Los Medanos College
Course Outline of Record
New Course Existing Course Date 8/7/01
Units 5
Class Max 30
Instructor(s)/Author(s) J. Hobbs.
Area/Course No.: ENGL 90
Course Name: Integrated Reading, Writing and Critical Thinking
Discipline(s): English; Reading
Pre-Requisite(s): Completion of English 70, English 71 or 70A and 70B with a grade of “C” or better; or demonstration of equivalent skills based on the assessment process; or completion of course work at another college that is comparable to the courses listed above with a grade of “C” or better; or equivalent assessment recommendation at another college, or English Placement Test (EPT) score of 147-150.
Co-Requisite(s):
Advisories:
Meets the Following Proficiency/Graduation Requirement(s):
Catalog Description: Students are introduced to college level reading, writing and critical thinking skills and are given practice in developing them. Students will learn skills for reading passages of various lengths and styles, techniques for improving comprehension and retention and guidelines for writing effective lively paragraphs and expository essays. This course uses the whole language approach for improving reading, critical thinking and writing skills which students need to succeed in college.
Schedule Description: (Existing Course)
Credit Credit Degree Applicable Grading CR/NC Repeatability 0
Credit Non-Degree Letter 1
Non-Credit Student Option 2
3
TOPS Code 1501.00 Class Code A Sam Code E
Dept Name Remediation Level Coop Work Exp.
Mode of Instruction Lecture 1 Lab 1 Composition 4 PE Special Total Hours 6
ESL Class yes DSPS Class yes Crossover Course 1
no no Crossover Course 2
Signatures:
Department Chair Date
Division Chair Date
Dean Date
Learning Resource Center Date
Proficiency / Grad. Req. Committee(s) Date
Curriculum Committee Chair Date
President Date
CCCCD Approval Date (Board or Chancellor's Office) Date
Transfer CSU UC IGETC CAN Number CAN Sequence Number
Articulation Officer Date
Los Medanos College 2700 E Leland Road Pittsburg CA 94565 (925) 439-2181
Course Name Integrated Reading, Writing and Critical Thinking
Area/Course No. ENGL 90
Pre-Requisites:
Co-Requisites:
Catalog Description
Students are introduced to college level reading, writing and critical thinking skills and are given practice in developing them. Students will learn skills for reading passages of various lengths and styles, techniques for improving comprehension and retention and guidelines for writing effective lively paragraphs and expository essays. This course uses the whole language approach for improving reading, critical thinking and writing skills which students need to succeed in college.
Method of Evaluation/Grading
Evaluation:
A minimum of six 500-1000 word essays, grades using departmental standards.
Comprehension of reading assignments evaluated by quizzes, reading journals, answers to comprehension questions, summaries.
Quizzes and midterm on reading, writing and proofreading skills.
One final, 500 word, in-class essay examination based on reading selection or assigned topic.
Participation in group activities and discussion.
Read and analyze two non-fiction books.
Grading:
Grades will be based on the following ranges that total 100%
· Essays, final exam 50-60%
· Reading and writing quizzes and midterm 20-30%
· Reading and writing homework, journal writing, participation, group work 10-20%
Students in each section of English 90 will receive a first day handout detailing the instructor’s specific methods of instruction and evaluation, based on this outline.
Textbooks
The instructor chooses from the following: Fjeldstad, The Thoughtful Reader; Robinson, Text and Context; Conlin, Patterns Plus, SFSU, Fog City Fundamentals; Atwan, America Now; Thiroux, Cultures; Trimmer, Riverside Reader; Winkler, Writing Talk: Paragraphs & Short Essays with Readings; Glazier, Least You Should Know About English Form C; Hacker, Rules for Writers; Troyka, Simon & Schuster Quick Access Reference for Writers; Wolff, This Boy’s Life; Angelou, I Know why the Caged Bird Sings. (Textbooks are subject to departmental approval.)
Los Medanos College 2700 E Leland Road Pittsburg CA 94565 (925) 439-2181
Course Name Integrated Reading, Writing and Critical Thinking
Area/Course No. ENGL 90
Course Objectives
The objectives listed below are designed to include reading, writing and thinking skills:
A. Reading/Thinking
1. Preview text using a variety of reading strategies (skimming, annotating, etc.)
2. Use questioning strategies (who, what, when, where, why and how).
3. Write a summary of a text, identifying and listing main ideas in sequence.
4. Identify general statements, specific statements and the relationship between them in a passage of text and in his/her own writing.
5. Identify main ideas in readings, both literal and inferred.
6. Determine the meaning of words in context and explain how language affects meaning.
7. Learn the skills for vocabulary development and comprehension (word attack skills, text analysis, paraphrasing, skimming, scanning, etc.)
8. Recognize the author’s purpose, point of view, sense of audience, tone and biases.
9. Recognize the differences between passages of description, narration, definition, classification, compare/contrast, persuasion and argumentation.
10. Distinguish between statements of fact and statements of opinion and determine when and where they are appropriate or inappropriate.
11. Identify supporting details, conclusions and the inferences the author makes.
12. Recognize patterns of paragraph and essay development: general-specific, cause-effect, compare-contrast, etc.).
13. Recognize and avoid some basic fallacies in idea development (over generalizations, stereotyping, hasty conclusions, etc.).
14. Logically organize ideas and information.
B. Writing/Thinking
1. Use pre-writing techniques (brainstorming, journal writing, free writing, categorizing and developing
relationships among ideas, etc.)
2. Writing unified, coherent paragraphs which include topic sentences and support sentences utilizing rhetorical strategies (description, narration, definition, exemplification, compare/contrast, persuasion, argument).
3. Writing well developed essays which include a thesis or controlling idea, support paragraphs and conclusion.
4. Evaluating initial drafts of his/her own writing and edit/revise subsequent drafts as needed.
5. Showing logical relationships between ideas using coordination and subordination.
6. Using sentence combining techniques to improve sentence variety.
7. Using appropriate language in writing.
8. Developing proofreading skills to recognize and eliminate sentence level errors (fragments, run-together sentences, subject-verb agreement, possessives, plurals, pronoun-antecedent agreement) as well as spelling and punctuation errors.
9. Writing summaries and responses, including one work of fiction.
10. Developing strategies for writing in-class essays.
11. Writing an analysis of one aspect of a non-fiction book.
Method of Instruction
The following methods may be utilized: lecture, out-of-class and in-class writing, computer-assisted instruction, reading, small group and large group discussion and analysis of texts, collaborative learning groups, media, quizzes.
Los Medanos College 2700 E Leland Road Pittsburg CA 94565 (925) 439-2181
Course Name Integrated Reading, Writing and Critical Thinking
Area/Course No. ENGL 90
Course Content
Because the skills of reading, writing and thinking are interrelated, a time sequence for teaching the individual skills is difficult to quantify. Rather, students progress from reading and writing individual paragraphs and short essays to longer readings and full-length essays.
1. Previewing text using a variety of reading strategies (skimming, annotating, etc.).
2. Using questioning strategies (who, what, when, where, why and how). Writing a summary of a text, identifying and listing main ideas in sequence (one week)
3. Identifying general statements, specific statements and the relationship between them in a passage of text and in his/her own writing.
4. Identifying main ideas in readings, both literal and inferred (one week)
5. Determining the meaning of words in context and explain how language affects meaning.
6. Learning the skills for vocabulary development and comprehension (word attack skills, text analysis, paraphrasing, skimming, scanning, etc.) (one week)
7. Recognizing the author’s purpose, point of view, sense of audience, tone and biases.
8. Recognizing the differences between passages of description, narration, definition, classification, compare/contrast, persuasion and argumentation. (two weeks)
9. Distinguishing between statements of fact and statements of opinion and determine when and where they are appropriate or inappropriate. (one week)
10. Identifying supporting details, conclusions and the inferences the author makes.
11. Recognizing patterns of paragraph and essay development: general-specific, cause-effect, compare-contrast, etc.).
12. Recognizing and avoiding some basic fallacies in idea development (over generalizations, stereotyping, hasty conclusions, etc.).
13. Logically organize ideas and information. (one week)
Assignments
1. Essays
2. Quizzes
3. Reading journals
4. Summaries
5. Group discussions
1