ESL 52B Intermediate Reading and Vocabulary Section 6633
Instructor: Matt Kline
Office Phone: 310-660-3593 (ext. 5948)
Email:
Office: Humanities 321D
Office hours:
Course Description:
This is an intermediate level course designed to teach appropriate reading skills, such as the ability to make inferences, to draw conclusions, to understand the meaning of vocabulary words in context through word and study exercises, and to determine the main idea from a passage. Students read from a variety of sources, including newspapers, essays, short stories, and novels. Students also increase their academic vocabulary through vocabulary building activities.
Required Texts:
• Animal Farm by George Orwell. Hampton-Brown. ISBN 978-0-7362-3187-9.
• Reader's Choice, Split Edition based on the 5th Edition by Sandra Silberstein, Barbara Dobson, and Mark Clarke. The University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-03294-5.
Course Objectives:
By the end of the semester, you will be able to:
1. apply basic reading skills such as skimming, scanning, reading for comprehension and critical reading in academic, personal, and professional situations.
2. find the meaning of new words from the context of an intermediate-level reading. (Example: “The shibboleth to my e-mail account is rosebud. I'm the only one who knows this.” Therefore, shibboleth means password.)
3. use word analysis skills such as recognizing prefixes and suffixes, synonyms and antonyms without the use of a dictionary. (Example: "Dis" in disrespect means "not")
4. identify the use of transition/signal words and organizational patterns and recognize how they help in understanding main ideas, sub-ideas and supporting details in a reading passage. (Example: “I'm always cheerful. In contrast, she's always sad.” In contrast means but.)
5. identify the correct definitions of academic vocabulary
6. write sentences using academic vocabulary
7. show intermediate-level reading comprehension within a variety of time limitations.
8. summarize, explore themes, analyze plots, describe settings, and examine characters within the context of fables, poems, short stories, essays, and novels of intermediate-level difficulty.
9. predict outcomes, interpret events, identify and restate main ideas, and draw inferences in various readings of intermediate difficulty.
10. evaluate a novel in terms of its literary and cultural values. (Example: Animal Farm)
52B Student Learning Outcomes
· Given an unfamiliar intermediate-high level article, students will be able to identify the main ideas, locate specific details, and choose the correct definition of unfamiliar words based on their context.
· Given a sentence with a missing word, students will be able to select the correct word based on their knowledge of word forms for different parts of speech.
· Given an intermediate-high level short story or passage, students will be able to summarize the text to approx. 20% of its original length in their own words by including main ideas and support only, and respond to the ideas of the text by explaining their opinion or giving a parallel example.
· Given an intermediate-high level reading, students will be able to interpret the underlying meaning or intent of a phrase, sentence, or paragraph in which the meaning is not explicitly stated.
Grading:
1000-900 = A 899-800 = B 799-700= C 699-600 = D 599-0 = F
1. There will be frequent quizzes on information and vocabulary covered in Reader's Choice and Animal Farm.
2. Students will write responses to course readings. Responses will require you to analyze readings, connect them to themes, or summarize them. Some responses will be done for homework, while others will be done in class.
3. Every student will maintain a vocabulary log of new words from the Academic Word List. Each week students will add 10 new words to the log. Students will hand in their logs in the beginning of class on Tuesdays. By the end of the semester, you will have completed 12 vocabulary logs, which will contain 120 vocabulary words. You will have to study these words because each week for 12 weeks you will be quizzed on these words. These quizzes are called VL quizzes.
4. Students will participate in a variety of classroom activities such as class discussions and projects.
5. Students will complete various assignments for homework.
6. Students will complete 40 Plato Reading Program lessons. Plato is a computer reading program. You need to use the computers in the Learning Resource Center in the second floor of the library to complete the 40 lessons. We will have a little time to work on this during our class period; however, most of the time you will have to work on these lessons on your own time.
7. Mini-quizzes will usually consist of questions regarding homework readings or the vocabulary in the vocabulary logs. Sometimes, the mini-quizzes will be pop-quizzes (surprise quizzes), and they will happen at the beginning of class sessions. Come to class on time because the mini-quizzes cannot be made up if you miss them.
Quizzes: 600
Written Responses to Readings: 120
Vocabulary Log and VL quizzes: 120
In-class Activities: 40
Homework: 40
Plato Reading Program: 40
Mini-Quizzes: 40
Course Requirements:
You are expected to discuss and write about the required readings of this class. Therefore, you will need to keep up with the readings. If you don't do the readings, you'll be unable to participate in class discussions, write effective responses to the readings, and perform well on mini-quizzes and quizzes. I will tell you in advance what readings you will need to write responses to and when they are due. Further, throughout the semester we will have quizzes that will allow you to show your knowledge of the content and vocabulary in our readings. Some of the quizzes will be announced ahead of time, while others may be pop quizzes (especially the mini-quizzes), so make sure you keep up with the course readings. The vocabulary log is a list of words from the Academic Word List. You can find this list on the Internet at http://www.englishvocabularyexercises.com/AWL/index.htm. In the beginning of class each Tuesday, you will submit your list of 10 vocabulary words. The list will include the parts of speech of the words, definitions of the words, and two example sentences that contain the words.
Since we are covering a lot of material this semester, you will need to attend class on a regular basis. If you are absent a lot, contact me to talk about the problem. I reserve the right to drop students who have missed more than 8 hours of class. Therefore, make sure you contact me if you are absent. I'm willing to work with you and help you, but I have to know the situation. If you cannot finish the course, you are ultimately responsible to drop the class. If you just disappear, you may receive an F for the class.
You are encouraged to submit your assignments on time. However, I understand that there are times when life gets in the way of completing assignments on time. Therefore, you are allowed to submit three late assignments without any point deductions. These late assignments include missed quizzes. Late assignments or missed quizzes must be made up within one week unless there are special circumstances. If you can’t make it to a particular class and you want to submit your assignment on time, you can always e-mail it to me.
Finally, copying others' work and handing it in as your own work is a major offense in colleges in the United States. You may be given a failing grade on assignments/quizzes that you copy, so don't do it.
Keeping a Positive Learning Environment
There are several things that we need to do in order to keep a positive learning environment for everyone. The following is a list of rules that we should all follow so that everyone can learn. Remember, you and your classmates have paid money for this class, so get your money's worth by observing these rules:
· Please come to class on time. Coming to class late can be disruptive. I, as your instructor, will do my best also to come on time.
· Please do not use your cell phones in class. If you need to talk to somebody on your cell phone, just quietly get up and leave the classroom.
· Please do not talk excessively with other classmates about things unrelated to our class. It's really hard for other students to concentrate when someone else is talking too much.
If we all follow these rules, everyone will have an environment conducive to learning!
American Disabilities Act Statement
If you believe you have a disability and may need accommodations in this class, please contact the Special Resource Center on campus as soon as possible to make sure accommodations are given to you. Also, please contact me privately to discuss your specific needs.
Course Schedule (Subject to change based on need)
Week 1 / Course Introduction, Unit 1 of “Reader’s Choice” (RC)Week 2 / Finish RC Unit 1; begin RC Unit 2 (“Can English Be Dethroned” and “English Seen as a Co-Star among Global Languages”)
Week 3 / RC Unit 2 (“Gate 4-A,” “The Globalization of Tourism,” and “The Politics of Travel”)
Week 4 / Quiz 1 covering Units 1 and 2 vocabulary, guessing meaning from context, and finding the main idea; RC Unit 3
Week 5 / RC Unit 4 (“The Creative Spirit,” “American Values in Education,” and “School Violated Student’s Rights,…”)
Week 6 / RC Unit 4 (“Yolanda” and “The Stereotype of Stereotypes”)
Week 7 / Quiz 2 covering Units 3 and 4 vocabulary, guessing meaning from context, and finding the main idea; RC Unit 5
Week 8 / RC Unit 6
Week 9 / “The Lottery” and “The Chaser”
Week 10 / Quiz 3 covering Unit 6 and Week 9 vocabulary, guessing meaning from context, and finding the main idea; “The Milgram Experiment”
Week 11 / “Animal Farm” (AF) Introduction and AF Chapters 1 and 2
Week 12 / AF Chapters 3 and 4
Week 13 / AF Chapters 5 and 6; Quiz 4 covering AF Chapters 1 to 5
Week 14 / AF Chapters 7 and 8
Week 15 / AF Chapters 9 and 10
Week 16 / Final Quizzes
Important Dates:
Friday, September 6: Last day to add classes and drop classes with refund
Friday, November 15: Last day to drop with a “W”
Friday, December 13: Last day of the semester
Our Class Website:
Our class has a website to help facilitate your learning. The syllabus, links to reading and vocabulary websites, and important announcements such as homework assignments will be posted at esl52b.wikispaces.com throughout the semester.
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