Senior 1 - English Language Arts
In Senior 1, students will develop critical-thinking, reading, and writing skills necessary for outstanding high-school-level essays and advanced intellectual engagement. At 1-2 levels above Ministry Standards, this advanced curriculum prepares students to excel in secondary school classroom discussions and written assignments across a range of subject areas, while equipping them for the greater demands of university-level studies.
Program Highlights: Our program emphasizes building sophisticated vocabulary, improving grammar skills, and enhancing reading comprehension and critical/analytical writing skills. Students will engage in advanced intellectual discussion and debate, learning to think across paradigms and approach intellectual questions in an interdisciplinary manner. The curriculum is divided into disciplinary blocks, including aestheticism vs utilitarianism, Gothic fiction, social psychology, linguistics, existentialism, Russian literature (in translation), and poetry. This cumulative structure ensures that students apply learned concepts to subsequent blocks, fostering interdisciplinary thinking. Opportunities to participate in literary and academic competitions and receive personalized feedback on their writing are integral to the program.
Achievements:
- Familiarity with over 300 high-frequency words, building a strong foundation for literacy
- Knowledge of advanced grammar, aiding in identification and correction of errors
- Improved reading comprehension for better academic performance
- Writing clear and coherent reflections, including critical and analytical pieces
- Improving persuasive, analytical, and comparative and essay-writing skills for high-school-level essays
- Engaging in intellectual discussion and debate, as well as thinking across paradigms and approaching intellectual questions from interdisciplinary perspectives, including psychology, linguistics, sociology, philosophy, and art theory
- Reinforcement of key literary terms and concepts through various readings and assignments.
- Exploration of a variety of literary genres, including gothic fiction, speculative fiction, satire, philosophical fiction and imagist poetry.
Critical Thinking, Creativity, and Problem-Solving: At Brain Power, we teach kids how to think, not what to think. Our curriculum fosters independent thought, encouraging students to explore ideas, ask questions, and develop their own insights. This approach empowers our students to become confident, creative thinkers who are ready to face future challenges.