Who: A maximum of twelve 6th graders admitted with instructor's approval.
What/How/Why:
Get a great start in middle school to set up high school and university success.
The first hour of each session focuses on study and organizational skills. We deal with all manner of study issues. During this hour we learn to work independently better, to hone the skills for various tasks/subjects/content areas that work best for our particular learning styles, to study smarter instead of longer, and to work cooperatively with classmates so that we increase both breadth and depth of understanding and retain much more of what we learn for much longer. We also learn the easiest, fastest, most efficient ways to find the information we need and to check that we have completely fulfilled all requirements for school. We discover techniques to work with teachers whose teaching styles do not match our learning styles, overcome learning blocks and break through self-imposed limitations and self-limiting study habits so that we can more easily learn new material, advance in subjects that have historically vexed us, and find learning liberating, thrilling, and deeply rewarding.
The second hour of each session, and many times, the entire session, is devoted to questions that arise from actual homework (and classwork) assignments. Students bring in daily and long-term projects along with questions about what is confusing them. The group learns to solve these problems so that all benefit from one another's questions and from one another's expertise. These questions often serve as the springboards to related mini-lessons in math, English, history, or other subjects, led by Scott.
We solve logic puzzles. We cover all the skills needed for success in 7th and 8th grades - where a student's record is counted toward acceptance at all the top public and private high schools in the city. We look forward toward high school, and especially college, as places we can continue to do serious, intellectually invigorating, personally rewarding work such as that we are doing in this course. We have FUN!
The instructor, Scott Cowan, provides detailed feedback based on all he has learned over twenty years of teaching experience, and in various University courses in many disciplines, including Anthropology, Creative Writing, Education, History, Languages and Language Acquisition, Linguistics, Literacy, Literature, Philosophy, and Psychology. Scott also uses his experiences as a father, skier, biker, world traveler, baseball coach, and Gardener as he meets the needs of each student, individually, as much as possible. The goals of the course are to deepen a love of reading, writing, critical thinking and learning so that all of these related items become a source of enjoyment and success in academics and, eventually, career, throughout life.
Cost and Payment plans:
Lesson fees vary depending on the course you choose as the best for you.
Private lessons, tailored perfectly to individual needs: ..........$90/Hr.
Semi-Privates........................................................................$75/Hr.
Trios..................................................................................... $65/Hr.
Quads and Quints...................................................................$50/Hr.
6-8 students...........................................................................$43/Hr.
9-13(max. number in any group)............................................$35/Hr.
Since all seats in group courses are reserved for students in the course, and, thus, no one can fill a seat that goes empty, there is, unfortunately, no way to discount the course for those students who are absent on a given date. If a student misses a week and there is room available in another section of the course on another day of the week, the student is welcome to come on a "make-up day" at no extra charge. Students in the course can also take advantage of unlimited private sessions available at a huge discount - see below.
The price of the course also includes:
Analysis of individual learning styles and strengths and development of strategies for best success on the test and in school.
Many hours of editing and lesson planning.
Free phone consultations on H.W., test, and other questions that come up while enrolled in the course.
"trio" pricing for private sessions on any topic while enrolled in any group course (only $65/Hr.)
Discounts passed on directly to students/parents from bookstores and other vendors of course materials whenever they are available.
