Academic Skills

Session 1:

Session 2:

This one week course is best suited for students looking for ways to improve confidence in their public speaking abilities and strengthen their skills. We will work to enhance aspects of public speaking, including but not limited to alleviating stage freight, practicing appropriate gesturing, writing speeches, and speaking in front of an audience. The goal for this course is for students to leave feeling more comfortable and confident with public speaking.

Public speaking is a valuable life skill, yet it is seldom taught or practiced formally.  Through this one-week course, students can gain comfort and confidence in their public speaking abilities while practicing in a judgement-free setting.  In this course, students will study the characteristics of good public speakers, fine-tune their speechwriting, and practice speaking in front of classmates.  Students will have the opportunity to speak publicly each day. (Listed for Middle & Upper School.)

Designed to help students build transferable skills such as note taking, close reading, annotation, and active study methods, this class examines a variety of texts (i.e. historical primary sources, academic articles, textbooks, newspaper editorials) and learning situations (lecture, discussion, formal debate) that students face on a daily basis. Students will learn to use assessment rubrics so that they can understand what an assignment is asking them to do and how to organize their materials. We will 'crack the code' of academic success by analyzing multiple test formats (multiple-choice, essay, presentation, project) so that students are equipped with the confidence, strategies and techniques to excel. While this course is primarily designed to develop students' study skills, the theme of the selected texts is the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its broader geo-political context. We will investigate and debate the question, 'are we witnessing the beginning of a new Cold War?(Listed for Middle & Upper School.)