2024 Easter Intensive Program

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Primary Novel Study (Grades 1-2)

This Easter, students will read Snot Stew by Bill Wallace. By applying their critical thinking skills and practising close-reading, students will explore different aspects of a piece of narrative writing, from the setting, to the characters, to the plot. Their reading comprehension skills will be put to the test as they become experts in a book in just a few days. By the end of the course, students will have completed a book report about the story.

Primary Reading and Vocab (Grades 5-6)
This Easter, students will deepen their lexical abilities by examining works about important, but often overlooked, heroes in history. Each class, students will elevate their reading comprehension abilities by learning to analyze what they read with precision and rigor. Additionally, students will hone their verbal reasoning skills, and will dissect the meaning of texts by making logical and textual inferences – all of which will help them to grow into active and hands-on readers!

Primary Aspiring Writers (Grades 5-6)
In this course, students will improve their critical reading and writing skills by looking at the ways people throughout history have envisioned the beginning of the world. Students will have the opportunity to read a variety of origin myths from five different continents and compare and contrast the ways vastly different cultures have considered this one topic. In addition to learning about this significant cultural history, students will also analyse these myths based on their story structure and use of symbolism and personification. Throughout the course, students will be working on applying these ideas to an origin story of their own creation, which they will complete by the end of the course.

Primary Critical Thinking
The Critical Thinking Intensive Course is designed to develop students’ critical thinking, research, analyzing and problem-solving skills. Throughout the course, students are exposed to real-world issues and will learn and practice the skills to evaluate, process and articulate complex ideas.

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Secondary Writing

At the Secondary level, students must grapple with increasingly more complex writing conventions as well as more challenging subject matter. To that end, our intensive writing courses are designed to develop critical reading and writing skills within four main genres: persuasive, informational, descriptive, and fiction. As within our Primary programs, the courses continue to emphasise the importance of the writing process – brainstorming, outlining, writing, and editing – in order to cultivate independent student writers.

Secondary Critical Thinking
At the Secondary level, our critical thinking programs seek to both build students’ confidence with their presentations as well as to encourage them to probe their own opinions and the opinions of others. This winter, we are providing a range of offerings for students who would like to focus on either the critical thinking or speaking facets of our FAST and RRAPS programs.

Public Speaking and Debate
Within the Secondary program for Public Speaking and Debate, we provide intensive courses catered to both newcomers as well as seasoned competitive debaters. At the introductory level, classes focus on equipping students with the necessary skills for different speaking environments and cultivating the fundamental abilities required for effective debating. At the intermediate level, classes focus on upgrading the fundamentals to a higher level so that students are prepared for more competitive settings. For more advanced students, classes are designed to introduce a higher degree of complexity and nuance to their arguments. These individuals are encouraged to delve deeper into current and global affairs, so they may cultivate a deeper understanding of the world around them. Instructors will closely collaborate with students to develop an engaging and impactful presentation style, while also offering constructive feedback on every speech.