Amanda's English Curriculum

Amanda's English Curriiculum is tailored to fit a student at any grade or learning level. However, the core basics of the course will always apply: First, she discusses the writing process and how to form an essay. She teaches two different types of essays: informative  and argumentative, as well as written narrative. Typically, students are exposed to informative writing in school; however, argumentative tends to get pushed aside until late high school or college. Amanda's course introduces argument essay from the get-go so that students are not only summarizing and showing comprehension of texts and ideas, but also making clear and logical points about those texts and ideas. When Amanda teaches informative essay, she also includes a goal-oriented approach in that students' informational papers have a goal in mind; students therefore learn to address what they are teaching about in their essay and explain why is it important to learn that topic. Thus, students will learn how to not only to report, but to respond in the form of writing.  Argumentation papers will take that skill to a further level in that students will actually form stances and engage in productive written debate. When Amanda teaches narrative, she typically does so through the lens of a classic novel, such as House on Mango Street, Mrs. Dalloway, The Outsiders, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Christmas Carol, Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, Brave New World, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and more. For the younger students, she chooses novels according to their reading level - and sometimes teaches modern texts, like The Wild Robot. While reading, students will answer discussion questions for class sessions. They will learn how to actively read while also learning how to analyze symbolism and theme. After reading and discussing their answers to the reading questions, they will learn to write literary response essays (informative essays in the scope of literature), and literary criticism essays (argumentative essays in the scope of literature), and finally they write their own narrative. There is also a Poetics unit and a unit for Written Plays. Then, the course repeats, so students can continue to practice their new skills. All students have their own Google Drive folder where all coursework is housed for reference by both the student and the parents/guardians.

Homework Help

Amanda is an adaptable instructor and can help students with their homework in humanities subjects such as English, Writing, Reading, History, Social Studies, Psychology, Literature, Written Lab Reports, Exam/Quiz Prep, etc. Although Amanda's expertise is within the humanities, she is able to help with elementary mathematics and science as well. All homework help sessions and work from those sessions will be saved to the students Google Drive Folder for their own and their parents/guardians access. 

Reading and Writing Mechanics

For younger students and for anyone who needs, Amanda offers lessons in general reading & phonics, grammar & mechanics, and general writing rules and tips. She has worksheets, exams, and practice games for students to continue learning how to properly use grammar with ease and confidence. This course teaches different types of lessons based on the student's needs: phonics, sight words, types of sentences, parts of a sentence, parts of speech, prepositions, transition words, conjugations, capitalization, punctuations, basic literary response and devices, and core grammar rules to help form logical written thoughts. Typically after a student works with this coursework enough, they will continue on with Amanda's English Curriculum. All students have their own Google Drive folder where all coursework is housed for reference by both the student and the parents/guardians.

Public Speaking 

Amanda is a skilled orator and is here to help students practice for presentations and speeches, learn how to present their thoughts aloud, and learn how to eliminate filler words such as "like" or "um." In doing so, they will  feel confident in their abilty to relay their own ideas clearly and astutely. If a student starts these lessons from scratch, (meaning they do not have a specific interview, presentation, or speech for which to prepare) then Amanda will teach public speaking in the form of speech and debate. In other words, the students will learn written argument and learn how to present that argument in the form of a speech. All students have their own Google Drive folder where all coursework is housed for reference by both the student and the parents/guardians.

Test Prep & School Applications

Amanda offers test prep courses for HSPT and SAT. She can also help with GRE Prep. Her prep course is meant to help students know exactly what's on the exam, why the questions are being asked, and how to logically move through the exam with ease and without anxiety. She helps students prep for every section, even the quantatative sections, and also helps them learn how to write small essays in twenty-five minutes or less, to help test their logical speed, a skill very important when taking a standardized test. All students have their own Google Drive folder where all coursework is housed for reference by both the student and the parents/guardians.

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