Philosophy Statement
This class has been designed especially for G9-12 students who have previously struggled in the area of communication in English.  It is an initiative where students are identified by their English teachers as having particular difficulty with areas of grammar, comprehension, sentence and paragraph structure, summarizing, and/or general writing skills.  In English Fundamentals students receive tuition in specific areas to build up the competency needed for further academic study or employment.  The class is targeted equally at native English speakers and those for whom English is a second or third language.  English Fundamentals is timetabled in the computer room. Most writing will be computer generated to allow for ease of correction with a minimum of frustration for the student. At Wesley International School we are committed to developing communicators.   We acknowledge that we would not know God personally, or about God, if He had not chosen to communicate with his creation.  He is the Master Communicator.  He gave us his Word in written form and communicates Truth to his creation.  Psalm 45 verse 1 says “My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.”  It is our desire that students in the English Fundamentals will develop in these three areas.  Firstly we long that their hearts will be stirred towards their God through this class.  We acknowledge that students recommended for this class will possibly have a lot of frustration around the English skills that this course wants to hone, so we hope for a personal heart commitment to improving in their language ability, as unto the Lord. Thirdly, we desire that students will develop skills in oral and written communication possibly even a love of written communication as they are given tools to make writing easier.

Course Objective
Basic sentence structure, grammar, subject verb agreement, tense agreement and consistency and correct use of articles will be taught as specific needs are identified. (ESLR: DC, NLL, ET) Students will learn how to summarize  information from a variety of sources into their own words. (ESLR: DC, NLL, ET). Paragraphs, stories and essays will be debunked with some writing being done individually and some in pairs (ESLR: DC, NLL, ET). Listening comprehension will be developed with some short dictations and longer narrations(ESLR: DC, NLL, ET).

Resources
Teaching Writing: Structure and Style, by the Institute for Excellence in Writing.
Teacher made resources
Internet sites

Time Allotment
Fifty minutes per day, five days per week each semester they are enrolled in the class.

Course Content

  • Students will learn basic punctuation, sentence structure, grammar, subject verb agreement, tense agreement and consistency and correct use of articles.
  • Students will learn how to summarize short articles into one sentence and longer articles into one paragraph.
  • Students will learn how to write paragraphs, sometimes from pictures.
  • Students will practice different styles of writing, both as individuals and as a group.
  • Students will practice listening skills and oral communication.
  • Students will develop comprehension skills.
  • Students will improve memorization skills for small passages.

Evaluation
Topic tests
Pop quizzes to test homework
Completion of accounts for simulated businesses.
Compare and Contrast activities where accounting concepts are evaluated alongside Bible passages and themes.