Students will develop language that can be applied to life skills and academic purposes. Students
will discuss topics and experience short lectures. Students will listen to sample academic lectures
and will practice note-taking skills based on lectures. In reading, students will intensify their
practice of decoding and sight-word skills to quickly preview, skim and scan texts, and will
participate in activities to summarize events and main ideas of written text. Students will identify
significant and relative details in readings and will practice strategies such as using context
clues and word parts to deal with unknown words and acquire a new vocabulary. When writing basic
expository essays, students will focus on the process of writing (pre-writing activities, revising
and editing), sentence structure and organization as well as grammar and expansion of their
vocabulary.
Students will listen to academic lectures and presentations in order to gather information and take
appropriate notes. Students practice speaking skills in order to prepare and deliver a
comprehensive and factually correct three-minute oral presentation on an assigned topic. This
course reinforces academic reading skills as well as critical thinking skills which students will
use to understand, analyze, discuss and write responses to ideas expressed in readings. In
addition, students will become familiar with parts of speech, prefixes, suffixes and roots as aids
in understanding new vocabularies. The course reviews and reinforces the skills required for
writing cause/effect and compare/contrast academic essays with a focus on essay expansion,
modification and the writing process.
Students will listen to academic lectures in order to gather information and take detailed notes.
Students practice speaking skills in order to prepare and deliver a comprehensive and factually
correct five-minute oral presentation on an assigned topic employing appropriate visual and
text-based supports. In addition to print resources, materials used in the course will include copy
from the internet and will build computer-based reading comprehension skills. Students will
develop further knowledge of academic English with a focus on prefixes, suffixes and root words
that will enable students to decode a new vocabulary. Students will continue to practice writing a
variety of essay types (persuasive and reaction) on a variety of topics using academic language.
Spring I Placement Test : January 7 - 9
Spring I : January 14 - March 8
Spring II Placement Test : March 11 – 13
Spring Break : March 18 – 22
Spring II : March 25 - May 17
Summer Placement Test : May 27 – 29
Summer : June 3 - July 26
Fall I Placement Test : July 29-31
Fall I : August 5 - September 27
Fall II Placement Test : September 30 – October 2
Fall II : October 7 - December 6
