Freshman English Reading

BEN10805

Syllabus

Schedule

Assignments

Moodle

104a (Fall 2015) Assignments

Extensive Reading
Reading Journals
Writing Assignments
- Paper 1: Your Reading Habits
- Paper 2: Describe One Very Specific Reading Experience

Extensive Reading (top)

This semester, you will read at least three graded readerson your own before the midterm and Paper Towns by John Green (together with the class) after the midterm. Extensive reading will be done outside the class as part of your homework. Extensive reading means spending much time reading and covering many pages with little or no rereading. It is hoped that this reading will be enjoyable so that it does not feel like a chore, but something you find interesting.

Grading

Your extensive reading is part of your participation grade. The more you read, as shown by reading journal entries, the better your grade for this part.

Reading Journals (top)

You will create your own reading journal this semester. It will include a record of what you have read in English and thoughts, opinions, and ideas about what you have read. You are encouraged to decorate your journal how you like and include drawings, pasted in pictures, etc. This is not a “class” notebook. In other words, this is not the place for you to keep notes from class lectures. This is purely for your own ideas about your English reading.
Each week should include at least two entries (you can write more if you wish).

One entry should be related to this reading class, such as class discussion or something we read.
The other entry can be anything you want to write related to any English reading you have done during that week whether in this reading class or another class or on your own.

Each entry always begins with the date and materials you read that you are writing about

For example. “10/3 Friday. Paper Towns: pages 34-43” or “October 3: China Post article on page 5 ‘Article title’”

You can write anything you want, but here are a few ideas

Tell how you felt about an assigned reading from this class or another class
Attach a picture that relates to something you read and explain the relationship
Agree or disagree with something you read
Draw a picture or a diagram or family tree, etc. related to something you read.
Tell somethin you learned that you thought was interesting.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS (top)

Each writing assignment should be one or two pages long, (400-500 words), and printed out on A4 size paper. Use a font that is easy to read. The font size should be 12. You should have one inch margins around the page. See the assignments page for more details.

Each paper should have one clear main idea. Underline the sentence or part of your paper that gives your main idea.

These papers should be carefully written. You should finish with enough time to proofread carefully. Plan to proofread at least twice for such items as verb tense and use of prepositions. I care more about your ideas than your grammar, but poor grammar makes it difficult to understand your ideas clearly.
Share your writing: I strongly believe that writing improves when you write about things you care about and when you share your writing with others. Of course, you will most likely share your writing with others if you write something you find interesting. I suggest you get friends or group members to read your papers. You can ask them for grammar help, or just see how they react to your ideas. Always think about new ideas for your writing and how to improve.

Paper 1: Your Reading Culture (top)

Write a short introduction of your reading background, style, experiences, tastes, etc. This may include such things as how often you read, when and where you read, what you enjoy reading, what you have been forced to read, what you read in English and/or Chinese, etc. Give your paper a title and develop one main idea throughout your paper.

Remember that it is better to go into more detail about a few interesting points than to make many points but say little about each one.
Remember to give your paper an interesting title.
Remember to read all instructions above and to format your paper properly.

Purpose: I want you to start to feel comfortable in this class. I hope students can share with me and with each other about who we are, so we can know each other and begin to work well together. I also want to start getting a sense of how you write and your English ability.

Paper 2: Describe one very specific reading experience (top)

Write about one specific reading experience this or last week.

Write about your reading process(es). You should focus on either your intensive OR extensive reading. "Watch" yourself as you read American Ways, The Fault in Our Stars, or something else this week and pay attention to all the little things you do. If you like, you can also compare this to how you usually read. Here are some of the questions you can write about. Remember to keep in mind the Stages of Reading and other reading skills we have discussed.

Where did you read? How did you prepare to read (for example, how did you preview)? How did you actually read? Did you underline vocabulary? Did you sound out words? What did you picture? How did you relate? Which passages did you reread and why? How did you deal with words you didn't know: ignore them? use a dictionary? guess their meanings? (Give specific examples). What questions came to mind as you read? What did you do when you finished reading?

Remember to write about one specific experience. Basically, try to pay attention to all the little actions you do as you read in order to be more aware of your personal reading process.

Purpose: All semester we have been talking about how to read. I want your metacognitive ability to develop. In other words, I want you to be self conscious about your read. I want you to notice the things you do when you read, that you didn't notice before.

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Teaching Website for 2015-2016 School Year (Academic Year 104)