Reading Strategies and Current Events: Level Three
Winter Quarter
Class Meetings: TR 10:00-11:50AM
Materials
 | A Large three ring binder/notebook, 100 sheets loose leaf college ruled
notebook paper, and 5 reinforced index dividers. |
| More Reading Power |
| 504 Absolutely Essential Words |
Objective:
This course is designed to help you improve your reading skills by
accomplishing the following:
1. Understand commonly used word roots, prefixes, and suffixes to help
increase guessing strategies for unfamiliar vocabulary.
2. Read critically by recognizing the meaning that is implied through the
context of a reading, as well as the overt information or content.
3. Read two-three intermediate novels (from the student library).
4. Use various reading skills with a variety of reading genres.
5. Increase knowledge of current events and cultural awareness.
6. Increase vocabulary through extended reading.
SRA Extended Reading for 45 minutes
Reading is a critical skill needed by second language students not only
for TOEFL but for academic success. Extensive reading (reading large amounts of
English only texts for periods of at lest 45 minutes or more) provides ESL
students the means for developing the background knowledge necessary for more
speculative thinking. In a survey obtained by Ostler, ESL students considered
reading the most important skill for future academic success.
Reading is not a skill that you just get or understand. You must do large
amounts of extensive reading in order to develop and learn the skill. Timing and
concentration are extremely important skills for reading comprehension. As you
work in class on the extended readings, I want you to be aware of the following
"bad habits" that you may have as a non native reader of English which
may prevent you from learning to read the same way we do as native readers. Some
of these "bad habits" are:
The best way to read is to translate all the words from English into
your own language.
In order to understand what you read, you use the dictionary to look up all
the words you don’t understand.
In order to understand what you read, you look closely at each word and
translate it.
In order to read well, you think that you need to understand all the words
on a page.
In order to concentrate well when reading, you read slowly and carefully.
You also write the meanings of all the words on the page.
You believe that there is only one way to read. As a result you read the
newspaper the same way as you would read a textbook.
If you do any of these"bad habits" when you read, you might not be
able to finish the reading comprehension section of the TOEFL. In addition, you
may have poor reading comprehension.
Many of you have been reading for 10 years or more and you have your own
reading habits. Habits are very difficult to change. Nine weeks is a short time
to learn new reading habits. But you will begin to learn how to read more
quickly and easily during this term. Read, read and read some more! That’s how
you get better.
Late Work
Assignments submitted after the due date will not be accepted. In other
words, you will receive no points. I will only allow you to make up missed work
if you have a written documented excuse from someone stating the urgency of the
situation (e.g. Doctor’s note, CHP accident report, etc.).
Attendance
Your attendance is required at all class meetings. Only written
documented excuses for an absence may result in your making up an assignment or
graded daily work. Absences endanger your grade simply because you are missing
out in the learning process. Two absences will result in an overall reduction
of one full letter grade and four absences will result in a failing grade for
this class. Come to class on time. Three tardies will be counted as an
absence. If you arrive fifteen minutes late or more, you will be counted absent
for that class period. If you do come late to class, please enter quietly so as
not to distract the other students. Do not explain to me why you are late.
Grading
The number letter grading scale is set as follows:
A 95-100
A- 90-94
B+ 87-89
B 84-86
B- 80-83
C+ 76-79
C 70-75
NC 69& below
Scoring Grade
Your final grade will be calculated as follows:
Attendance and Participation 5%
Midterm 20%
Final 20%
Quizzes55%
Total 100%
Student Library
In addition to the readings in the textbook, News for You, and in the SRA
reading kit, I want you to check out books from the ACLP library. Keep in mind
the following points:
/Make sure that you begin reading
materials that are on the appropriate level for you.
/All of the books are color coded to make
it easier in your selection.
/Your goal is to read as many of these
books as you can during the quarter.
/I will hold weekly conferences with you
to discuss how you are doing. readings and your personal dictionary notebook.
/At the end of the quarter, we will have
an award ceremony for the students who have read the most pages. I will give
awards to the top three students who have read the most pages in a ten week
period.
News for You
To further engage your interest in active learning, I will give you a copy of
the weekly newspaper, News for You. Be sure to read
each copy each week; the information in the articles will help you understand
the world and national news in a clear and concise way. I will give short
quizzes based on the newspaper to test your comprehension and further expand
your vocabulary.
Requirements:
1. Readings--Passages textbook, the newspaper, and books from the ACLP
library will be completed both during and outside of class time.
2. Vocabulary--Weekly assignments, games, and quizzes will test the
student’s ability to recognize and use chosen words from the readings.
3. Skills--The reading cards from the SRA box will be used approximately
30 minutes a week to build vocabulary and context skills.
4. Discussion--Understanding and commenting on the readings is a very
important part of the activity of reading. Sometimes students will talk
together, other times they will write their reaction to the reading.
5. Personal Dictionary--Using a three ring binder, make a personalized
vocabulary dictionary. Include in the dictionary the new words from 504
Essential Words and words you come across in the your reading. Organize it by
writing all the "A" words together, the "B" words together,
and so on. For each word, write the part of speech, the definition in English,
the sentence you saw it in (or a sentence from a dictionary) and an original
sentence. That is, make up your own sentence using the word. You will turn this
in three times.
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Reading Strategies and Current Events Course Outline
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Date
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Faster Reading
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Comprehension
Skills
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Thinking Skills (pp. 179-204)
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Assignments/Quizzes
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19-Jan
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p. 213
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Scanning pp. 15-25
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21-Jan
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p. 215
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Scanning pp. 26-33
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1-5
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26-Jan
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p. 217
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Previewing and Predicting pp. 34-39
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6-10
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28-Jan
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p. 219
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Previewing and Predicting pp. 40-48
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11-15
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2-Feb
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p. 221
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Vocabulary pp. 49-55
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News for You #1
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4-Feb
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p. 223
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Vocabulary pp. 56-67
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16-20
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Personal Dictionary due
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9-Feb
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p. 225
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Topics pp. 68-77
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News for You #2
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11-Feb
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p. 227
Midterm
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Midterm
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21-25
Midterm
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Midterm; Quiz on News for You
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16-Feb
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p. 229
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Topics of Paragraphs pp. 78-83
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News for You
#3
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18-Feb
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p. 231
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Topics of Paragraphs pp. 84-88
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26-30
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23-Feb
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p. 233
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Main Ideas pp. 89-93
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News for You
#4
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25-Feb
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p. 235
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Main Ideas pp. 94-98
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31-35
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Quiz on News for You
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2-March
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p. 237
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Patterns of Organization pp. 99-112
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36-40
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News for You
#5
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4-March
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p. 239
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Patterns of Organization pp. 113-131
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41-45
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Personal Dictionary due
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9-March
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p. 241
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Skimming pp. 132-140
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46-50
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News for You
#6
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11-Marc
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p. 243
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Skimming pp. 141-150
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51-60
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Quiz on News for You
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16-Marc
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p. 245
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Making Inferences pp. 150-163
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61-70
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News for You
#7
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18-Marc
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pp. 247, 249
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Making Inferences pp. 164-166
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71-80
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23-Marc
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p. 251
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Summarizing pp. 167-172
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81-90
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News for You
#8
Personal Dictionary due
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25-Marc
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Summarizing pp. 173-178
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91-100
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Final Exam
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