Learn English with FutureSchool

The FutureSchool English programme is an integrated basic online literacy programme that includes both English grammar and reading. It has individual lessons that focus on: reading comprehension (literal), phonics, spelling, vocabulary development, punctuation, parts of speech, sentence construction, word usage, common errors, figurative language and writing skills. It is not to be confused with English Literature, which is something quite different as this refers to ‘the body of written works produced in the English language by inhabitants of the British Isles (including Ireland) from the 7th century to the present day.’ In layman’s terms, our programme does not touch on the reading and review of novels, plays and poetry. Nor is the programme about learning to speak English – this can be found on our Discovering English programme page.

The FutureSchool English programme focuses on those core skills required by all students to learn to read and write English fully, correctly and with style. The programme is structured to cater for students from the early primary years through to secondary students and adult learners. The lessons have been carefully graded to match students’ capabilities and interests. Within the programme there is significant revision of the more formal grammatical elements so that students can revise and practise their skills.

The online english programme encourages participation without the danger of exposing students to the stress involved in performing (reading) for others. The more formal Grammar lessons provide instruction in the areas of literacy and language. These lessons fulfil most of the requirements for school systems throughout the world.

The English programme covers the following key components of written English:

Reading Comprehension

Students will develop their literal reading comprehension skills by reading, listening to, and interacting with a variety of text types.

Vocabulary Development

Students increase and use new words and learn how to identify and use figurative language.

Punctuation

This often least-liked topic can make the world of difference to the meaning of a sentence or passage. Students will cover all aspects of punctuation from full stops to the dreaded correct use of the apostrophe.

Parts of speech

Students learn to identify and use various parts of speech from the basic nouns, verbs and adjectives, to the more complex form of pronouns and gerunds.

Spelling skills

Students learn various techniques to improve their spelling, from spelling lists to distinguishing short and long vowel sounds, prefixes and plurals.

Correct Usage

Students will learn to use words correctly and structure their sentences correctly. This includes being able to identify and use comparative and superlative adjectives, the correct tense of verbs: past, present and future, the case of nouns, pronouns and adjectives and eliminate some common errors in spelling and punctuation.

Improved Writing Skills

Students will learn how to improve their writing skills by being able to identify and use phrases including adjectival and adverbial phrases, construct expressive sentences by using adjectives, adverbs, phrases and clauses, identify and use active and passive voice, and recognise the elements needed in writing different types of essays.

Full Topic List for Grammar

This is a summary of the topics covered within the Grammar programme, but it is not a list of lessons, as there are over 2,000 lessons in total. Click here to see a full list of all topics covered.

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PRACTICE

Many of the online English lessons, although not all, have a Practice option which provides the student and parent with the opportunity to ‘try out the lesson’ – to make sure that this is indeed the right lesson to be working on. A large part of the FutureSchool programme is focussed on providing the student with a sense of empowerment over their teaching and learning. For the student to feel in control is an important factor in building confidence, not something that all students feel in the classroom. The Practice lesson will expose the student to a range of questions and exercises that they are likely to encounter in the main lesson itself.

It’s a great way to assess your student’s current level of knowledge on the selected lesson. During the practice lesson, students can have every single question read out to them, which can ease the burden on some students who struggle with reading. Additionally, because this is about assessing and providing confidence, all students will have the opportunity to have a second attempt at each question.

Students can also skip any questions they may already know. The Practice Lesson also settles the student before attempting the main lesson and has them focussed on the task at hand. This 5 minute settling time is particularly useful after a long day school, or after any activity.

VIDEO TUTORIAL

A picture tells a thousand words…

Our Video Tutorials are the online one-on-one teaching moment of the lesson. These supporting videos developed by qualified and experienced teachers allow your student to watch and learn about the current topic they are attempting. These are not designed to be entertaining – these video tutorials are provided purely to ensure that solid teaching is available to the student. The aim is to teach and deliver a meaningful, explanatory and effective lesson, as they would see in any classroom.

Empowering your student with control over their teaching and online learning is so important. Your student has total control over the video tutorial, they can replay or skip to any section as many times as they deem necessary to understand the learning process for the current lesson. If your student ever gets stuck on something in the lesson, or with anything at school, as a parent you may, or may not, be able to provide the clarification or answer they need – it may be they wont even come and ask for your help, because you’ve said “maths isn’t my strong point”. With FutureSchool they can ‘unstick’ themselves by watching the video tutorials, and continue with their progress.

It is the access to these tutorials that makes students all over the world refer to FutureSchool as “my secret weapon”, because they can have anything learned at school reinforced and re-explained at home at the push of a button. It is because of the proven and professional delivery of these lessons, that many schools use FutureSchool as part of their on-going professional development and teacher training resources for young and inexperienced teachers.

WORKSHEETS

Perfect practice makes perfect.

Now it’s time to practice what’s been learned from the video tutorial. During this stage your student only gets 1 attempt at the questions being asked, very much like an examination situation held at school. As in the Practice Lesson, the student can have every question read out to them. This step is the assessment step in the online learning process, where your child is tested on what they have learnt during the lesson topic.

Once the student has completed the Worksheet, the student will be shown a summary report of the lesson just completed. This summary report will highlight not only the questions answered correctly, but also any that have been incorrectly answered. It is important that students get the opportunity to reflect on their answers and to see where they went wrong. With this in mind, students can click on any incorrect question to be returned to the question where they can see the correct answer, so they can learn from their mistakes.

This revision and reflection function is very important in the learning process. All student actions and results are recorded by FutureSchool and are available for easy viewing by both parents and students within the Reports feature. Many early levels contain printable worksheets which are an addition to the interactive online english lesson. This helps consolidate the retention of lesson content. Printable worksheets offer your child the continuing development of their written skills as well as formulating answers for exercises related to the selected topic. Answer sheets are provided for parents.

REPORTS AND REFLECTION

It is vital that not only can the student see how they are progressing, but you can too. Even if you don’t think you understand the work itself, for your student’s sake, you should look at these reports. It will give you the opportunity to ask how they’re finding it, the reports will highlight those areas that they’ve done very well at, and those where they have struggled. Being able to motivate, sympathise and empathise with them is important, they may not want you actively involved in the teaching and learning process, but they do want to feel you’re interested.

The reports module will give you a wealth of information about their performance and progress with their online classes – not least of which it will tell you how much your student is using the system! All results from completed or attempted Examination lessons are recorded and presented within the Reports feature. Results can be viewed in a variety of easy to read formats via – Summary, Progressive, Baseline reporting, including bar and pie charts.

What the reports will show you clearly is how much they are improving, this is important for them to see to provide them with the reassurance that they are getting better, or their revision is working. The reports provide instant feedback for those students revising for a particular exam, and by default also guides them to other areas of revision that may be necessary.

ASK A TUTOR

No matter the student, at some point either they, or you, will have a question. No problem, use the Ask A Tutor feature. This offers you and your child access to a qualified tutor for any English grammar questions. One of our experienced online tutors will reply with a detailed explanation and answer to your question.

If your child requires a nudge in the right direction for an answer, even if the question is not related to our system, send it through to Ask a Tutor. Due to the global nature of the FutureSchool family, our tutors may not be able to provide an answer immediately, but within 24 hours you will have your answer.

Learn English with FutureSchool

The English programme covers the following key components of written English:

Full Topic List for Grammar

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