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STUDIO POLICY
Admission.
Reading
skills. The Studio admits children from the age of nine
who can read in Russian. Those children who are too young to study in the
Studio or who cannot read Russian will be referred to an appropriate program
which will help them develop the Russian language skills necessary for their
admission to the Studio. To be considered for a new junior class in September,
we recommend that you contact us in May/June of the previous academic year.
During the school year we occasionally have openings in existing classes (see “Новости”).
If your child does not read
fluently in Russian, but loves reading in English, it may be possible to admit
him/her to the program. Please call us to learn about our method, which allows
us to teach literature to slower readers of Russian while maintaining a
challenge for children whose Russian is very advanced.
Admission
Process.
·To learn more about the program you can:
-
read information posted on our website www.NRLDS.com;
-
call Nina Goldmakher (617)527-7168;
-
request by e-mail a list of those alumni (or their
parents) who are willing to talk to you about their experience with our
program;
-
request by e-mail samples of the programs of our
past drama and poetry performances;
-
attend our next drama and poetry performance (see “Новости”) in
order to see our students’ achievements in Russian and get a feel for the
Studio’s spirit;
-
observe a few
classes – please call us to arrange.
·If you
choose to proceed, call the Studio to schedule an interview for your child.
Schedule and Tuition. Our schedule usually corresponds (except for
the snow days - see below, Veteran’s Day, and the first class in September) to
schedules of
Tuition
Refund
Tuition refund can be made with two weeks advanced notice until October 15 for
the fall semester and until March
15 for the spring semester - if no role in the spring drama performance
has been assigned. Two weeks notice means that if you gave a notice on
October 1st, you are responsible for payments up to October 15th, i.e. for two
more classes. The percentage of the tuition refunded will be proportional to
the number of classes not taken minus $20 handling fee. Exception: If a student asked for a part in a scene for the
spring drama performance, was subsequently granted a role, and then decided to
quit, his spring tuition is NOT refundable.
Books and Materials
1) Each student must bring a folder with pockets to each class. Our experience showed that those who
do not bring a folder to the class, lose the texts.
2) Often I send a story
or a play as an attachment or as a link to a web copy. I do not charge for materials, instead I ask you to take responsibility for printing out a hard copy.
3) If your child
reads some books in English translation, it is your responsibility to get a
book from the library.
4) A text which we
are currently reading must be brought to each class.
5) Students should
bring a pencil. PENS ARE
PROHIBITED: my armchairs are sometimes used as drawing pads, and pen marks are
hard to clean.
The Class Schedule and Attendance
Try to minimize
absences. Even if you do not plan to take a make-up, please give me an advanced notice about your child's absence. In case of sudden illness, you have to
warn me as soon as possible. If your child missed a lesson, please call me to
make arrangements for picking up a copy of the text assigned for homework.
Make-up lessons. No tuition refunds are given for missed lessons. Your child can take make-ups by
attending a class with one of the other groups. You have to schedule your make-up with me
in advance.
Arrivals and Pick-Ups. PLEASE DO
Early Arrivals/ Late Pick-ups. If you brought your child significantly earlier, please
wait in the CVS parking lot in your car until 5 minutes before the class. My neighbors complain if my students run
around and yell. Running around on
the street is dangerous. For the
same reasons, please pick up your child on time.
Home assignments.
It is expected that reading assignments at home are done on
time regardless of how much a student likes a book we are reading. It is not
always easy to make your children work hard unless you pay close attention to
their homeworks. The students in each class have different speeds of reading in
Russian. The size of home reading
assignments is
tailored to the speed of faster readers. In senior
classes, in order to enable all students to participate in class
discussions, some of the slower readers of Russian can do part of their big reading
assignments at home in English translation or - the parents may choose to read part
of each assignment aloud to their child.
The choice of language is up to each family. However,
it is essential that at least part of each assignment is read in Russian by the
student (at least 15 pages).
Theater Component
The theater component
of the class will be present in the form of dramatic readings of plays in
class. The students can practice their parts by reading them at home in
advance. I will hand out hard copies of a play or will send a link to an
electronic text a week in advance. However, in order to facilitate the class
reading of a play I ask each parent to
make sure that his/her child brings a copy of
the play to each class.
Performance
The studio focuses
on studying poetry and literature. It usually turns out, however, that some
students are interested in performing
opportunities which are offered to all students starting from their
class’ second year in the studio**. Performances happen in the spring
semester; the regular literature
lessons will be interrupted for about 5-6 weeks to prepare the performance.
A performance fee will be charged to cover costs. Students can recite poetry or
they can choose to participate in a theater workshop with Michael Redko which
will consist of 3
to 7 rehearsals for an additional fee. The drama performance is contingent
upon having a group of senior students or a group of parents who are willing to
help with scheduling and managing rehearsals on a volunteer basis.
*) Sometimes, per
request of our stage director, we invite our former students to participate in
the drama performance. **) Since our theater critically depends on the work of
our parents-volunteers, the roles in a June drama performance may be offered to
those first year students whose parents have had extensive experience in the
stage management for the studio theater in the past.
Parent Conferences.
The best time to call for discussing your child's performance
is on weekday mornings. You can always leave a message (with your daytime phone number) and your call will be
returned shortly.
Snow Emergency. In case of snow please check your e-mail before
calling (617)527-7168. If the class is canceled, the cancellation message
will be sent by e-mail. I will follow in
my cancellation decisions some music or math schools (such as Longy School of
Music or