Our tutoring sessions for our Junior High & Middle School students are two hours long. We place students in groups of 2 to 5. They are grouped by age, but we will also conduct an assessment first to see which groups are best suited for your child.
We strongly recommend twice a week because we see the most improvement in the shortest amount of time.
Our Junior High & Middle School Reading and Writing Program is broken up into three units. Each unit is approximately 13 weeks long. All the units are literature based, so each unit revolves around the literature we read.
We cover the following units:
1. Expository Texts: Reading informational texts to identify the five informational text patterns (sequence, description, cause/effect, compare/contrast, problem/solution), finding the 5W’s, current events and social studies/science integration. Writing expository essays, learning the parts of an essay, a paragraph and the difference between concrete details, elaborations, and commentary.
2. Narrative: Story mapping, identifying concrete details, developing commentary and author’s purpose. Analyzing structural and elemental features of different genres (i.e. fantasy, mystery, historical, science fiction, non-fiction), sensory detail writing, writing publishable fictional and autobiographical narratives, and the writing process.
4. Literary Response and Analysis: What is the author’s purpose and how does the author achieve this? What makes this story GREAT? Analyzing the elements of the story and building commentary around their analysis.
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!
Homework Help Classes
Bridges also offers homework help for junior high and middle school students who are struggling to maintain their grades or need to review the fundamentals of reading and writing. Every week, students can bring their reading and writing assignments from school, and our experienced, credentialed teachers can answer questions, clarify class notes and required topics of discussion, teach study skills and test-taking skills, help students through the reading and writing process, and foster the skills and content knowledge for language arts, science and history. Students can get the extra help they need to excel at school and boost their confidence. Bridges will provide lessons on grammar and the mechanics of writing, fluency, reading comprehension and memorization techniques.
A typical session for your Junior High and Middle School child (except for homework help classes) would look 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. For the first three weeks of the unit, we use vocabulary as our warm-up to test the students. They 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
After the vocabulary review, we move into the 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 Informational Texts:
What strategies can they use to process and understand a great deal of information on a given topic?
Analyze text patterns and cue words (description, sequence, cause/effect, compare/contrast, problem and solution)
Organize the information using a text pattern and a graphic organizer
Paraphrase and summarize, looking for the 5W’s (who, what, where, when and why)
Build Commentary
Draw a Symbol or mental picture
For Literature:
1. What are the elements they should be analyzing?
Character development
Author’s purpose
Mood and tone
Themes
Writer’s style
2. What evidence, or concrete details, do I have in the text to prove these things? 3. How do I take this evidence and write them into an essay/paragraph or story? 4. 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 basic writing skills. To do this, we use copy changing, writing frames and writing rules. Specifically, they use professional stories and other student work as their samples and starters.
In the Expository Texts Unit, students practice the basic paragraph structure with a topic sentence, concrete details, elaboration, and concluding sentence. They will learn how to formulate a topic sentence and a hook. They will learn to support their ideas with concrete details. They will also learn to elaborate on the details. They will learn to use connectors (i.e., which, when, and, but, while, by) and transition words. Once the paragraph is strong, students then move to a full three paragraph essay with an introduction, body and concluding paragraph.
In the Narrative Unit, students will learn to write fictional and autobiographical narratives. They will learn the art of Bridges Quick Changes, which allows a story to have emotion, varying pace, movement and imagination. In other words, students will write stories which have a mix of narration, dialogue, snap shots, thought shots, and movement. Students will also incorporate all the elements of a story and will go through the entire writing process. Students will also be given mini-lessons on snap shot writing (sensory detail, color words, power verbs and adverbs) Students will practice revising and will learn how to make their stories better in each revision.
In the Literary Response Unit, students will memorize Bridges’ List of 20, our list of 20 reasons why literature is GREAT. For each picture story we read, they will decide which part of the story was GREAT and pick a reason from Bridges’ List of 20. They will then formulate their opinion about the story based on their response. Students will write a paragraph retelling their favorite part, explaining their reason, and adding personal commentary.
Please email us at info@brwi.org or call us at (949) 651-1075 to schedule a free assessment or to register for classes!
Junior High School
Reading and Writing Tutoring Program
Our tutoring sessions for our Junior High & Middle School students are two hours long. We place students in groups of 2 to 5. They are grouped by age, but we will also conduct an assessment first to see which groups are best suited for your child.
We strongly recommend twice a week because we see the most improvement in the shortest amount of time.
Our Junior High & Middle School Reading and Writing Program is broken up into three units. Each unit is approximately 13 weeks long. All the units are literature based, so each unit revolves around the literature we read.
We cover the following units:
1. Expository Texts: Reading informational texts to identify the five informational text patterns (sequence, description, cause/effect, compare/contrast, problem/solution), finding the 5W’s, current events and social studies/science integration. Writing expository essays, learning the parts of an essay, a paragraph and the difference between concrete details, elaborations, and commentary.
2. Narrative: Story mapping, identifying concrete details, developing commentary and author’s purpose. Analyzing structural and elemental features of different genres (i.e. fantasy, mystery, historical, science fiction, non-fiction), sensory detail writing, writing publishable fictional and autobiographical narratives, and the writing process.
4. Literary Response and Analysis: What is the author’s purpose and how does the author achieve this? What makes this story GREAT? Analyzing the elements of the story and building commentary around their analysis.
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!
Homework Help Classes
Bridges also offers homework help for junior high and middle school students who are struggling to maintain their grades or need to review the fundamentals of reading and writing. Every week, students can bring their reading and writing assignments from school, and our experienced, credentialed teachers can answer questions, clarify class notes and required topics of discussion, teach study skills and test-taking skills, help students through the reading and writing process, and foster the skills and content knowledge for language arts, science and history. Students can get the extra help they need to excel at school and boost their confidence. Bridges will provide lessons on grammar and the mechanics of writing, fluency, reading comprehension and memorization techniques.
A typical session for your Junior High and Middle School child (except for homework help classes) would look something like this:
Vocabulary
Reading
After the vocabulary review, we move into the 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 Informational Texts:
What strategies can they use to process and understand a great deal of information on a given topic?
For Literature:
1. What are the elements they should be analyzing?
2. What evidence, or concrete details, do I have in the text to prove these things?
3. How do I take this evidence and write them into an essay/paragraph or story?
4. 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 basic writing skills. To do this, we use copy changing, writing frames and writing rules. Specifically, they use professional stories and other student work as their samples and starters.
In the Expository Texts Unit, students practice the basic paragraph structure with a topic sentence, concrete details, elaboration, and concluding sentence. They will learn how to formulate a topic sentence and a hook. They will learn to support their ideas with concrete details. They will also learn to elaborate on the details. They will learn to use connectors (i.e., which, when, and, but, while, by) and transition words. Once the paragraph is strong, students then move to a full three paragraph essay with an introduction, body and concluding paragraph.
In the Narrative Unit, students will learn to write fictional and autobiographical narratives. They will learn the art of Bridges Quick Changes, which allows a story to have emotion, varying pace, movement and imagination. In other words, students will write stories which have a mix of narration, dialogue, snap shots, thought shots, and movement. Students will also incorporate all the elements of a story and will go through the entire writing process. Students will also be given mini-lessons on snap shot writing (sensory detail, color words, power verbs and adverbs) Students will practice revising and will learn how to make their stories better in each revision.
In the Literary Response Unit, students will memorize Bridges’ List of 20, our list of 20 reasons why literature is GREAT. For each picture story we read, they will decide which part of the story was GREAT and pick a reason from Bridges’ List of 20. They will then formulate their opinion about the story based on their response. Students will write a paragraph retelling their favorite part, explaining their reason, and adding personal commentary.
Please email us at info@brwi.org or call us at (949) 651-1075 to schedule a free assessment or to register for classes!