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Reading Comprehension Grades 3-4 This course is designed to help 3rd and 4th graders begin to build a foundation for making connections in their reading. The students will learn how to become effective readers by learning to summarize, foreshadow upcoming plot development, question a character's actions, use strategies to comprehend a story's meaning, and at the same time, learn to eliminate unnecessary details. Students will study about the different genres in literature and begin identifying themes in their reading. The students will be using a variety of short stories to help strengthen their reading skills. Reading Comprehension Grades 5-6 This course will prepare 5th and 6th grade students who are interested in improving their ability to read and comprehend. The students will be introduced to numerous topics and strategies to enhance their understanding while reading. They will be exposed to strategies to help them identify main ideas, scan for details, decode vocabulary, interpret graphics, read actively, and take tests. This is a great summer enrichment class. Data show that students who are avid readers score significantly higher on standardized tests. Of course, the most important by-product is a love of reading. Reading Comprehension Grades 7-9 This course will focus on guiding students to read more effectively by helping them to focus on the process of reading. They will be encouraged to interact more closely with the texts that they reading, learn strategies to retain more information, practice reading more quickly and efficiently, and improve their ability to apply the information that they read in answering test and essay questions. A diagnostic test will be administered at the beginning and ending of the course, so that students may track their progress and identify areas for improvement. Lessons will focus on identifying main ideas, annotating, making inferences, developing meaningful questions, as well as other reading strategies designed to maximize comprehension. Students should leave this course as more entertained and engaged readers. Literary Analysis Grades 6-8 Middle school students study poetry, short stories, and novels. They are often asked to write analyses of such literary genre in their English classes. Current state and national standardized tests also require that students respond to the deeper meaning of literary work on a multiple- choice exam. Student will read and analyze poetry and short stories. This class is also an oral participation course, as confidence in sharing literary observations is a prized value in the classroom. This class is not an essay writing class although one or two written analyses will be assigned or done in class. Literary Analysis Grades 9-12 This class will help students "go deeper" into the literature they are exposed to in high school by giving them usable tools and methods to do so. We will show them how to go beyond the surface of literature by teaching them to ask the right questions before they search for the "right answer". Through a method of questioning, we will teach the students how to come up with their own workable thesis statements and support those statements. Students will learn how to be prepared to use such theses and support them with the essay skills they have already acquired. This will be a great continuation of our MCA 9th and 10th grade composition courses in that many of those students understand the structure of an essay but lack the analysis and critical thinking to produce impressive content in their essays. Students will analyze poetry and short stories during the 12-hour course. During the many parent conferences that the instructors have had throughout the years, they have both observed that the majority of the "B+" students are the ones who lack deeper insight about the literature. This class will assist students in developing that insight. There will be one official paper per session and numerous annotations on assigned literature. |
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