One of my favorite birthday cards was from my sister, Lora. A picture of two possible sisters on the front. MY sister asking me, “Where’s your birthday party at?” I reply, “Don’t end a sentence with a preposition.” I won’t spoil the slightly inappropriate inside lines, but it had me laughing.
Why did I receive this card? I’m a bit of a grammar nazi, but long ago I learned to curb my strong desire to correct others’ grammar. One of my favorite high school elective classes was a semester-long course where we learned the rules of grammar and drilled on them along with diagraming sentences. Where have such courses gone? The good old days!
Communication is the #1 soft skill employers desire.
This includes, but is not limited to, non-verbal communication, persuasion, storytelling, AND strong writing skills. The foundation of strong written and spoken communication is grammar and rhetoric. Grammar and Usage, as well as Rhetorical Skills, are the two sections of the ACT English test.
With LEAP’s hybrid approach to instruction and test prep, you’ll kill two birds with one stone. Improve communication skills employers want later with better grades and higher scores now.
Assess Skills
LEAP students complete practice problems that are then uploaded and analyzed in our system. This gives insight into the student’s current knowledge base on communication. We know where a student has gaps in the following areas we assess which match what ACT tests. Want to see a sample progress report? Request one now.
Grammar and Usage:
- Clauses
- Possession
- Preposition & Idioms
- Modifiers
- Pronouns
- Verbs
- Adjective/Adverbs
Rhetorical Skills
- Add or Delete Information
- Add Relevant Information
- Order
- Grading the Passage
- Redundancy & Wordiness
- Word Choice
- Transitions
Teach to Gaps
Our trained and certified English instructors then do a deep dive into instruction on the student’s weaknesses, model proper English with examples then put it to practice. The ACT practice results are then emailed to the family and uploaded into the student record for an ongoing cumulative look at the student’s improvement. LEAP thoroughly examines each released ACT test to understand which concepts are most frequently tested; it just so happens that some concepts are assessed multiple times on every single ACT while others only appear on 1/3 of the tests. Our focus for improvement is on those emphasized on the tests. With this approach, the student picks up a greater number of points on the test.
Regardless of your gaps and goals, LEAP’s hybrid approach of instruction to improve both skills and testing will have you understanding why this coffee mug is so funny and how important comma usage is!
