PhD candidate, English literature, York University. She has 6+ years of experience teaching students from grade 4 to 12. This includes teaching first year English tutorials at York University.
Diana explains the common challenge for children in sentence structure and how our program will strengthen that foundation
PhD candidate, English literature, McMaster University. Jordan has 4+ years of teaching experience, including teaching at McMaster as a teaching assistant
Master graduate, English literature, University of Toronto. Anthony has 3+ years of teaching experience, including his tenure at Queen Elizabeth team. Anthony is patient and detailed oriented and knows how to make online learning engaging !
Children tend to memorize vocabulary and take the ‘short cut’ by googling definitions. This approach leads to a poor understanding of the words and an inability to know how to use them in their correct contexts.
For a child to build their vocabulary, they must start by writing the definition in their own words. In our lessons, we have writing exercises, where the student will write their own definition, and then construct their own sentences based on the word they defined.
CHARGE means:
Understanding: write the definition in your own words
Application: write your own sentences
A common challenge for children, is that they do not approach writing as a process. They immediately try to write a paragraph without any planning and blank out. They also struggle with proper sentence structure and expressing their thoughts in a concise way.
Writing involves a series of steps. It starts with brainstorming the ideas, organizing those thoughts into mind-maps, and then writing the rough draft. Frequent reading also helps students with their writing, which is why our Einstein Porgram provides a significant amount of reading and summarizing exercises based on a variety of texts (stories, news articles etc.). Writing takes practice and with consistent homework and informative lessons, children can build this valuable skill. It will also help them prepare for high school and university.
Mastering essay writing is critical to prepare students for high school. This skill is essential as the student needs to write essays not only for their English classes, but also for other subjects such as: business, geography, biology and physics.
Students find essays a major hurdle because they do not learn a systematic approach to them and do not receive proper lessons dedicated to essay writing. In many cases they are given the assignment in school and need to figure out everything else on their own.
How do you write a good introduction to compel the reader? What makes a good thesis vs. a poor thesis? How to build arguments around the facts and data? These are several of the important elements that we teach in our essay writing class.
Paragraph | What students need to learn |
---|---|
Introduction | How to compel the reader to explore your ideas in the essay. How to narrow down your ideas into the thesis (what you are arguing about). |
Thesis | How to explain your position in your thesis. How to make your thesis concise. |
Body Paragraph Facts / Support |
How to explain your reasons. How to relate your arguments to your thesis. How to use transition words make your arguments flow. |
Conclusion | How to summarize your reasoning in your conclusion. How to finish up with a strong ending. |