Reading for Understanding: Level Two
Fall Quarter
Class Meetings: TR 8:00-9:50AM
Instructor Michael Buckhoff
Materials
ºA
Large three ring binder/notebook, 100 sheets loose leaf college ruled notebook
paper, and 5 reinforced index dividers.
ºReading
Power
Objective:
This course is designed to help provide you a
basic foundation in your reading skills by accomplishing the following:
1. Guess new vocabulary by using contextual
cues.
2. Scan different types of readings (lists
schedules, articles) to quickly find information.
3. Find and understand the controlling idea
of a paragraph.
4. Recognize organizational patterns:
listing, time order, comparisons, and cause and effect.
5. Increase reading comprehension speed.
6. Read two intermediate level readers (from
the student library).
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 15%
Graded Novels (2) 20%
Midterm 20%
Final 20%
Book Presentations (2) 25%
Total 100%
Student Library
In addition to the readings in my handouts 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 reading for understanding 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 nine week period.
Requirements:
1. Readings--Passages from the
handouts and readings 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.
