Stretch your academic English skills

We are once again offering our popular English Masterclass course in an engaging, interactive and intensive in-person format!

Over the past five years, Summer at Woodstock’s English Masterclass course has been one of our most popular, with students of all levels developing and deepening their English language skills. Results have shown many students increasing their reading age by one or two years over our brief yet intensive programme.

Who should take this course?

English Masterclass offers a broad range of opportunities for students of all ages and levels. The popularity of this course allows us to place students in different sections with a specialised teacher who will meet them where they are. This course is for budding authors or researchers, for those who long for literature, for those who dream of deeper understandings, and for those who simply want to strengthen their academic English language skills in preparation for high school or university. The course is designed to stretch students in areas of academic writing, research, creative writing, literature analysis, presentations, and critical thinking skills.

What skills and knowledge will participants gain through the course?

Put simply, all students should expect to leave with experiences, skills and knowledge they didn’t come with. English Masterclass students will gain skills and techniques in creative and academic writing and research, increasing their ability to think critically and write convincingly. Students will gain a deeper appreciation for the English language and the depth of thought required to understand and communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.

Dependent on enrolment, English Masterclass will be separated into separate groups based on age and areas of growth, and each course is tailored to fit individual students’ areas of interest and potential. However, there are always key areas of focus for all ages and potentials, including:

Examples of course content:

• Essay​-writing and research skills,​where students learn to
  
• • create research papers that show their individual thinking as well as their ability to back up their research with credible sources
  • write appropriately in different registers (moving from the formal to the informal) for different audiences and purposes
  • develop their language structure alongside important paraphrasing skills

• Critical reading and creative writing skills, where students learn to

• • identify higher-level language patterns and collocations (words that “fit together”)
  • identify structures in different types of writing
  • analyse texts and move beyond summaries
  • create their own unique short stories, poetry, and other texts by drawing on their own experiences

• Learner strategies, where students learn to

• • identify ways their individual brains learn best
  • understand working and long-term memory, and how understanding these can help them learn better
  • gain learning skills that will help them become more independent learners in the future

Structure

The English Masterclass in-person structure will follow that of previous years, with students engaging with teachers and each other as they improve their English skills at various levels.

• Classes of no more than 10 students per teacher
• Classes grouped according to age, achievement level, and aspiration
• Three hours a day (30+ hours total) of in-class instruction

“I had a lot of fun in this class and I learned a lot...like how to paraphrase and how to write an essay and many new things!” - 2019 participant

Faculty

Other faculty members include Alpana Pathak, Clara Astarloa, Andrew Stuart-Watson, Vandana Ferguson, Agustin Silvadiaz, and Chris Martin.