I have the pleasure of teaching writing and reading comprehension this year! For the little ones, Kindergarten, we will be working on improving our knowledge of letters, numbers, and working up to making sentences and telling stories. For First grade, we are going to practice our reading skills: adding new words and focusing on comprehension of prose. Second grade will start writing stories, reading books, and learning how to answer questions pertaining the story. All the grades will also be practicing their computer knowledge by learning how to use a keyboard and word processor program.
For grades 4 and 6 the class will center on writing proficiency and text comprehension; the students will be able to express themselves in written form and acquire the ability to pick out the main points of a story and answer relevant questions.
High school students need to prepare for their proficiencies. The class will run like a tutorial:individualized instruction and student interaction will increase understanding of what qualifies as persuasive writing, and clearer expression of their thoughts in writing. I think that the best way to learn to write, is to write. The students will be expected to do some form of writing every day. We often write the way we talk and this lacks a certain linear flow that is essential in telling a cogent story. It is my intention that every student passes their reading and writing proficiency on their first attempt!
IICSN has been fortunate to offer dual-credit college courses. I will be teaching an introductory Psychology class, Pscyh 101. Dr. Malin has made the class accessible to all students by paying for their enrollment. A similar class taken at college, with the textbook, would cost around $500! The students will have the opportunity to take their first steps into higher education for free! The class is offered for seniors the first semester and for juniors the next semester.
I am looking forward to working will all my students, on a one-to-one basis if they require it, to improve their mastery and increase their academic performance.
Keyboarding has continued to progress in the elementary grades. Kindergarteners have become much more proficient with their ABCs and numbers, easily finding them on the keyboard.
First graders are typing out sentences, while second graders have come up with complex sentences incorporate nouns, verbs, numbers and the names of their friends. Very exciting!
Reading comprehension remains the focus of 4th through 10th grade. We are looking at making inferences from written text. Oftentimes, when we read we include information that is not there and we inadvertently complicate the story. With inference, the students are learning to take offered information and suggest, make an educated guess, infer, what would come next. This helps immensely with understanding as students are compelled to formulate an image of what is going on in the text to improve comprehension.
The Psychology students have been given extra time to improve their final papers which are due this coming week.
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