Diggin’ Up Roots: Latin and Greek Roots – Tuesday – Fall 2023 & Winter 2024 – 20 Weeks – Grades 5 – 8
Tuesday, September 12 2023 @ 9:00AM – Tuesday, March 19 2024 @ 10:30AM EDT
Instructor:
Jonathan MeolaInstructor Email:
jonathan@opententacademy.comGrade/Level:
5 – 8Day of Week:
TuesdayClass Times:
9:00AM – 10:30AM (ET)Terms/Semesters:
Fall 2023 and Winter 2024
Vocabulary development is crucial to becoming a good reader and writer; something I have written about at length. In fact, it is one of the ‘magic ingredients’ for reading success. Yet, many students really struggle with this issue. Systematic, direct instruction of vocabulary can have tremendous impact on such students. It will help them with reading comprehension, increasing prior knowledge, and is an excellent form of test prep for numerous standardized tests.
This is a COMPLETE mnemonic unit on eighty-four (of hundreds) Greek and Latin roots that are in thousands of English words.
PowerPoint presentations, videos, in-class and at-home activities, mainly an art book/Pictionary for made by the students for each of the Greek and Latin Roots. Frequent quizzes to check memorization and understanding. By the time students are finished with this class, they will have memorized the meanings of eighty-four common Greek and Latin roots. As a result, they will be able to figure out the meaning of thousands of English words. If time allows, we will also look at prefixes and suffixes. This class will involve memorization work. Additionally, students will either keep a MIND MAP journal or an ART JOURNAL to help them visualize each root!
Greek & Latin roots are the building blocks of over 70% of the words in the English language. They are found in words that students encounter in all subjects – words like biography, chronological, coordinate, polygon, reciprocal, etc. By teaching students, the meaning of roots, prefixes, and suffixes, we give them the ability to decode unfamiliar words.
This is a beginning course but should give the students a significant head start in learning these important building blocks in the English language.
When needed, appropriate homework will be given. Perhaps an hour or less for most. Worksheets and Memorization will be a part of homework. Students can expect up to one hour weekly.
NOTE: This class must reach the minimum of five students by August 20th to run. If we do not reach this minimum, parents will be notified via email.
Learning to love the past
History. This was definitely not my strongest area as a homeschool mother. I knew to provide my kids with what they needed, I had to look at outside resources. Taking a leap of faith, I registered both my 7th and 8th grader for U.S. History with Jonathan Meola.
Learning history through simple short stories using. “A History of US,” has been fun to read-a-loud. With a subject I once disliked myself, I’ve been able to power through, and engage with my children learning to love the past. Mr. Meola is a phenomenally fair instructor, and has allowed our kids to use their creativity for the semester project. The kids have enjoyed this area most about the class. Seeing their creations from the past come to life is a gift in itself. Thank you, Jonathan! You have lit a fire for history within my children!
Thanks for making homeschooling so much easier for us parents
We have absolutely loved Jonathan’s Ancient Civilizations class this year.
He is so organized, and his classes are expertly taught – my son usually makes me leave the room but I will often go back and listen to the recordings and watch some of the videos because they are so interesting.
We are thrilled that OTA is now a vendor with our charter school, and since Z will be in middle school next year, we plan on signing up for a lot more classes.
Keep up the excellent job and thanks for making homeschooling so much easier for us parents!
Best Course EVER!
During our family new year’s celebration, everyone completed a year-in-review questionnaire. One question asked, “What are you most proud of that you accomplished this past year?”
Without hesitation, our daughter blurted out “I learned to write a five-paragraph essay!”
Our daughter, who up until this past semester would only write science lab reports, should be proud of this accomplishment. She willingly dedicated days to completing required essays, and we owe this success to Lights! Camera! Action! class.
Mr. Jonathan’s enthusiasm, instruction, encouragement and feedback all generated a newfound level of confidence within our daughter. Plus, the course spurred everyone in our family (including grandparents) to watch incredible movies, which normally would not be in our Netflix queue. Mr. Jonathan’s impact reached beyond our daughter.
Amazing course!
I would like to say thank you. My daughter, Laura, was so inspired by OTA’s Lights! Camera! Action! class. She WANTS to improve at writing instead of shying away from the process that she finds so difficult. She is putting her heart and soul into trying. I am seeing improvement and I am seeing enthusiasm that just were not there before. You have no idea how joyful that makes me. This latest essay was really, really hard but a bit less overwhelming than the prior two. Slowly the elements that Laura is learning in class are sinking in. I appreciate all that you do for the class! Thank you!
Great class!
History. This was definitely not my strongest area as a homeschool mother. I knew to provide my kids with what they needed, I had to look at outside resources. Taking a leap of faith, I registered both my 7th and 8th grader for U.S. History with Jonathan Meola.
Learning history through simple short stories using. “A History of US,” has been fun to read-a-loud. With a subject I once disliked myself, I’ve been able to power through, and engage with my children learning to love the past. Mr. Meola is a phenomenally fair instructor, and has allowed our kids to use their creativity for the semester project. The kids have enjoyed this area most about the class. Seeing their creations from the past come to life is a gift in itself. Thank you, Jonathan! You have lit a fire for history within my children!
