College Prep-English IV

Course Duration: Full Year

Category: High School, Reading/Language Arts

Prerequisite: English III

Assessment: Pre-Test, Lesson Practice, Unit Exams, Mid-Term Exam, Final Exam

Language: English

Course Overview

As students transition from High School to College or into the work force, their ability to apply language arts skills in real-world scenarios becomes essential. In the College Prep-English IV course, students learn practical strategies for effective writing in college or on the job, including how to write scholarly essays, concise technical reports, compelling resumes, and professional business emails. Grammar, vocabulary, and spelling tips round out the course to empower college/employment-bound students for success in their post-high school endeavors.

Course topics include:

Organizing and Writing a Resume
Reading for Comprehension
Overview of Types of Writing
Persuasive and Scholarly Essays
Research Papers
Grammar and Vocabulary
Making Effective Presentations
Writing Opinions and Technical Papers
Writing Reports
Writing Effective Emails

Acellus College Prep-English IV is taught by Acellus Instructor Tim Dial. Acellus College Prep-English IV is A-G Approved through the University of California.

Course Objectives & Student Learning Outcomes

As students transition from high school to college or into the work force, their ability to apply language arts skills in real-world scenarios becomes essential. College Prep English focuses on the following student outcomes:

Students understand and use effective strategies for reading and comprehending complex texts and assessing their relevancy and bias
Students utilize effective research procedures and produce results in prescribed standard from for short and long-term research projects
Students are equipped to gather and assimilate information from a diversity of reputable sources, including digital and online repositories
Students can give formal or informal oral presentations, including effective scholarship and job interviews
Students are skilled in utilizing multimedia resources where warranted in oral or written presentations
Students produce narrative, informative, and opinion writings showing good construction and adequate support
Students adhere to the conventions of Standard English in all written and oral presentations

This course was developed by the International Academy of Science. Learn More

Scope and Sequence

Unit 1 – ResumeThis unit discusses the format and look of a resume, and the reasons for creating a resume, as well as the objective statement, summary, work and volunteer experience, selected achievements, specific skills and job training, school organizations, and references. Also covered are interview skills and thank-you notes.Unit 2 – Reading with a PurposeThis unit discusses annotations of written words and of visuals, summarizing for the main point, comparing and contrasting for theme, author’s purpose, using context clues, and tone versus mood.Unit 3 – Types of WritingThis unit covers tips for writing under pressure, for discerning the actual assignment, and for writing a narrative story, a descriptive paragraph, a process essay, a definition, an illustrative piece, a compare/contrast paper, and a persuasive essay.Unit 4 – PersuasionThis unit covers techniques of persuasion, including referring to an authority, using examples, predicting the consequence, and answering the opposition. Also included are writing a topic sentence and organizing and writing a persuasive piece, as well as audience and transitional expressions.Unit 5 – Scholarship EssayThis unit discusses how to write a scholarship essay, including selecting a topic, the uniqueness of the topic, tips for keeping your essay within specified length limits while maintaining quality, focusing on a point, and writing to make your essay stand out among others.Unit 6 – Research PaperThis unit covers how to write a research paper, including selecting and narrowing a topic; evaluating resources; taking notes; organizing a paper; writing a thesis statement, an introduction, and supporting paragraphs; quoting in your text; avoiding plagiarism; and using citations. Also discussed are point of view and appropriate language, sentence structure, using active versus passive voice, transition statements, the conclusion, and works cited. How to review and revise a research paper are also included.Unit 7 – GrammarThis unit discusses punctuating quotations and citations, using commas, subject/verb agreement, semicolons, prepositional phrases, and parallelism.Unit 8 – VocabularyThis unit discusses commonly misspelled words and words that are commonly mistaken for each other, including a/an/and, accept/except, affect/effect, been/being, buy/by, it’s/its, know/knew/no/new, lose/loose, past/passed, quiet/quit/quite, rise/raise, sit/set, suppose/supposed, their/there/they’re, then/than, through/though, to/too/two, use/used, weather/whether, where/were/we’re, whose/who’s, and your/yours.Unit 9 – PresentationsThis unit covers making presentations, using PowerPoint, non-verbals, note-cards and pre-written speeches, movement, eye contact, and taking notes from a speech.Unit 10 – Practical WritingThis unit discusses four practical types of writing with pertinent tips for each, including five steps for writing, topics for, and support of opinion writing; planning, clarity, brevity, simplicity, complexity, ambiguity, and verbs/voice in technical writing; types of, stages in, planning of, collecting/organizing information for, structure of, layout of, and illustrations in reports; and tone and subject lines in, limiting topics in, specifying a response to, and writing a personal versus a professional email.