About the Summer Session for Visiting College Students
Through Landmark’s summer program, you can build your reading, comprehension, writing and executive function skills — as well as earn college credits that you can transfer to your home college.
This five-week summer session features morning and afternoon classes each weekday, as well as lots of opportunities for outings and athletics. Your classmates will include other bright students from a variety of colleges around the country as well as Landmark College’s own students who will share with you their own experiences and learning strategies as fellow classmates. You will also have an advisor who works closely with you to make the most out of your time at Landmark, as well as to transition out of the program effectively.
Five weeks that will change how you learn forever.
Our years of experience with students who learn differently has shown that focusing even for a short time on how you learn can make a significant difference in your success in school. Our summer classes focus on helping you:
- Gain an in-depth understanding of your learning differences and personal learning style
- Advocate for your needs as a learner
- Build your learning strategies in the academic areas that have proved most difficult for you
- Develop study skills that produce results
- How to effectively use assistive technology to learn
- Learn to use the support and expertise of kind and caring professors and advisors
- Identify ways that you can become more strategic in your approach to college when you return in the fall or later
SUMMER SESSION COURSES
Visiting Students have several options when choosing their courses for the summer session. The first week will comprise an add/drop period in which students can adjust their schedules to ensure an appropriate program.
Guidelines:
- All Visiting Students will be required to take a core foundational non-credit seminar called “Narrowing the Gap,” which will be offered in both the morning and afternoon. See description below.
- Visiting Students then should choose how to best supplement their required course based on their individual needs. The options include:
About the developmental courses for Visiting Students
Although the developmental classes do not award transferable credit, they comprise the heart of the program for visiting students because they represent our 20+ years experience teaching students who learn differently. Whether students are working to improve specific academic skills or developing strategies to address difficulties in executive function, developmental courses ask students to engage in a rigorous process of...
- Self discovery and knowledge
- Meeting challenging Coursework Goals and Deadlines
- Learning new materials, time and task management strategies
- Understanding and identifying ways to become a more strategic learner and improve executive functioning
- Practicing and adopting new, more economical ways of approaching college work
- Developing both skills and a mindset of confidence and self-determination
- Identifying the kinds of support and resources crucial to their individual success
Developmental Course Descriptions
Narrowing the Gap: Becoming a Strategic College Student
(offered 9-11:30 a.m and 1:30-4:00)
Landmark College probably knows more about what it means to be a bright college student who is struggling or failing in college because of executive functioning difficulties or learning disabilities than any college in the country. Many students have failed out of college or done poorly because of difficulties with planning, following through, sustaining focus, and managing competing commitments. This required, non-credit course will offer you the best of our experience in supporting you to move from being managed by your AD/HD or executive functioning and learning disabilities to being able to develop a set of strategies and a mindset that will help you to function better in college and improve your self-management of your life in general.
Through a structured, stimulating and supportive seminar, taught by experienced and skilled professors, this course will introduce you to a host of proven strategies and resources for improving your executive functioning, working memory, study skills and ability to meet commitments, as well as helping you to become your own best self-advocate in identifying and experimenting with the kinds of supports college offers that will help you be successful.
Students will:
- Narrow the gap between their potential and their ability to realize that potential academically
- Improve executive functioning: planning, setting priorities, organizing and following through on commitments
- Develop insight into the ways in which they learn and function best
- Manage writing and homework assignments
- Engage in an effective approach to research
- Develop a mindset toward college work that is confident and realistic
- Sample, experiment with and adopt specific strategies for becoming more strategic as a college student
- Produce a final project synthesizing the knowledge and skills gained
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Structure, Style and Strategies: Demystifying Academic Writing
(Meets 9-11:30 a.m.)
The goal of this non-credit course is to support students in using individualized strategies to improve their ability to produce college level writing. Through seminar discussions and individual conferencing, participants will be asked to focus on better understanding their own gifts and challenges as learners. In addition, students will apply strategies gained through reading about writing, interacting with engaged peers, and participating in hands-on activities to a series of writing assignments.
This course is designed for bright students who want to return to college in the fall with a renewed passion for and confidence in their approach to writing.
Students will:
- Identify individual writing process steps that work, with a particular emphasis on those steps that have proven to be difficult in the past
- Develop a better understanding of the demands of academic writing and the strategies that can make writing more efficient
- Improve executive functioning: Planning, Setting Priorities, organizing and following through on process steps for writing
- Manage larger writing assignments
- Distinguish between different types of secondary sources and practice integrating source material into drafts effectively
- Set goals for an individual plan for success for future challenging writing environments in general, and for next semester in particular
This course will offer you the best of our experience in supporting students with one of the most challenging academic tasks: writing effective college papers and developing confidence in a writing process. The act of writing academic papers involves a complex series of sub-skills, including reading skills, paraphrasing, idea generation, sentence and paragraph development, revising and editing. Even strong writers can struggle due to issues such as “writer’s block,” procrastination, time management, and organizational issues. Significantly, many college students, especially those with ADHD and/or executive functioning difficulties, end up failing courses, despite solid comprehension and strong ideas, because they do not turn in their final papers. Developing good writing requires technical skills, which often need to develop over several semesters. This course will focus on the strategies we believe are essential in order for students to develop greater self-confidence and skill in their writing abilities.
Profile of Student Best Suited for this Class:
- The main difficulty preventing this student from being successful is in the areas of writing process and executive functioning: planning, procrastination, organization of ideas and materials, sustaining focus, managing multiple facets of a writing assignment, and turning drafts in on time.
- The student may be unclear on what college professors are looking for in their writing assignments, and may need a review of rhetorical approaches to writing
- Needs additional strategies for managing longer papers, especially those involving source material
- Does not have major difficulties generating complete sentences and multiple paragraph essays; can read at the college level
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Assistive Technology Seminar
(meets 3-5:30 p.m.)
To start, this non-credit seminar will provide students with a core overview of cutting-edge assistive technologies that can be an essential tool in helping them to succeed in a demanding academic environment. Students will be trained in three of the more frequently used assistive technologies at Landmark College: Kurzweil 3000 (text to speech), Inspiration (Concept Mapping) and Dragon Naturally Speaking (speech to text). They will receive additional instruction in basic file management, the MSWord reviewing toolbar, and PowerPoint. Once students have become familiar with the options available to them, they will be expected to identify which assistive technology they think would be most useful to them in improving their academic performance. Through regular individual conferencing with the professor and in small-group cohorts of other students with shared goals, students will be expected to identify how they will use the seminar to enhance their skill in using a particular technology. When applicable, students will also be encouraged to use the assigned work from another course they are taking to practice using a particular assistive technology to complete an assignment. Students will be expected to show the expertise they have gained via a final project or assignment.
Profile of Student Best Suited for This Course:
- A student who is highly articulate in his or her ability to express ideas orally, but has difficulty with written expression/assignments
- Bright students with dyslexia who have a high level of comprehension, but a very labored and slow reading rate
- Students with spelling difficulties preventing them from producing papers that are comprehensible
- Highly visual students who would like to use their visual-spatial skills to outline and map their ideas to move them toward a more linear format
- Students who comprehend readings better when they are presented in multiple formats(visually and out loud) and when it is possible to adjust the speed at which the information is read
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Required Course for all Visiting Students:
Narrowing the Gap: Becoming a More Strategic College Student
Morning courses/ 9-11:30
Academic Writing*(non-credit course)
AT1311, Black and White Photography I (3 credits)
This beginning black-and-white photography course is designed for students who have little or no experience in the art of photography. Through instructor demonstration and field and darkroom experience, students master the skills of basic camera operation, film processing and print development. In addition, by completing structured photography assignments and participating in critique sessions, students learn techniques to help them select and compose their subjects and control their shooting, processing and printing to enhance the aesthetic qualities of their prints. In a final photographic essay project, students begin to investigate how visual interpretation can guide them to deeper language comprehension and expression.
AT2311, Black and White Photography II (3 credits)
This second-semester course introduces students to zone-system photography as a means to refine their understanding and control of print tones. Also, through emphasis on the photographic essay, students explore the use of the medium as visual language.
CO2062, Oral Tradition and Media (3 credits)
This interdisciplinary seminar will examine significant social, technological, historical, artistic and psychological forces that have shaped our lives in the last century. Questions such as the following will be addressed: What impact has the shift from an oral tradition to text to electronic media had on our lives? What quality of human contact and development occurs through listening, telling and reading stories? What cultural values and messages are transmitted through modern media? What are the implications to moral development? Through oral story telling, discussions, readings, presentations, field study, viewing mass media, and writing critiques, students will develop a conceptual framework for understanding the influences that have shaped their perceptions of the world.
EN2103S, Short Fiction (3 credits)
In this reading and writing course, students read, discuss and write about selected short stories. Assigned readings, class discussions and writing assigments help to develop students' skills in close reading, critical thinking and literary analysis.
NS1021, Introduction to Biology: Organisms and Environment (4 credits)
This course will examine the key concepts of modern biology with an emphasis on the relationships between organisms and their environment. Studies of evolution and genetics would be woven in to this theme and provide students with additional perspectives on the biological world. Lab included.
PE1301, Fitness for Education and Life (3 credits)
Students will engage in aerobic, strength, endurance and flexibility exercises focusing on walking, running, weight training and use of Landmark College machines. Students complement their physical activities by exploring fitness and health-related topics through regular readings and the maintenance of a personal daily journal. Students are assessed on attendance, weekly quizzes, journal and effort in class.
SL1011, Introduction to American Sign Language I (3 credits)
This introductory course is for those with little or no previous instruction in American Sign Language (ASL). Through interactive and multi-sensory teaching, this course introduces students to the structural principles governing ASL. The course will focus on mastery of receptive and expressive skills. Students will apply linguistic features learned through in-class discussions and self-study. Students will move at a deliberate pace over most of the features of the language: cherology (phonology), morphology, syntax, semantics and sign usage. As one of the course projects, students will research Deaf culture and make a class presentation.
SS1011, Introduction to Psychology (3 credits)
This course introduces students to the fields of study in modern psychology. After this course, students will be able to answer the following questions: What is psychology? What are the methods of investigation in psychology? How is the science of psychology applied to individuals and groups? The course includes theories of learning, thinking, memory, perception, personality, human development, stress, psychological disorders and the biological roots of behavior.
Afternoon courses/1:30-4
AT1111, Drawing I (3 credits)
This course introduces students to drawing skills through close examination of natural form, texture, objects, landscapes and the human form. Students explore line as outline, contour and gesture, and tone as variation in surface light. Through works of master artists as well as their own work, students study composition, point of view and critical perspective. Student-directed critiques after each rigorous drawing unit assist in furthering appreciation for different ways of seeing. A final project, developed by the student to demonstrate expression of line and application of drawing skills, culminates in a student exhibit.
AT1311, Black and White Photography I (3 credits)
This beginning black-and-white photography course is designed for students who have little or no experience in the art of photography. Through instructor demonstration and field and darkroom experience, students master the skills of basic camera operation, film processing and print development. In addition, by completing structured photography assignments and participating in critique sessions, students learn techniques to help them select and compose their subjects and control their shooting, processing and printing to enhance the aesthetic qualities of their prints. In a final photographic essay project, students begin to investigate how visual interpretation can guide them to deeper language comprehension and expression.
AT1611, Acting I (3 credits)
This scene study-based course introduces students to the fundamentals of acting and to the basic ages of theater. Through an exploration of acting techniques such as improvisation, character analysis and sense memory, students gain knowledge and practical experience with the actor's craft. Technique is supplemented by study of the history and development of drama as a genre and an art form.
AT2311, Black and White Photography II (3 credits)
This second-semester course introduces students to zone-system photography as a means to refine their understanding and control of print tones. Also, through emphasis on the photographic essay, students explore the use of the medium as visual language.
EC2112, Introduction to Microeconomics (3 credits)
This course introduces students to the basic market forces of supply and demand, price mechanism, utility maximization by consumers, and profit maximization by firms. Several market structures are presented including pure competition, oligopoly, monopolistic competition and monopoly. There is an emphasis on the application of these market models to real-world markets. Students are required to have achieved Level 5 Math Placement.
HU2371, The 1960’s (3 credits)
This course investigates many of the significant political, social, and cultural changes in the United States in the 1960s-one of the most turbulent times in our history. We will begin with a look at the Cold War era of the 1950s and then explore the civil rights movement, the New Left, the expansion of the welfare state and the national culture, the Vietnam War, the birth of modern conservatism (the New Right), the role of religion and spiritual quests, and the making of youth culture.
MA1421, Statistics (3 credits) (pre-requisite: Advanced high school algebra)
This course examines frequency distributions, measures of central tendency and dispersion, and the normal distribution curve. Students explore confidence intervals and sample size. The structure of hypothesis testing is introduced and applied to a variety of situations. Studies in correlation of data and sampling techniques are introduced.
Late afternoon/evening courses
Assistive Technology Seminar*, 3-5:30 pm, Mon-Fri, Non-Credit
PE1202, Bike Exploration, meets MWTh 4:15-6:00 (2 credits)
This two credit course will cover the fundamentals of bike maintenance and repair as well as various riding techniques. The course relies on twice weekly rides while weather permits and bike mechanics when snow falls.
PE1010, Yoga, meets MWTh 4:15-5:30 (1 credit)
PE1040, Karate/Self Defense, meets TTh 6:15-8:00 (1 credit)
Students will learn basic self-defense skills as well as develop their strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular endurance through karate conditioning. Additionally, the students will develop their self-confidence and coordination as well as develop the moral principles of training in the martial arts. These attributes have served the Landmark student population well in other martial arts courses offered by the PE Department.
PE1100, Tennis Skills, meets TTh 4:15-6:00 (1 credit)
PE1110, Golf Skills, meets TTh 4:15-6:00 (1 credit)
The fundamentals of the "natural golf" method.
PE1120, Volleyball Skills, meets TTh 6:30-8:15 (1 credit)
This course includes all the basic volleyball techniques including spiking, digging, volleying and serving. Especially recommended for those who participate in competitive volleyball. Beginners, however, are welcome as well.
PE1150, Boxing, meets MW 4:15-6:00 (1 credit)
Fundamental boxing skills and fitness are the focus of this course. Students will learn basic punches, footwork, and defensive and offensive skills. Fitness training using heavy and light bags comprises a part of the course. Sparring is optional. This course runs the second half of the semester only.
PE1180, Fencing, meets MW 7:00-8:45 (1 credit)
In this one-credit class, students will learn the basic theory and techniques of 17th century Italian fencing using a sword called a Rapier. While some history will be taught to provide context, the majority of the class will be dedicated towards physical hands-on work. Classes will consist of a roughly even mixture of drill/lesson and sparring and will be presented from a martial arts and educational perspective rather than as a competitive sport. As a result, this fencing class is ideal for students who are seeking a physical activity outside of a team sport. All equipment will be provided.
*Designed for Visiting Students
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