2025 Summer Camps

Note: Half-day camps can be combined as full-day camps from 8:30am-5pm.

• Week 4 (07/28-08/01)

  Literary Reading and Analysis Writing Camp for Grade 6-8

  07/28 to 08/01  5 half day Monday-Friday 9:00am-12:00pm $250/camp Location: 16100 NW Cornell Road Suite 210 Room 1

  Course Description

  Literary reading skills are above basic reading skills (outline meaning) and key reading skills (summary scanning)  to the point where we are grasping complex texts in all their complexity during reading. It is reading between lines in order to discover levels of meaning and develop complex interpretations.

  In this class, students will:

  (1) Review Basic Reading (imagining, responding, skimming)

  (2) Learn Reflective Reading (selecting, scanning, tracking)

  (3) Learn Analytical Reading (Interpreting, analyzing)

  (4) Write a critical analysis style essay 

  (5) Build up vocabulary throughout reading

  (6) Form up their unique critical essay writing style with correct logical structure and grammar.

  
  In this one week camp, the instructor will lead students to read at least one book, plus shorter pieces or chapters from books in a variety of genres.  

  For essay writing, the first step of critical writing is to take notes on evidence, document quotes and paraphrases while reading. The purpose of  critical analysis is not merely to inform, but also to evaluate the worth, utility, excellence, distinction, truth, validity, beauty, or goodness of something from the books that students are reading. We will instruct students to write those notes down on a notebook.

  The second step of critical writing is to design a clear logical structure of an essay. Students need to design/plan their essay with clear logical flow before start writing critical essay.

  During the revising process, we will check the logical structure, information, interpretation, evaluation of the text, and eliminate grammar errors.

  Text Books (Free Rent from Sunshine Elite Education or student purchase) 
  (1) The Pearl By John Steinbeck
  (2) Animal Farm by George Orwell
  (3) A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers By Lee A. Jacobus, 9th Edition

  Class Plan:

  Monday:
  Discuss and practice critical reading strategies on the Pearl,  including active reading, pre-reading, turning headings or titles into questions, 20 questions after reading chapter 1, embracing confusion, note taking, double entries, ?nding the main ideas, author’s techniques, rhetorical strategies, evidence, underlying assumptions and biases, vocabulary in context, mapping, making inferences, second draft reading, soaps (subject, occasion, audience, purpose, speaker), paying attention to diction (contrast 2 articles), logos, ethos and pathos, re?ecting on what it means to the student’s life and society at large (circles of re?ection), paraphrasing, what does it not say, statistics, why does it matter, evaluation

  A World of Ideas: p. 1: Evaluating Ideas: An Introduction to Critical Reading Example/Practice: Machiavelli/Frederick Douglass Homework: Read civil disobedience and map it

  Tuesday:
  Discuss Civil Disobedience and The Pearl practicing critical reading
  Discuss Critical Analysis Paper
  Homework:
  Read Animal Farm.  Pick a topic and ?nd 3 quotes and thesis statement
  
  Wednesday:
  Discuss Animal Farm practicing critical reading
  Discuss crediting sources and analyzing quotes within paragraphs
  Model Essay Work on Drafts
  Homework:
  Draft 1 Critical Essay

  Thursday:
  Work on Critical Essay Drafts in Class
  Read additional Essays from "A World of Ideas" : James Madison, de Tocqueville
  Homework:
  Final Drafts Due
  Read Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Friday:
  Read Essays from "A World of Ideas" of authors
  Hannah Arendt, Friedrich Nietzsche, Virginia Woolf

  Instructor: Julie Hlad
  
  

2025 Winter/Spring Classes

• Literary Reading and Analytical Writing II-B - Grade 4-6

  01/14 to 06/03  20 Classes Tuesday 5:00pm-6:30pm $765/term No classes on Mar. 25Location: Online2

  Course Description

  Literary reading skills are above basic and key reading skills to the point where students grasp texts in all their complexity. It is reading between the lines in order to discover levels of meaning and develop meaningful interpretations.

  In this class, students will:
  (1) Review Basic Reading (imagining, responding, skimming)
  (2) Learn Reflective Reading (selecting, scanning, tracking)
  (3) Learn Analytical Reading (Interpreting, analyzing)
  (4) Write a critical analysis style essay 
  (5) Build vocabulary/syntax throughout the reading
  (6) Create a unique, critical essay with correct logical structure and grammar

  This class is designed with a one-year curriculum for 5th - 6th grade students. The class will use various books on different terms throughout the year. Sunshine will provide an Ecopy of the books used in class or a free rental of the hard copy of the book whenever possible.

  Text Books for Literary Reading Level II-B: 
  

  Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

  Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

  Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

  Matilda by Roald Dahl

  One for the Murphys by Linda Mullaly Hunt

  Rangers Apprentice by John Flanagan

  Poetry Unit

  Short Story Unit

  Note: If many students have already read a novel, we will choose an alternate.

  
  
  

• Literary Reading and Analytical Writing III-B - Grade 6-8

  01/16 to 06/05  20 Classes Thursday 5:00pm-6:30pm $765/term No classes on Mar. 27Location: Online2

  Course Description

  In How to Read A Book, Van Doren and Mortimer talk about four main levels of reading: elementary reading, inspectional reading, analytical reading, and syntopical reading.

  Analytical reading goes beyond elementary reading (putting sounds and words together to discover surface-level meaning) and inspectional reading (systematic skimming and superficial reading) to the point where the student begins to understand the book and the author's views on the subject.  From this point, the students will be better able to tackle the syntopic reading skills that will enable them to thrive in higher levels of academia.

  In this class, students will:
  (1) Practice Elementary Reading
  (2) Learn Inspectional Reading (systematic skimming, superficial reading)
  (3) Learn Analytical Reading (classifying, summarizing, relating the part to whole and vice versa, and defining the problem that the author has articulated)
  (4) Write critical analysis essays
  (5) Build up vocabulary through the readings and exercises
  (6) Develop a unique, critical essay writing style with logical structure and correct grammar.

  This class is designed with a one-year curriculum for 7th - 9th grade students. The class will use various books on different terms throughout the year. Sunshine will provide an Ecopy of the books used in class or a free rental of the hard copy of the book whenever possible.

  Text Books for Literary Reading Level III-B: 
  (1) Book Thief by Markus Zusak
  (2) A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron
  (3) Looking Glass Wars by Frank Bedor
  (4) Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  (5) Ungifted by Gordon Korman

  (6) Much Ado About Nothing Wm Shakespeare

  Note: If many students have already read a novel, we will choose an alternate.

  We will also draw from these Additional Text Books (pdfs provided):
  (1) How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines.
  (2) A Short Guide to Writing about Literature (12th Edition)
  (3) Reading the World: Contemporary Literature from Around the Globe by Plc (short stories, plays, poetry)
  (4) A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers by Lee A. Jacobus (essays)

  Instructor: Julie Hlad