SYLLABUS College Reading 085 Section 75 Winter 2009 Instructor: Kathy Goolian (517) 263-3892 Email: [email protected] Class meetings: Mondays and Wednesdays, 5:30-7:25 JCC Lenawee phone: (517) 265-5515 Textbooks: 1. An Introduction to Critical Reading, Sixth Edition, Leah McCraney, editor 2. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch 3. Making Reading Relevant by Teri Quick, Melissa Zimmer and Diane Hocevar Course Objectives: In this course you will… 1. Improve your reading comprehension 2. Make connections between what you read and your own experiences 3. Write clear summaries of what you read 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.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.) The following components of the course help with and/or measure how the student reaches the above objectives. 1. Nelson-Denny tests – at the beginning and end of the course. 2. Writing a three-part response to most readings in the Critical Reading text. 3. In-class writings and exercises. 4. Poetry, short stories, essays, articles and personal reading. 5. A reading/research project. 6. An oral review of a biography (or other non-fiction book) and a novel. 7. Weekly vocabulary quizzes. 8. Reading comprehension skill building. Reading Responses: For most readings we do in the Critical Reading text students are asked to make a three-part response in writing. Students will focus on these three areas: 1) Summarize in your own words, what the words on the page are actually saying. 2) Read between the lines. Students will write down what they believe the author’s intentions were in writing this piece. What lessons is s/he trying to get across? Here the focus is on the author’s ideas. 3) Relate this piece to your own experience, your own thinking and feelings or to other pieces you have read. What does the writing say to you personally? Tell your related stories. Works of fiction should include:3 Who was the main character? What happened to them or how did they change in the story? What was one main event that occurred? Where did the story take place? What was the underlying theme of the story? The essays should include: What was the topic and position of the essay? Were you persuaded by the author? Share one argument by the author that you found compelling and why. If the author did not gain your support, tell me why not. Study questions for The Last Lecture will be answered before discussion. A Personal Reading and Research Project: Students will do a special oral presentation at the end of the term. This will represent research from books, magazines, newspaper articles or web sites. Write down the interesting things you have learned. The ten-minute oral presentation will tell us what you have read, what you have learned, and what impact this reading might have on your life. The topic must be an issue of significance to your chosen field of study, or a current social issue. Choose an issue that you are personally interested in exploring. You will be given guidelines to help you know how to present and share the information you have discovered. Daily Quizzes: Each class period will begin with a short quiz testing your understanding of the reading homework. This will help me to gauge your progress and reinforce the importance of keeping up with daily assignments. Quizzes will be held at the beginning of class, prior to review. No make-ups will be allowed. In other words, those who arrive too late to take the quiz will NOT have an opportunity to make up the grade. Therefore it is in your best interest to keep up with homework and arrive on time. Academic Honesty Policy: The JCC catalog states, “Academic honesty is expected of all students. It is the ethical behavior that includes producing their own work and not representing others’ work as their own, either by plagiarism, by cheating, or by helping others to do so…Faculty members who suspect a student of academic dishonesty may penalize the student by taking appropriate action up to and including assigning a failing grade for the paper, project, report, exam, or the course itself. Instructors should document instances of academic dishonesty in writing to the Academic Dean.”4 In order to pass the class and avoid charges of plagiarism all work that is turned in must be your own. Class Guidelines: 1) Attendance is required as part of your class participation grade. After three absences, your final grade will start to drop. After 8 absences the student will fail the course. Students who know ahead of time they can’t make it to class should phone the Lenawee JCC office or the instructor. Late work will be downgraded. If you miss a class due to an emergency, it is your responsibility to contact a classmate or the instructor before the next class meeting to find out what you need to do to prepare for the next class. 2) The three part written responses to Critical Reading assignments should be at least three FULL paragraphs for your poetry readings and at least one page for short stories and essays. Testing Out of