Our tutoring classes for our upper elementary students, generally for 4th to 6th graders, are two hours long. We place students in groups of 2 to 6. They are grouped by age. These classes are categorized as enrichment classes. Enrichment classes are for students who are at or above grade level and want to go above and beyond what they are learning in their regular school classes. If you feel your child may be below grade level, we will gladly conduct an assessment to figure out the best class setting for your child.
Our Upper Elementary Reading and Writing Program is broken up into two semesters. The first semester begins September 13 and ends January 27. The second semester begins January 31 and ends June 7. Students come in once a week. Both semesters are literature based, so each semester revolves around the literature we read. We will cover the following topics of study:
Semester One (Sept 13 to Jan 27) : Literary Response and Analysis Unit
In our Literary Response and Analysis Unit, students will be reading, analyzing, interpreting, and writing two paragraph literary response essays about poems. In this unit, we will teach students how to effectively read through a poem in order to identify the speaker, navigate through the figurative language, and pull out the overall message or theme of the poem. Students will learn the difference between figurative meaning and literal meaning, and will identify the different types of literary devices such as similes, metaphors, personification, and hyperboles. They will learn how to write a two paragraph literary response essay, with a general summary outlining the “story” of the poem, and then a second paragraph analyzing the poet’s overall message or the theme of the story. We will also spend a few weeks writing our own poems in order to teach tone and the structure of a poem.
Semester Two (Jan 31 to June 7) : Narrative Unit
In our Narrative Unit, students will be reading classic folktales, and contemporary narratives written by famous children’s authors. As they read, they will identify and summarize the essential parts of the story, which includes: the story map, point-of-view and theme. They will also learn about the important structural elements of a story, such as dialogue, interior monologue, narration, sensory description, and subtexts (hidden meanings which require making inferences). After they read, they will locate the concrete details from the story to support their analysis of the characters, plot, and author’s purpose. We will be writing weekly commentaries about the stories they read. They will also write two personal narratives of their own, using the full writing process (brainstorming, organizing, drafting, revising, editing).
In each unit, we engage our students in (a) vocabulary enrichment, (b) reading comprehension and analysis, and (c) the writing process. Our curriculum is a process-based methodology. Therefore, even though the three units cover a variety of subject matters, our students use the same process for vocabulary enrichment, reading comprehension and writing for each unit. We believe that the repetition and practice is essential in helping our students grow and learn.
Please email us at info@brwi.org or call us at (949) 651-1075 to schedule a FREE assessment or to register for classes!
A typical session at Bridges for your upper elementary grade child looks something like this:
Vocabulary
1. We start off with vocabulary. The teachers pick 8 to 15 words from the reading material that will be covered in the unit.
2. Students receive a set of flashcards with a color picture representing each word. The students make 6-square flash cards—they write the definition and part of speech, a synonym, an antonym, a word association and a power sentence.
3. We want our students to know their words, use them in our sessions and in their writing. So, students engage in different vocabulary games such as Word Scrambles, The Alphabet Search, Syllable Madness, Power Sentence Writing, Add an Ending, and The Synonym/Antonym Game.
4. We will use vocabulary as a ten minute warm-up to test the students several times throughout the semester. They play will play challenge games such as the Bridges Open Brain where they are given a blank sheet of paper and asked to write down as many words and definitions as they can remember. Each Open Brain, students are challenged to break their personal record. Another game is the Lightening Round where students work together as a team to come up with as many words as they can one to two minutes. Students are tested cumulatively up to 100 words.
Reading
The literature we choose is the most important aspect of our curriculum. We teach the students active reading skills, so they read with a pen in hand. A lot of times, students will read from page one to page two without doing anything with it. They lose a lot of critical thinking opportunities. And, when it comes time to write, they have no idea where to start. With our active reading strategies, kids are learning how to analyze the text they are reading:
For Poetry:
1. What are the poetic devices they should be analyzing?
hyperbole
onomatopoeia
personification
simile
alliteration
metaphor
2. What is the difference between figurative and literal language?
3. Who is the speaker?
4. What is significant about the title?
5. What is the poet’s message?
6. What is the tone?
For Literature:
1. What are the elements I should be summarizing and analyzing?
Character development
Author’s purpose
Mood and tone
Themes
Writer’s style
2. Is there something being said here that is not explicitly stated? Is there a subtext, multiple meaning, or inferential texts that I need to figure out?
3. How does this story relate to the real world?
4.What is the author trying to teach me through this story?
5. What evidence, or concrete details, do I have in the text to prove these things?
6. How do I take this evidence and write them into an essay/paragraph?
7. What is the difference between commentary and summary?
Active reading is the core of our curriculum because we want our students to be thinking and analyzing what they read. So, every time they read, our students are taking notes, color-coding, looked for evidence and writing commentary.
Writing
After students finish their reading, they shift gears and begin the writing process. Before the students engage in the entire writing process, we take them through a few mini-lessons to teach the structure of essay writing. Our 4th to 6th grade students will write two paragraph essays. To do this, we use copy changing, writing frames and writing rules. Specifically, they use professional examples and other student work as their samples and starters.
Students will also be given mini-lessons on snap shot writing (sensory detail, color words, power verbs and adverbs). They will also learn the art of elaborating on their ideas with at least three focused and relevant details. They will also learn more complex sentence structures and how to revise their simple sentences by using conjunctions, sentence connectors and added phrases. Students will practice revising and will learn how to make their writing better in each revision, and they will edit their stories for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors.
Upper Elementary
Our tutoring classes for our upper elementary students, generally for 4th to 6th graders, are two hours long. We place students in groups of 2 to 6. They are grouped by age. These classes are categorized as enrichment classes. Enrichment classes are for students who are at or above grade level and want to go above and beyond what they are learning in their regular school classes. If you feel your child may be below grade level, we will gladly conduct an assessment to figure out the best class setting for your child.
Our Upper Elementary Reading and Writing Program is broken up into two semesters. The first semester begins September 13 and ends January 27. The second semester begins January 31 and ends June 7. Students come in once a week. Both semesters are literature based, so each semester revolves around the literature we read. We will cover the following topics of study:
Semester One (Sept 13 to Jan 27) : Literary Response and Analysis Unit
In our Literary Response and Analysis Unit, students will be reading, analyzing, interpreting, and writing two paragraph literary response essays about poems. In this unit, we will teach students how to effectively read through a poem in order to identify the speaker, navigate through the figurative language, and pull out the overall message or theme of the poem. Students will learn the difference between figurative meaning and literal meaning, and will identify the different types of literary devices such as similes, metaphors, personification, and hyperboles. They will learn how to write a two paragraph literary response essay, with a general summary outlining the “story” of the poem, and then a second paragraph analyzing the poet’s overall message or the theme of the story. We will also spend a few weeks writing our own poems in order to teach tone and the structure of a poem.
Semester Two (Jan 31 to June 7) : Narrative Unit
In our Narrative Unit, students will be reading classic folktales, and contemporary narratives written by famous children’s authors. As they read, they will identify and summarize the essential parts of the story, which includes: the story map, point-of-view and theme. They will also learn about the important structural elements of a story, such as dialogue, interior monologue, narration, sensory description, and subtexts (hidden meanings which require making inferences). After they read, they will locate the concrete details from the story to support their analysis of the characters, plot, and author’s purpose. We will be writing weekly commentaries about the stories they read. They will also write two personal narratives of their own, using the full writing process (brainstorming, organizing, drafting, revising, editing).
In each unit, we engage our students in (a) vocabulary enrichment, (b) reading comprehension and analysis, and (c) the writing process. Our curriculum is a process-based methodology. Therefore, even though the three units cover a variety of subject matters, our students use the same process for vocabulary enrichment, reading comprehension and writing for each unit. We believe that the repetition and practice is essential in helping our students grow and learn.
CLICK HERE to see our current Academic Calendar.
Please email us at info@brwi.org or call us at (949) 651-1075 to schedule a FREE assessment or to register for classes!
A typical session at Bridges for your upper elementary grade child looks something like this:
Vocabulary
1. We start off with vocabulary. The teachers pick 8 to 15 words from the reading material that will be covered in the unit.
2. Students receive a set of flashcards with a color picture representing each word. The students make 6-square flash cards—they write the definition and part of speech, a synonym, an antonym, a word association and a power sentence.
3. We want our students to know their words, use them in our sessions and in their writing. So, students engage in different vocabulary games such as Word Scrambles, The Alphabet Search, Syllable Madness, Power Sentence Writing, Add an Ending, and The Synonym/Antonym Game.
4. We will use vocabulary as a ten minute warm-up to test the students several times throughout the semester. They play will play challenge games such as the Bridges Open Brain where they are given a blank sheet of paper and asked to write down as many words and definitions as they can remember. Each Open Brain, students are challenged to break their personal record. Another game is the Lightening Round where students work together as a team to come up with as many words as they can one to two minutes. Students are tested cumulatively up to 100 words.
Reading
The literature we choose is the most important aspect of our curriculum. We teach the students active reading skills, so they read with a pen in hand. A lot of times, students will read from page one to page two without doing anything with it. They lose a lot of critical thinking opportunities. And, when it comes time to write, they have no idea where to start. With our active reading strategies, kids are learning how to analyze the text they are reading:
For Poetry:
1. What are the poetic devices they should be analyzing?
2. What is the difference between figurative and literal language?
3. Who is the speaker?
4. What is significant about the title?
5. What is the poet’s message?
6. What is the tone?
For Literature:
1. What are the elements I should be summarizing and analyzing?
2. Is there something being said here that is not explicitly stated? Is there a subtext, multiple meaning, or inferential texts that I need to figure out?
3. How does this story relate to the real world?
4.What is the author trying to teach me through this story?
5. What evidence, or concrete details, do I have in the text to prove these things?
6. How do I take this evidence and write them into an essay/paragraph?
7. What is the difference between commentary and summary?
Active reading is the core of our curriculum because we want our students to be thinking and analyzing what they read. So, every time they read, our students are taking notes, color-coding, looked for evidence and writing commentary.
Writing
After students finish their reading, they shift gears and begin the writing process. Before the students engage in the entire writing process, we take them through a few mini-lessons to teach the structure of essay writing. Our 4th to 6th grade students will write two paragraph essays. To do this, we use copy changing, writing frames and writing rules. Specifically, they use professional examples and other student work as their samples and starters.
Students will also be given mini-lessons on snap shot writing (sensory detail, color words, power verbs and adverbs). They will also learn the art of elaborating on their ideas with at least three focused and relevant details. They will also learn more complex sentence structures and how to revise their simple sentences by using conjunctions, sentence connectors and added phrases. Students will practice revising and will learn how to make their writing better in each revision, and they will edit their stories for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors.