Curriculum- A Snapshot
In today’s ever changing, technologically mediated society, the need for an innovative curriculum is as prescient as ever.
Though Evergreen is committed to the hard work and discipline needed to be proficient academic users of a language, this should not suggest that hours of lecture, memorization, and drill are the best ways to learn a language.
Evergreen’s curriculum strives to build links between concepts that build upon authentic and differentiated forms of reading, writing, listening, and speaking forms that students must master in order to become advanced users of English.
Academics
Our students take courses daily in Reading, Writing, Listening, vocabulary development, grammar, and Speaking.
In isolating these skills, students are able to practice specific skills necessary for developing strong proficiency in each of them.
However, language use is not an isolated process. Across all courses, a theme or content emphasis is explored. This allows connections to be built across vocabulary, grammar, and other linguistic processes to be developed synergistically.
Reading through Literature
At Evergreen, we strongly believe in the ability of literature to open up new avenues to creative and critical thinking skills. Reading cannons of Western literature helps learners develop an awareness of, and ability to communicate in writing and speaking about key values and thought processes of a particular culture. The boys at Evergreen are expected to read and discuss literature that are completed as a whole class, in groups, and individually. Thus, each boy is expected to read approximately 25 books per year, in addition to several collections of short stories, plays, and poetry anthologies. Students are given a list of 100 books to choose from for both group and individual tasks, including an essay of the month, weekend presentation of a piece of literature completed in pairs, and for weekly literature group discussions.
Writing across texts and purposes
Our writing curriculum is focused on academic writing. Students learn not only to develop the language of analysis and evaluation within short paragraph responses, but also to write cohesive, thoughtful, multiple paragraph essays and reports on a wide range of topics.
Additionally, each student is responsible for creating a multi-page product of original research on a topic of their choosing. This project is designed with the individual needs of each student in mind.
Course Schedule
Evergreen accepts students throughout the academic year. Courses follow a modular approach to ensure that students that begin their studies at distinct times will not fall behind or be at a disadvantage.