Course Details:

The teacher will provide all materials. Students will need to use Google Docs.

Smart Cookies: 4th/5th Grade English Language Arts Essentials

$19.00 / week

Flexible, comprehensive, and fun! This year of English Language Arts is flexible in the ongoing format and comprehensive in the content. Students master writing, reading, communication, and thinking skills in an upbeat, fun environment.

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Description

It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet of writing, reading, communication, thinking, and fun! Teach your learners to read for understanding and beyond. After taking this class, all of their upper-level reading and writing will be easier because they will be equipped!

This ongoing class gives families the ultimate flexibility without compromising on the quality of education. We pack an academic punch in these once-weekly classes and keep them fun so students master skills. Students learn the foundation of literary analysis, critical reading, and organized writing.

Students master all of the essential English language arts content. We cover reading for all purposes, critical thinking, analysis, and writing in various genres: expository, argument, poetry, literary analysis, narratives, etc.

Each class meets once per week, and students have one piece of homework to complete each week. The teacher will give thorough and authentic feedback on the work so students can revise and edit. It’s easy for students to manage and parents to be a little more hands-off. We want students to start mastering these skills on their own. Further, students are expected to read 100 minutes per week. They may choose whatever they want to read, but we hold them accountable for that reading when the teacher asks each student to report on the book’s title and the student’s page number.

**EVERY LESSON HAS A COMPONENT OF READING, WRITING, & COMMUNICATION.**

A Snapshot of Each Class:
❶ We begin with grammar and sentence construction work so students learn to write correctly, succinctly, and artfully. Students report on their book and page number.
❷ Next, the instructor explicitly teaches a skill or concept. This direct instruction is supported by a large body of research for effective teaching. For example, when we teach how to make inferences, we teach them a two-step approach and break it down so students understand how to make inferences. It’s not magic! It’s a skill, and it’s teachable and learnable!
❸ Students can practice the skill or demonstrate understanding while getting feedback and guidance from the teacher through the chatbox or on a Google Document. In our example, students are given a video clip and a piece of writing to answer questions that require making inferences. These are short writing pieces.
❹ Finally, students can show their learning independently in their writing assignments.

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🍽️ THE GRAND BUFFET: A YEAR OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS CONTENT:
**You can jump in and out of class as you’d like! When you see skills repeated, it means we do it two or three times with a different text. You do not have to have attended the week prior. The skills are taught each week. It’s just a hard skill to master.**
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FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE:
We will literally teach students that saying “literally” all the time is literally not good. 😉 Students have a review of what figurative language is and why authors use it. We teach this to them in an understandable way! Then, students see examples of figurative language and identify it in a different text. After that, the teacher models how to write figuratively and then guides the students toward mastery until they do it themselves! It’s literally awesome.
🍒 The week starting Aug 25: Simile
🥭 The week starting Sept 1: Simile
🍍 The week starting Sept 8: Metaphor
🥥 The week starting Sept 15: Hyperbole
🍅 The week starting Sept 22: Personification
🍆 The week starting Sept 29: Idioms
🥑 The week starting Oct 6: Onomatopoeia
🥦 The week starting Oct 13: Alliteration, assonance
🥗 The week starting Oct 20: Rhyme

🥕 The week starting Oct 27: Symbolism. When students can identify an author’s use of symbolism, they can identify the theme of a work. We use film to teach them how to do this. They write in response!

🍦 The week starting Nov 3: Symbolism. When students can identify an author’s use of symbolism, they can identify the theme of a work. We use film to teach them how to do this. They write in response!

CREATIVE WRITING:
🌶️ The week starting Nov 10: Poetry Analysis 1. Poetry does not need to be confusing and hard to understand. We teach a step-by-step approach to analyzing a poem to look at the layers of meaning.

🍡 The week starting Nov 17: Poetry Analysis 2. Poetry does not need to be confusing and hard to understand. We teach a step-by-step approach to analyzing a poem to look at the layers of meaning.

🌽 The week starting Nov 24: NO CLASS.

🥜 The week starting Dec 1: Writing Suspense. We all know the tense feeling of reading or watching something suspenseful. The tension builds, and we start to feel more and more uncomfortable! Crafty authors know how to to this, relieving the tension at the right time, making the reading experience enjoyable. Students will learn how to do this and will write their own suspenseful passages.

LITERARY DEVICES:
🍭 The week starting Dec 8: Dramatic Irony. In on a secret! Students learn dramatic irony is when they–as a reader or audience–are in on a secret that a character doesn’t know. This is used in scary narratives and in comedy. They look at examples and then practice writing their own passage, using dramatic irony OR an analytical piece.

🧁 The week starting Dec 15: Dramatic Irony. In on a secret! Students learn dramatic irony is when they–as a reader or audience–are in on a secret that a character doesn’t know. This is used in scary narratives and in comedy. They look at examples and then practice writing their own passage, using dramatic irony OR an analytical piece.

🥔 Dec 22 – Jan 4: NO CLASS

🥐 The week starting Jan 5: Situational Irony. Everything is messed up! Students learn that situational irony happens when the situation is the opposite of what they would expect. This device is used in comedies a lot. They look at examples and then practice writing their own passage using situational irony OR an analytical piece.

🥯 The week starting Jan 12: Situational Irony. Everything is messed up! Students learn situational irony is when the situation is the opposite of what they would expect. This device is used in comedies a lot. They look at examples and then practice writing their own passage using situational irony OR an analytical piece.

🍿 The week starting Jan 19: Verbal Irony. Do you mean what you say? Students learn verbal irony is when the words spoken are the opposite of what they really mean. They look at examples and then practice writing their own passage using situational irony OR an analytical piece.

CHARACTER ANALYSIS:
🍩 The week starting Jan 26: Character Analysis (external traits). Analyzing and evaluating characters is a foundational skill in literary analysis. We teach students how to analyze the external traits of characters and to synthesize those details with other important elements in the narrative. They learn how authors use external traits to point to theme. Their homework is to write an analytical piece.

🍖 The week starting Feb 2: Character Analysis (internal traits). Analyzing and evaluating characters is a foundational skill in literary analysis. We teach students how to analyze the internal traits of characters using a step-by-step approach. Their homework is to write an analytical piece.

🧀 The week starting Feb 9: Protagonist & Antagonists. Types & Tropes. Analyzing and evaluating characters is a foundational skill in literary analysis. Students learn the different types of protagonists, building a foundation of literary analysis that will be applied in upper secondary English classes.
PROTAGONIST TYPES:
🍳 The week starting Feb 16: The Hero
🎂 The week starting Feb 23: The Anti-Hero
🥞 The week starting Mar 2: The Tragic hero
🧇 The week starting Mar 9: The Average Joe
ANTAGONIST TYPES:
🍵 The week starting Mar 16: Villains
🥓 The week starting 23: Conflict Creators
🌰 The week starting Mar 30: Group Antagonists
OTHER CHARACTER TYPES:
🥩 The week starting Apr 6: Underdogs
🥜 The week starting Apr 13: Round & Dynamic vs. Flat & Static Characters
🥣 The week starting Apr 20: Foil Characters

LITERARY CONFLICT:
Students learn the different categories of conflict used in narratives so they are able to analyze and evaluate an author’s use of conflict in a literary text.
🍗 The week starting Apr 27: External & Internal
🥟 The week starting May 4: External–character vs character
🌭The week starting May 11: External–character vs nature
🍔 The week starting May 18: External–character vs society

🍏 The week starting May 25: Making Inferences in film and comics. Students learn to make inferences, a reading skill necessary for academic success. Students will use a two-step process to infer meaning from a comic strip, a video clip, and a short text.

🍓 The week starting June 1: Making Inferences in text. Making Inferences in film and comics. Students learn to make inferences, a reading skill necessary for academic success. Students will use a two-step process to infer meaning from a comic strip, a video clip, and a short text.

🫒 The week starting June 8: Narrative Writing-How to Write an Exposition (the beginning of a story). After a lesson on writing dialogue and descriptive writing with a mythological monster, the authors write about a hero who sets out on a quest. They learn to build suspense and blend narrative elements.

🍉 The week starting June 15: Narrative Writing-How to Write Conflict. It’s a Monster Battle! Students learn to build suspense and blend narrative elements as they have a hero battle two more mythological monsters. Scylla and Charybdis are sea monster that loves to feast on heroes. Learners will learn to write action and how to blend that with other literary elements in an epic Greek battle. Attendance in last week’s class is not required to attend this class!

🍐 The week starting June 22: Narrative Writing–How to Resolve Conflict. All quests come to an end, and students will write a homecoming! Attendance in last week’s class is not required to attend this class. Students learn to resolve conflict in their writing in a satisfying way.

RESEARCH & WRITING
🍬 The week starting June 29: How to Research. Students learn the steps of research, how to be organized, choose a topic, and search smart to find resources. For homework, they find their resources and read them. They are guided to find kid-friendly resources, and the teacher gives them one of their three articles.

🥨 The week starting July 6: How to Paraphrase and Cite Sources. Students learn how to read their articles, annotate them, and then take notes to avoid plagiarism. Finally, they learn how to paraphrase a nonfiction article. For homework, they write a paraphrase of three informational articles. Attendance in last week’s class is not required to attend this class.

🍑 The week starting July 13: How to elaborate. Students learn different elaboration techniques to expand on what they may have already written. For homework, they revise body paragraphs with the elaboration techniques they learned. Attendance in last week’s class is not required to attend this class.

🥝 The week starting July 20-: How to write an Introduction. They learn how to hook their reader, write a thesis statement, and bridge the gap between the hook and thesis.

🍌 The week starting July 27: How to write a Conclusion. Students learn to restate their thesis and their main ideas but in a unique way. Then they leave their reader thinking with final words.

🍇 The week starting Aug 3: Close Reading–annotating, taking notes, and paraphrasing. Paraphrasing a text in your own words is difficult if you don’t understand it! This class will teach a strategic approach to a text, whether the subject matter is science, history, or another topic, so you can understand what you are reading. After you know it, you can paraphrase the content into your own words, demonstrating your understanding and thinking.

🫐 The week starting Aug 10: Close Reading–annotating, taking notes, and paraphrasing. Paraphrasing a text in your own words is difficult if you don’t understand it! This class will teach a strategic approach to a text, whether the subject matter is science, history, or another topic, so you can understand what you are reading. After you know it, you can paraphrase the content into your own words, demonstrating your understanding and thinking.

🍱 The week starting Aug 17: Close Reading–annotating, taking notes, and paraphrasing. Paraphrasing a text in your own words is difficult if you don’t understand it! This class will teach a strategic approach to a text, whether the subject matter is science, history, or another topic, so you can understand what you are reading. After you know it, you can paraphrase the content into your own words, demonstrating your understanding and thinking.


To explore other available courses, please click here.

 

Lesson Schedule

coming soon…

Class Introduction Video

Coming soon…

Taught From a Christian Perspective

Our mission is to equip learners’ minds and shepherd their hearts. We want them to have saving faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and then develop a biblical worldview. This means they view their world, themselves, and God in a way that aligns with what the Bible teaches. This brings great peace and understanding to the believer because we serve a good, sovereign God. This course is taught with these goals in mind. In class, we may pray, read scripture, and discuss how to view the content from a Christian perspective.

We have adopted The Master’s Seminary Doctrinal Statement.

✨ 🍋 ✨ Why Lemons-Aid? ✨ 🍋 ✨

EXPLICIT TEACHING: We understand the skills and concepts students need to learn and know how to teach them. Lemons-Aid’s materials are top-notch, organized, and clear for students and parents to understand. We are especially skilled at breaking down a complicated process into understandable parts. Further, explicit instruction is “a structured, systematic, and effective methodology for teaching academic skills. It is called explicit because it is an unambiguous and direct approach to teaching that includes both instructional design and delivery procedures. Explicit instruction is characterized by a series of supports or scaffolds, whereby students are guided through the learning process with clear statements about the purpose and rationale for learning the new skill, clear explanations and demonstrations of the instructional target, and supported practice with feedback until independent mastery has been achieved.”

  • Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching by Anita L. Archer and Charles A. Hughes.

Anita Archer trained Mrs. Lemons in workshops, and it changed her teaching. Read a little more about the research behind explicit teaching here and here.


To read more about your teaching and learning methods, read Mrs. Lemons’ blog.


STUDENT ACCOUNTABILITY = ACHIEVEMENT: Students master skills with us and make gains. We have a high degree of accountability. Since we make promises here and parents are paying good money, we understand you trust us to work! Students have to work too, and let’s be honest: they’re kids and don’t always want to. We push it. We teach them how to stay engaged, we cold-call on kids, we tell them to use the chatbox, and we want them to use emojis! If they are resistant, we contact the student through the teacher tab first. If that doesn’t work, we call in the big guns–Mom and Dad. We want kids to learn. We don’t want them to pass through our classes without gaining skills and doing great learning.


HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS: To balance our high expectations for their learning and behavior, we build relationships with them. We want them to know we care about and know them. We’ll ask about their play last weekend or the new trick they’re trying to master on the skateboard. We also want students to get to know each other and encourage community engagement.


DEPENDABLE: Multiple teachers are teaching this class, and we have an entire year of lessons planned and scheduled. Since we are a mission-driven organization, we protect our brand and the relationships with our families. We are accountable to our learners. When things come up for teachers, we work to get substitutes and do everything we can before canceling a class. We do not like canceling or changing, and we often teach classes at a loss to give others a chance to join. We have limits, of course, but we are not flippant or irresponsible about canceling! When things come up for students, since we have multiple sections, they can transfer from section to section. All our teachers teach the same content the same week, giving families even more flexibility!

 

The Lemons-Aid Team

Lemons-Aid teachers have a few things in common.
❤️ They love their students and value each of their unique strengths and personalities that make our classes special. Our classes can be described as fun, personal, academic, challenging, and supportive.
🤩 We work to keep learners engaged, so there is always a degree of student accountability for their attention and focus, whether that be through asking them direct questions or by using the chatbox.
💭 We know all kids can learn, but sometimes things are hard! To support students, we teach them how to develop effective thinking and learning habits that will bring them success in class and in life.
🌟 Building relationships with students so they know we care about them helps us balance the high expectations we have for them regarding their effort, work quality, and behavior. Our students are encouraged, cared for, and they achieve!

𝙆𝘼𝙍𝙀𝙉 𝙇𝙀𝙈𝙊𝙉𝙎: English Language Arts
#High-Energy #Skilled #Experienced #Relational #Fun
Karen is the Founder of Lemons-Aid. She has a bachelor’s degree in English, a minor in Education, and a master’s degree in Education Administration from Liberty University. With a teaching certificate and a principal’s license in both Washington and Colorado, she has many years of experience teaching English Language Arts and History / Social Studies at the middle school and high school levels. Additionally, she is TESOL and TEFL certified and enjoys teaching English Language Learners from all over the world. She has worked in private and public schools at every level and is currently an affiliate faculty member at Colorado Christian University, supervising teacher candidates in their undergraduate and graduate teacher education programs. She is a teacher of teachers. A homeschool mom herself, she admits that teaching other people’s kids is easier than teaching her own teenage boys! She lives in the Denver, Colorado area where she cheers on the Broncos, Avs, and the Rockies, but her favorite athletes are her own kids who play hockey and baseball!
🎥 Karen’s Intro Video

 

𝑱𝑬𝑵𝑵 𝑹𝑰𝑨𝑳𝑬: English Language Arts
#Experienced #Knowledgeable #Empowering #Patient #Rises Above the Ordinary.
As a certified English teacher, Jenn has taught in some capacity over the course of the past twenty-five years. She has taught middle school and high school English classes in both private and public school settings, tutored international ESL students online, developed and taught literature and public speaking classes for a local homeschool co-op, and homeschooled her own two children. Jenn has a bachelor’s degree in English Education. A strong believer in lifelong learning, Jenn has also taken several graduate-level courses related to teaching. Jenn enjoys spending time with her husband, Mark, and their two teenagers. She enjoys taking day trips close to where they live in upstate New York. In her spare time, Jenn enjoys singing and performing in plays. Additionally, she enjoys curling up on the sofa to read a good book. More than likely, one of her four cats will be curled up at her feet.
🎥 Jenn’s Intro Video

𝙆𝙍𝙄𝙎𝙏𝙀𝙉 𝙁𝙍𝙀𝙀𝙈𝘼𝙉: Elementary
#Fun #Inspiring #LoveForLearning
Kristen has a Bachelor’s Degree in Education with a minor in child psychology from Liberty University. For nearly a decade, she has worked in elementary school classrooms, as a private tutor, and as an online ELL teacher. While passionate about education in general, her favorite subjects to both study and teach are reading, grammar, and writing. She and her husband are actively involved in a church where she works as a Sunday School teacher and Children’s Ministry teacher to ages 4-6. No matter where she is teaching, Kristen tries to find ways to connect with her students and to create an exciting classroom that builds a passion for education. It is her desire to not only teach a subject but also to foster a love of learning which inspires students to want to learn more even once the class is completed. Kristen lives in Virginia with her husband, daughter, and their new baby boy! In her spare time, Kristen loves to create teaching content such as interactive lesson plans, worksheets, and more! She also enjoys doing family outings and crafting.
🎥 Kristen’s Intro Video

𝙈𝙍𝙎. 𝘼𝙇𝙄:
Elementary
#Engaging #Fun #Patient #Kind #Encouraging
Ali has a Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education and has worked with children over the last 11 years. She taught for 6 years in public school, 2 years in Kindergarten and 4 years in First Grade. She has worked as a reading tutor and ESL teacher online for the last 4 years; she has also tutored children in-person in reading, writing, and STEM. Ali believes that every child is a natural learner; she believes that an educator’s goal is to engage each child in the way that they learn best! She is passionate about creating a safe and FUN environment that teaches the whole child. Each time she enters a classroom, whether it is in-person or online, you can find her singing, playing games, and making learning fun. Ali lives in Missouri, near St. Louis with her husband and fur-child (an 80 lb. German Shepherd who doesn’t know how big he is). In her free time she loves reading, writing, crafts, hiking, working out, and spending time with my family.
🎥 Ali’s Intro Video

𝙆𝙄𝙈𝘽𝙀𝙍𝙇𝙔 𝙋𝘼𝙍𝙄𝙉𝙄𝙎𝙄: English
#Energetic #Kind #Encouraging #Authentic #Enthusiastic #Guide
Kim loves life, loves people, and loves learning! She views each student as a team member with his or her own unique talents, skills and life experience to bring to the group. She loves helping students expand their knowledge and sharpen their skills to reach their greatest potential. Kim has a Bachelor’s degree from Cairn University in secondary Education with certification in English (NY and PA) and endorsement in music. Her classroom experience has focused on English, PE and Bible education, but she has tutored in a variety of areas including ESL, special ed, math, history, science and music (piano and voice). She lives in northeast PA with her wonderful family. She has homeschooled all of her seven children. The youngest five are still in school and ensure that every day is an adventure. Kim also coaches intramural and competitive sports throughout the year. She loves music, sports, reading and taking long walks up her dirt road admiring wildflowers, listening to birds and reflecting on what she is learning in life!
🎥 Kim’s Intro Video

Christian Teachers on Outschool

We want to serve you on Lemons-Aid! For first-time learners on Lemons-Aid, you can use the coupon code Newbie20 to get $20 off your first class.

However, if the schedule doesn’t work for you, we will happily teach you on Outschool, but we can’t talk about Jesus.

Use this referral code and get $20 off your first class on Outschool: LEMONSA2020

Christian Outschool Classes

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