Smart Cookies: English Language Arts Essentials

Description

It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet of writing, reading, speech, thinking, and fun! This ongoing class gives families the ultimate flexibility without compromising on the quality of education. We pack an academic punch in these once-weekly classes and keep them fun so students master skills. Each class meets once per week, and students have one piece of homework to complete each week. The teacher will give thorough and authentic feedback on the work so that students can revise and edit. It’s easy for students to manage and easy for parents to be a little more hands-off. We want students to start mastering these skills on their own.

A Snapshot of Each Class:

1. We begin with grammar and sentence construction work, so students learn to write correctly, succinctly, and artfully.
2. Next, the instructor explicitly teaches a skill or concept. This direct instruction is supported by a large body of research for effective teaching. For example, when we teach how to make inferences, we teach them a two-step approach and break it down so students understand how to actually make inferences. It’s not magic! It’s a skill, and it’s teachable and learnable!
3. Students have a chance to practice the skill or demonstrate understanding while getting feedback and guidance from the teacher through the chatbox or on a Google Document. In our example, students are given a video clip and a piece of writing in order to answer questions that require making inferences.
4. Finally, students have the opportunity to show their learning in an independent way in their homework assignments.

A Grand Buffet: A Year of English Language Arts Content:

You can jump in and out of class as you’d like! When you see skills repeated, it means we do it two or three times with a different text. You do not have to have attended the week prior. The skills are taught each week. It’s just a hard skill to master.

• The week starting June 4: Making Inferences in film and comics. students learn to make inferences, a reading skill absolutely necessary for academic success. Students will use a two-step process to infer meaning from a comic strip, a video clip, and a short piece of text.
• The week starting June 11: Making Inferences in text. Making Inferences in film and comics. students learn to make inferences, a reading skill absolutely necessary for academic success. Students will use a two-step process to infer meaning from a comic strip, a video clip, and a short piece of text.
• The week starting June 18: Narrative Writing-How to Write an Exposition. After a lesson on writing dialogue and descriptive writing with a mythological monster, the authors write about a hero who sets out on a quest. They learn to build suspense and blend narrative elements.
• The week starting June 25: Narrative Writing-How to Write Conflict. Students learn to build suspense and blend narrative elements as they have a hero battle two more mythological monsters.
• The week starting July 2: Narrative Writing-How to Resolve Conflict. Students learn to resolve conflict in their writing in a way that is satisfying.
• The week starting July 9: How to Research
• The week starting July 16: How to Paraphrase and Cite Sources
• The week starting July 16: How to Paraphrase and Cite Sources
• The week starting July 23: How to write an Introduction
• The week starting July 3-: How to write a Conclusion
• The week starting Aug 6: Close Reading: annotating, taking notes, and paraphrasing
• The week starting Aug 13: Close Reading: annotating, taking notes, and paraphrasing
• The week starting Aug 20: Close Reading: annotating, taking notes, and paraphrasing
• The week starting Aug 27: Close Reading: annotating, taking notes, and paraphrasing
• The week starting Sept 3: Figurative Language (simile)
• The week starting Sept 10: Figurative Language (simile)
• The week starting Sept 17: Figurative Language (metaphor)
• The week starting Sept 24: Figurative Language (personification)
• The week starting Oct 1: Figurative Language (hyperbole)
• The week starting Oct 8: Figurative Language (idioms)
• The week starting Oct 15: Figurative Langauge (onomatopoeia)
• The week starting Oct 22: Figurative Language (alliteration, assonance, rhyme)
• The week starting Oct 29: Symbolism & Motif
• The week starting Nov 5: Symbolism & Motif
• The week starting Nov 12: Poetry Analysis 1
• The week starting Nov 19: NO CLASS.
• The week starting Nov 26: Poetry Analysis 2
• The week starting Dec 3: Poetry Analysis 3
• The week starting Dec 10: Writing Suspense
• The week starting Dec 17: Dramatic Irony
• Dec 24 – Jan 6: NO CLASS
• The week starting Jan 7: Dramatic Irony
• The week starting Jan 14: Situational Irony
• The week starting Jan 21: Situational Irony
• The week starting Jan 28: Verbal Irony
• The week starting Feb 4: Verbal Irony
• The week starting Feb 11: Character Analysis (internal traits)
• The week starting Feb 18: Character Analysis (external traits)
• The week starting Feb 25: Character types (protagonist types)
• The week starting Mar 3: Character types (protagonist types)
• The week starting Mar 10: Character types (protagonist types)
• The week starting Mar 17: Character types (protagonist types)
• The week starting Mar 24: Character types (protagonist types)
• The week starting Mar 31: Character types (protagonist types)
• The week starting Apr 7: Character types (other types–underdogs, round, dynamic, flat, archetypes, static, foils)
• The week starting Apr 14: Conflict (external & internal)
• The week starting Apr 28: Conflict (external–character vs nature)
• The week starting May 5: Conflict (external–character vs society)
• The week starting May 12: Short Story Lit Analysis
• The week starting May 19: Short Story Lit Analysis
• The week starting May 26: Short Story Lit Analysis

What sets us apart from the rest?

EXPLICIT TEACHING: We understand the skills and concepts students need to learn, and we know how to teach them. Lemons-Aid’s materials are top-notch, organized, and clear for students and parents to understand. We are especially skilled at breaking down a complicated process into understandable parts, so students master each separate part before they put it together (e.g. a paragraph that requires a certain type of thinking).

STUDENT ACCOUNTABILITY = ACHIEVEMENT: Students master skills with us and make gains. We have a high degree of accountability. Since we make promises here, and since parents are paying good money, we understand you trust us to work! Students have to work too, and let’s be real, they’re kids and don’t always want to. We push it. We teach them how to stay engaged, we cold-call on kids, we tell them to use the chatbox, and we want them to use emojis! If they are resistant, we reach out to the student first through the teacher tab. If that doesn’t work, we call in the big guns–mom and dad. We really want kids to learn. We don’t want them to pass through our classes without gaining skills and doing great learning.

HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS: To balance the high expectations we have for their learning and behavior, we build relationships with them. We want them to know we care about them and that we know them. We’ll ask about the play they did last weekend or the new trick they’re trying to master on the skateboard. We also want students to get to know each other and encourage community engagement.

DEPENDABLE: There are multiple teachers teaching this class, and we have an entire year of lessons planned and scheduled. Since we are a mission-driven organization, we protect our brand and the relationships with our families. We are accountable to our learners. When things come up for teachers, we work to get substitutes and do everything we can before canceling a class. We do not like canceling or changing and we often teach classes at a loss to give others a chance to join. We have limits, of course, but we are not flippant or irresponsible about canceling! When things come up for students, since we have multiple sections, they can transfer from section to section. All our teachers are teaching the same content the same week, giving families even more flexibility!

To explore other available courses, please click here.