Access Academy

ABOUT THE ACCESS ACADEMY

The Access Academy is a year-long pre-undergraduate program that prepares students from underprivileged communities for a rigorous university education.  The Academy addresses the various needs of students in terms of academic preparation, social and cultural adjustment, youth mentorship, counseling, technological skills, and recreation. Through these comprehensive efforts, the Access Academy encourages young women to be assertive, confident, and culturally sensitive.

Students admitted into the Academy are selected through AUW’s admissions program and identified as young women who demonstrate exceptional potential, talent and intellect but who would benefit from additional coursework prior to commencing their undergraduate studies. Successful completion of the Access Academy coursework leads to admission to the Asian University for Women undergraduate program.

Please visit the Admission FAQs page for more details.

curriculum

GRAMMAR

Instructor: Ms. Diana Davies

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Betty Azar’s Fundamentals of English Grammar and Understanding and Using English Grammar will be used as the core texts for grammar instruction, supplemented by the following three vocabulary-building texts from Townsend Press: Groundwork for a Better Vocabulary, Building Vocabulary Skills, and Improving Vocabulary Skills. Additionally, students will each have a personal account with a computerized grammar program that complements the core grammar text and will be used for additional homework practice. In and outside of class, students will practice identification of the grammar structures through listening and reading and will practice its construction through speaking and writing. Grammar will be presented with a focus on structure and practical applications.

Between studying grammar points and building vocabulary, student writing will be analyzed as the term progresses. From this analysis, the teacher will highlight areas for language and grammatical error correction and will facilitate lessons that address these errors. This part of the grammar class is intended to clarify and practice grammar structures through realistic, relevant and naturally occurring contexts.

OBJECTIVE:

• Discover the meaning of unfamiliar words from context clues, word analysis (stems and affixes) and dictionary use.
• Demonstrate comprehension of vocabulary learned in class.
• Use grammatical and syntactical clues to comprehend sentences.
• Use appropriate verb forms, tenses, aspects, modals, and conditionals in speaking and writing.
• Demonstrate comprehension of the English parts of speech, including number, gender, and syntax
• Demonstrate mastery of the basic usage rules of articles, prepositions, capitals, spelling, and punctuation.
• Pronounce words clearly and use appropriate tone, pitch, speed, and volume when speaking.

TEXTS AND MATERIALS:

Ackles, Nancy M. The Grammar Guide. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2003.

Azar, Betty Schrampfer. Fundamentals of English Grammar. 3rd^rd ed. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2003.

---. Understanding and Using English Grammar. 3^rdrd ed. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2002.

---. Understanding and Using English Grammar. Workbook 3^rdrd ed. Longman: New York, 2000.

Bourke, Kenna. Test it, Fix it: English Verbs and Tenses Pre-intermediate. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

---. Test it, Fix it: English Verbs and Tenses Intermediate. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Johnson, Beth. Groundwork for a Better Vocabulary. 3^rdrd ed. New Jersey: Townsend Press, 2004.

Molinsky, Steven J., and Bill Bliss. Side by Side: Book 4. 2nd^nd ed. New York: Pearson/Longman, 1989.

Nist, Sherrie L. and Carole Mohr. Building Vocabulary Skills. 3^rdrd ed. New Jersey: Townsend Press, 2002.      

Swan, Michael, and Catherine Walter. How English Works: a Grammar Practice Book with Answers. Oxford: Oxford Univ., 2008.

Walker, Elaine, and Steve Elsworth. Grammar Practice for Upper Intermediate Students. Harlow: Longman, 2000.

READING & WRITING

Instructors: Meeraal Bokharee, John Stanlake, Christa Thorpe

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This content-based course focuses on developing academic reading and language skills necessary for success in a high-level English medium academic environment.  Students will refine their reading skills and learning strategies, while producing a portfolio of multi-paragraph writings that demonstrate their ability to summarize, paraphrase, synthesize, analyze, and evaluate information and ideas from the readings.  The writing assignments will be based on a variety of texts from both expository and narrative genres, as well as the literary genres of poetry and play.

GOAL:

By the end of this course, students will be more confident readers of academic English and will have gained the basic critical thinking skills necessary to compose reactionary writings.

OBJECTIVES for the Full Academic Year:

Term 1

• Demonstrate comprehension of a wide range of short, but authentic academic texts.
• Employ the four basic reading skills (skimming, scanning, comprehension, and critical reading) to identify the thesis, main points, and supporting details of readings.
• Inference the meaning of new vocabulary from context, and effectively use a dictionary to supplement vocabulary building.
• Expand their knowledge of the meaning, usage, and word forms of a wide range of general and academic vocabulary.
• Recognize a variety of rhetorical styles (narrative, argumentative, etc.)
• Gain strategies for increased reading fluency (such as goal-setting, predicting, questioning, grouping/classifying information, using graphic organizers, and consulting reference materials).
• Develop brief, organized essays that summarize, paraphrase, analyze, and critically evaluate information from a variety of sources.
• Produce a portfolio of polished academic and creative writings in response to reading material.
• Composing thoughtful Personal Response writings
• Increased Fluency and Speed of Reading (TOEFL Reading Practice)
• Understanding and correctly using paralinguistic tools such as Graphs, Tables, Italics, Punctuation etc.

Term 2

•  Responding to Readings with Essays that demonstrate Critical Thinking Skills (Especially using evidence to support thesis)
•  Comprehension and correct use of MLA and APA formats in Writing and Citation
•  Composing a clear Formal Outline and Analysis Essay
•  Critical Reading skills: Questioning, Inferencing, Interpreting, Describing, Synthesizing, Analyzing, Evaluating, Making & Supporting Claims
•  Previewing and Predicting while Reading
•  Recognizing Connotation, Denotation, Euphemisms and Irony
•  Understanding Foundational Elements of the Literary Genres of Fiction and Poetry
•  Strategies for Comprehending Expository Texts in the areas of Anthropology, Economics, and Literature
• Comprehend the literary genre of drama and compose an essay responding to a play
• Write critical responses to texts (esp. involving controversial issues) in a weblog
• Identify and correctly use connotation, euphemisms and irony
• Recognize arguments in texts
• Make claims and support them with evidence
• Compose an essay demonstrating understanding of key terms/issues in Gender Studies
• Comprehend a wide range of non-fiction (especially Social & Environmental Science)
• Evaluate the quality/credibility of source material
• Compose a 1,500 word research essay based on a combination of literary and scientific texts

Term 3

Reinforce Term 1 & 2 Objectives, but require increased quantity and difficulty of input and output.

COURSE TEXTS:

The teacher will be selecting materials from these texts as handouts for students. Students are not expected to purchase any texts for this course.

Withrow, et al. 2004. Inspired to Write: Readings and tasks to develop writing skills. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Silberstein, et al. 2008. Reader’s Choice, 5^thth Ed. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Langman, 2008. Groundwork for College Reading. Townsend Press, Inc.

Hartmann, P. 2007. Quest 3 Reading and Writing, 2^ndnd Ed. New York: McGraw Hill.

Stratton, Allan. Chanda’s Secrets. New York: Annick Press, 2004. Print.

Babbit, Natalie. Tuck Everlasting. New York: Farrar, Staus, and Giroux, 1985. Print.

The Poetry Foundation Online. www.poetryfoundation.org

*Additional excerpts and short stories may be selected throughout the term by teacher and students.

COMPOSITION

Instructors: Michelle Kaczmarek, Emma Hiza, Lauren Villa

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  

Along with Grammar and Reading and Writing, this course satisfies the English language skills focus of the university’s Access Academy bridge curriculum. This class focuses on the construction of academic essays, building skills in rhetoric, organization, style, and usage so that students understand that clarity of thought and argument in their written essays is as important as the ideas they are trying to express.

GOAL:

In this course, we will examine writing by defining the complex ways that language is used. By engaging with texts, we will begin to find new ways to think about how language is used to shape our own identities, create discourse communities, and enact power. In thinking about language within the personal and social context, students will develop an awareness of the way they themselves use language. It is by creating an awareness and consciousness of language use that students will be able to understand and meet the rhetorical demands that face writers.

OBJECTIVES:

More specifically, we’ll work together to improve your ability to:

• Discover your own writing process and what strategies of generation, drafting and revising work best for you
• Generate ideas and ways of thinking—questioning and analysis—for your own writing
• Effectively structure an paragraph, crafting focused sentences and making solid transitions from point to point
• Focus their writing with a strong central idea or thesis
• Compose descriptive, narrative, and expository essays that are unified, cohesive and demonstrate rigorous intellectual engagement
• Adapt their writing to different contexts, both academic and work related, therefore demonstrating an understanding of purpose, audience, and occasion
• Use and cite sources of information to support their own arguments
• Revise writing in substantive ways by using diverse revision strategies i.e. re-thinking and re-seeing whole drafts
• Carefully copy-edit final drafts of an essay by looking at the whole text, paragraph, sentence, and word
• Critically read and respond to their own writing and give constructive responses to other writers
• Write thoughtfully about their own process of composition

Required Texts:

• Composition Reader, anthology of readings selected for the AA Composition Course
• A Pocket Style Manual, Diane Hacker.
• Writing Academic English, Oshima.
• The Writer’s Workplace
• Class magazine(s).  At least once during the semester, everyone’s essays will be published in booklet form for the class to read.  (You do not need to buy this magazine.)
• A notebook for generative and reflective writing, in-class activities, and such.

ASSIGNMENTS:

Our assignments are based on the assumptions that writing is an activity, that people learn to write by writing and by giving and getting feedback on writing, that writers need to be aware of their own processes, and that your writing is therefore central to this course.

• Essay Assignments.  You will write four essays, each 750-1,500 words in length.  Each will go through an extensive writing process, and each will introduce new challenges.  Unit I: Language and the Individual asks you to analyze your own development of language and to write about this to a familiar audience.  For Unit II: Interacting with Language, you will write a chronological essay to an academic audience that looks at language as a cause that creates a context. Unit III: Language and Power asks you to compare and contrast a “language” and its power to a more public audience.  Unit IV: Final Reflection, which consists of a final reflection essay based on all of your writing.
•  Process Writing.  Composition is based on the belief that writing is a process.  In order to grow and develop as writers, we need to write, write, and then write some more.  For each unit in the course we will delve deeper into the writing process: 1) in Unit 1 we will extensively practice brainstorming and generative writing to explore early ideas; 2) in Unit 2 we will use outlining and drafting to focus our writing; 3) in Unit 3, we will build our skills in editing and revision by separating the two steps, first creating a substantially revised draft, based on feedback from self, peers, instructor, and others, and then later a further copy-edited final draft where we will work on building strong mechanics in your paper; and lastly, 5) we will practice reflective writing about your writing processes and products.  These steps are meant to help you focus on specific aspects of your writing and get relevant feedback at different points in the writing process. 
• Reading & Reflection.  Our course will also help you explore the choices available to you as a writer. In this course, we will read as writers and look at texts in order to explore how writers develop, present, and organize their ideas. Reflection on your own writing will also help you identify your writing options.  Throughout the writing process, you’ll write short reflections about the choices you made and why you made them.  The course will end with a much more extensive Unit V: Final Reflection essay that will ask you to reflect on all the writing you’ve done in the course.
• A Writer's Notebook.  Many writers keep a notebook where they explore ideas and ways of writing.  In our course, you’ll be asked to keep a notebook where you will respond to directed questions about what you have read as well as explore your own writing process. Your notebook will be collected at the end of each unit.
• Peer Response.  Learning to write means learning to be read by many others.  Not only will I respond to your writing, but also our class will become a writing community in which you’ll learn how to give and get critical peer response.  By giving constructive feedback, you’ll learn to read like a writer.  By listening carefully to others, you’ll learn to make revisions that affect readers in ways you had hoped.
• Conferences & Office Hours.  Every student is required to meet with the instructor on a bi-weekly basis. Failure to participate in conferences may affect your final grade.   
• Portfolios.  Save every piece of writing!  For each unit, you’ll create a portfolio that includes the final essay as well as generative writing, initial and revised drafts, and written feedback from your readers.  At the end of the semester, you’ll create a comprehensive portfolio with all of your writing from the course. This portfolio is not a separate assignment but will serve as the basis for your Final Reflection.
• Writer’s Toolbox. At the beginning of the semester you will be introduced to the Writer’s Toolbox, during each unit you will be quizzed on the Toolbox and your awareness of its use.

WORLD GEOGRAPHY

Instructor: Julia Diez d’aux

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

The World Geography course will serve as an introduction to the study of Geography, while focusing on Regional Cultural Geography (including language, religion, history, politics, the arts, current events, and population studies.)

Overarching themes will focus on 1) awareness of our increasingly globalized world, 2) understanding the implications of current events and their historical backgrounds and 3) ability to recognize similarities and respect differences across world cultures.

The course will be supplemented by weekly World History lectures.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

Students will learn how knowledge of geography is an important part of becoming a global citizen. Students will become familiar with the proper usage of maps, globes, atlases, and the internet to be able to locate and identify various countries, regions, and human cultural characteristics from around the world. Students will also become familiar with current events, and be able to gain understanding and insight by analyzing these issues in historical versus contemporary and regional versus global perspectives.

TEXTBOOK: Essentials of World Regional Geography

WORLD HISTORY

Instructor: John Stanlake

STRUCTURE: A weekly lecture which will be supported through regular reading tasks outside of class hours and assessment through quizzes and exams.

DESCRIPTION:

This content-based course focuses on developing students’ understanding of the events which have shaped civilization. The course will cover a wide range of key periods and events with the aim of providing students with an important overview of how history has shaped the world we live in today.

GOALS:

By the end of this course, students will be able to recognize the importance and relevance of key ages, periods and events throughout history. They will have a broad understanding of key moments in history which will help to prepare them for their studies at UG level.

TEXTS:

• Bulliet, et al. 2011. The Earth and Its People, 5th^th Ed. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
• Stearns, et al. 2011. World Civilizations: The Global Experience, Combined Vol, 6^thth Ed. Longman, Pearson.

PRECALCULUS

Instructors: Noman Uddin & Aliza Khan

CONTENT Term 1:

• Graphs
• The distance and Midpoint Formulas
• Graphs of Equations in Two variables
• Lines
• Circles
• Functions and Their Graphs
• Functions
• The Graph of a Function
• Properties of functions
• Library of Functions ;Piecewise defined functions
• Graphing Techniques : Transformations
• Linear and Quadratic Functions
• Linear Functions and their properties
• Quadratic Functions and their Properties
• Inequalities involving Quadratic Functions.
• Polynomial and Rational Functions
• Polynomial Functions and Models
• Properties of Rational functions
• The graph of a Rational Function
• The Real Zeros of a polynomial Function.

CALCULUS

INSTRUCTOR: Noman Uddin

CONTENT Term 1:

• Functions
• Functions and their Graphs
• Combining Functions ,shifting and scaling Graphs
• Trigonometric functions
• Exponential functions
• Inverse functions and Logarithms
• Limits and continuity
• Rates of change and Tangents to curves
• Limit of a Function and limit Laws
• The precise Definition of a Limit
• One sided limits
• Continuity
• Limits involving Infinity; Asymptotes of Graphs.
• Differentiation
• Tangents and the Derivative at a point
• The Derivative as a Function
• Differentiation Rules
• The derivative as a Rate of Change
• Derivative of trigonometric Functions
• The Chain Rule
• Implicit Differentiation
• Derivatives of Inverse Functions and Logarithms
• Inverse Trigonometric Functions
• Related Rates
• Linearization and Differentials
• Application of Derivatives
• Extreme Values of Functions
• The Mean Value Theorem
• Monotonic Functions and the First Derivative Test.
• Indeterminate Forms and L’Hpital Rule .

INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS

INSTRUCTOR: Ara Arzoumani

DESCRIPTION:

This one year course is designed to teach students the necessary skills needed to operate a windows based computer in an academic and professional setting. The course will focus on teaching students how to use applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint along with navigating the web, using E-mail, data and computer management and privacy and security. The course will be evaluated on a pass or fail basis with various individual and group assignments throughout the school year.

OBJECTIVES:

• Understand basic functions of computer hardware and software components including operating system functions
• Perform basic and intermediate functions using Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Publisher applications
• Demonstrate a basic understanding of issues regarding software copyright, software licensing, and software copying
• Improve analytical, communication and problem solving skills
• Understand information security and data management
• Utilize the Web and E-mail to access the internet
• Develop time management and research skills
• Learn ways to protect and maintain a computer
• Learn about workstation ergonomics