Course Syllabus
Welcome to GKT104: General Knowledge for Teachers – Language Skills
Specific information about this course and its requirements can be found below. For more general information about taking Saylor Academy courses, including information about Community and Academic Codes of Conduct, please read the Student Handbook.
Course Description
Learn how to use English effectively by engaging grammatical and organization structures, considering the impact of tone and word use, and applying editing strategies to demonstrate appropriate language use.
Course Introduction
This course covers concepts prospective teachers should be proficient in to effectively teach the use of the English language. This course will prepare you for the English Language exam for teachers by considering how organization, structural choices, vocabulary, word use, and grammar impact the effectiveness of a student's writing. This course will also consider how tone, diction, and commonly confused terms can both enhance and detract from a reading passage or piece of original writing.
Throughout the course, we will address strategies for taking the language exam to help you prepare. This course will help you develop your ability to recognize and correct common English language errors and evaluate how writing can improve for clarity and efficacy.
This course is not intended to be your first exposure to, nor to teach language skills. This course is designed to provide an opportunity to practice and assess your grasp and mastery of standard middle to high-school-level subject matter. Should you discover that you need to learn or relearn the concepts presented in this course, it is recommended that you take whichever of the courses in our ESL series addresses your needs prior to attempting a teacher licensing exam. Read the course learning outcomes posted in the syllabi of each course to select the course that best suits your needs.
This course includes the following units:
- Unit 1: The Building Blocks of English
- Unit 2: Using Your Words
- Unit 3: Making It Clear
Course Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
- recognize and apply a variety of effective language structures;
- determine and compare organizational structures in a piece of writing;
- identify effective word use and tone in a reading;
- recognize and revise commonly confused and misused words;
- identify and demonstrate correct use of tense, agreement, and case; and
- demonstrate appropriate editing practices for common English conventions.
Throughout this course, you will also see learning outcomes in each unit. You can use those learning outcomes to help organize your studies and gauge your progress.
Course Materials
The primary learning materials for this course are readings, lectures, and videos.
All course materials are free to access and can be found in each unit of the course. Pay close attention to the notes that accompany these course materials, as they will tell you what to focus on in each resource and will help you to understand how the learning materials fit into the course as a whole. You can also see a list of all the learning materials in this course by clicking on Resources in the navigation bar.
Evaluation and Minimum Passing Score
Only the final exam is considered when awarding you a grade for this course. In order to pass this course, you will need to earn a 70% or higher on the final exam. Your score on the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you may take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt. Once you have successfully passed the final exam, you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate.
There are also end-of-unit assessments in this course. These are designed to help you study and do not factor into your final course grade. You can take these as many times as you want to until you understand the concepts and material covered. You can see all of these assessments by clicking on Quizzes in the course's navigation bar.
Tips for Success
GKT104: General Knowledge for Teachers – Language Skills is a self-paced course, which means that you can decide when you will start and when you will complete the course. There is no instructor or set schedule to follow. We estimate that the "average" student will take 10 hours to complete this course. We recommend that you work through the course at a pace that is comfortable for you and allows you to make regular progress. It's a good idea to also schedule your study time in advance and try as best as you can to stick to that schedule.
Learning new material can be challenging, so we've compiled a few study strategies to help you succeed:
- Take notes on the various terms, practices, and theories that you come across. This can help you put each concept into context and will create a refresher that you can use as you study later on.
- As you work through the materials, take some time to test yourself on what you remember and how well you understand the concepts. Reflecting on what you've learned is important for your long-term memory and will make you more likely to retain information over time.
Technical Requirements
This course is delivered entirely online. You will be required to have access to a computer or web-capable mobile device and have consistent access to the internet to either view or download the necessary course resources and to attempt any auto-graded course assessments and the final exam.
- To access the full course, including assessments and the final exam, you will need to be logged into your Saylor Academy account and enrolled in the course. If you do not already have an account, you may create one for free here. Although you can access some of the course without logging in to your account, you should log in to maximize your course experience. For example, you cannot take assessments or track your progress unless you are logged in.
For additional guidance, check out Saylor Academy's FAQ.
Fees
This course is entirely free to enroll in and to access. Everything linked in the course, including textbooks, videos, webpages, and activities, are all available for no charge. This course also contains a free final exam and course completion certificate.