Page 1 Syllabus for English 085, College Reading, Winter 2009 Instructor: Dr. Ted Miller Office hours: Office: Walker Hall, Room 244 Monday or Wednesday, 3:00-5:30 (after class) in available Phone: 517-796-8597 room in McDevitt Hall Email: [email protected] Tuesday, 12:30-2:30 (or by appointment) in Walker Hall, 244 Textbooks and supplies: 1. On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and in Life, by Skip Downing 2. the curious incident of the dog in the night-time a novel, by Mark Haddon (by week 3) 3. Generation Debt: Take Control of Your Money, by Carmen Wong Ulrich (by week 9) 4. Journal notebook: spiral, single subject, college rule, size 8” x 10½” 5. Highlighters 6. Folder for loose papers. Course Objectives: In this course you will . . . 1. Improve your reading comprehension. 2. Write clear summaries of what you read. 3. Make connections between what you read and your own experiences. 4. Combine information from several reading sources. 5. Read for pleasure and for information. Associate Degree Outcomes: The JCC Board of Trustees has developed a list of essential skills that all graduates should develop. The Board has said: JCC’s goal is to prepare students to live productive and meaningful lives. Implicit in this goal are efforts to prepare students to: (a) live and work in the 21st century, (b) be employed in situations which will require retraining several times during a productive life, and (c) function in a rapidly changing international society. In support of these guidelines, ENG 085 students will develop critical thinking skills, including the ability to . . . - Generate questions about a text before and while reading. - Identify the impact of emotion on thought. - Distinguish between fact, opinion and inference. - Recognize bias in a piece of writing. - Incorporate new knowledge with old. Eng 085 Grading - Notes on readings (summaries and interpretations) 20% - Journal Assignments (connections) 20% - 2 Reading/Research Projects, incl. Oral Presentations 30% - Comprehension Quizzes 15% - Small Group Work/Participation/Attendance 15%Page 2 Keys to reading skill development 1. The more you invest time and effort in reading, the more your reading skills will develop. 2. Skillful reading requires vigorous mental activity. Be alert and actively seek out what the author wants to say by asking questions, making guesses and predictions, reflecting on ideas, and drawing on your own knowledge and experience as you read. 3. Pay attention to how the author organizes ideas, noticing heading titles, bold or italicized words, central themes, patterns, etc. (Noticing how writers organize their ideas can also make you a better writer.) Notes—Summaries and Interpretations (20%) (Tell what pages/sections the notes cover.) Taking good notes is an important college skill that many high school graduates have not mastered. To develop that skill, you will be taking extensive notes on most of the materials you read. Study pages 81-84 in On Course and try out the tips for effective note taking, including the outline method (#6), a concept map (#7), and the Cornell method (#8). Level 1: Summarize, in your own words, the essential points in the text. Paraphrase the most important information. A good summary will not leave out leave out any key parts or important ideas. [Example: A tortoise and hare ran a race. The hare started fast but then stopped to rest and fell asleep. The tortoise went slowly but won the race.] Level 2: Interpret the intentions of the author. Why do you think the author wrote this? What lessons is she/he trying to convey? What impact does she/he want to have on readers? Who is/are the intended audience(s)? Quote from the text to support your interpretations. Here the focus is on the author’s ideas. The only way to guess what the author’s purpose was is to read between the lines. [Example: The author wanted to teach people the value of steady efforts and the danger of being arrogant and lazy.] Journal Entries (20%) Level 3: Active readers go even deeper than levels 1 and 2 above: they look for connections between the text and a) their own lives, b) the real world, and c) other texts. Your journal is a place where you will write about the thoughts, feelings, reactions, memories, questions, and other connections that come up as you read a particular reading assignment. Connect this piece to your own experience, your own thinking, or other things you’ve read. What does this writing say to you personally? Tell your related stories. Here the focus is on you, your experiences, and your ideas. [Example: When I was working toward my doctoral degree, I had classmates who seemed more smart or advanced than I, and I wondered if I’d be able to keep up with them. However, I completed one assignment at a time, one or two courses at a time, and then my dissertation that took more than a year to complete, one page at a time. I won! Some of my smarter classmates did not get the degree.] Some journal assignments are from On Course, and others are from Ted. Always follow the guidelines on the inside back cover of On Course: copy directions, be spontaneous, be honest, be creative, and DIVE DEEP!Page 3 Reading/Research Projects (30%) In addition to the assigned reading, you will be learning how to find and read materials on two particular areas: the first we will all work with as a class, and our focus will be on the topic of autism. The second reading/research topic will be chosen by you, based on your personal interests or areas that you have always wanted to explore but may never have had the time or opportunity. You will be locating resources to help you research those topics—books, magazines, newspaper articles, films, songs, people, and the internet. Projects worked on individually—for example, the reading/research autism project and your own project for research—will be shared orally with members of the class. You will be given rubrics (guidelinees) to help you know how to present and share the information you discovered. Comprehension Quizzes (15%) You will be quizzed on your comprehension of assigned readings from time to time. The quizzes will consist of an array of questions—multiple choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, and short essay. Sometimes you will know about the quizzes in advance, and sometimes you will not