jefferson, The U.S. Congress, The United Nations, Voltaire, W.H. Auden, William Blake, William Shakespeare, Winston Churchill, and many more.
Comprehensive Feedback
Our teachers give your child a combination of written, video, and audio feedback on their work within 24 hours.
Below, check out two examples of the depth and type of feedback your student can expect from June Writers.
Peek Into Our Classroom
Take a brief tour of your child’s June Writers SeeSaw classroom experience. We make full use of the powerful tools in SeeSaw—integrated with key resources on our private member site—to engage all the dimensions of your child’s developing writing and critical thinking skills.
Which level is right for my student?
All students begin at Level 1 or 2, even if they are already capable of writing clean, lengthy texts. Select Level 1: Complex Sentences if your child does not yet have the physical stamina to write five excellent sentences in a row. Select Level 2: Arguments in Microcosm for everyone else. We will adapt your child’s specific curriculum to meet their unique skill level and pacing. Learn more about why we do this and what this means for different types of students here.
Become a member
As a full member, you’ll enjoy:
✔️ Our complete, rigorously joyful curriculum
✔️ Custom feedback within 24 hours
✔️ Highly-trained master teachers
✔️ Live Help Hours
✔️ Weekly progress reports