ESL 52B Intermediate Reading and VocabularySection 6628

Instructor: Matt Kline

Office Phone: 310-660-3948

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.

Required Texts:

  • Reader’s Choice, 4th Edition by Sandra Silberstein, Barbara Dobson, and Mark Clarke. The University of Michigan Press. ISBN 04722086685.
  • Animal Farm by George Orwell. Signet. ISBN 0451526341.

Course Objective: 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. extrapolate the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context of an intermediate-level reading.
  3. employ word analysis skills such as recognizing prefixes and suffixes, synonyms and antonyms without the use of a dictionary.
  4. identify the use of transition/signal words and organizational patterns and recognize how they assist in clarifying main ideas, sub-ideas and supporting details in a reading passage.
  5. demonstrate intermediate-level reading comprehension within a variety of time limitations.
  6. 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.
  7. predict outcomes, interpret events, identify and restate main ideas, and draw inferences in various readings of intermediate difficulty.
  8. evaluate a novel in terms of its literary and cultural values.

Grading:

1000-900 = A 899-800 = B 799-700= C 699-600= D 599-0 = F

  1. There will be frequent quizzeson information and vocabulary covered inReader’s Choiceand Animal Farm.
  2. Students will write responses to course readings. Responses will require you to analyze readings and/or connect them to themes. Some responses will be done for homework, but most will be done during class since this is a link class with ESL 53B.
  3. Every student will maintain a vocabulary log of new words. Each week students will add 10 new words to the log. Students will hand in their logs in the beginning of class on Monday. By the end of the semester, you will have completed 12vocabulary logs, which will contain120 vocabulary words.
  4. Students will participate in a variety of classroom activities such as class discussions.
  5. Students will complete various assignments for homework.
  6. Students will complete each week 4 lessons for 10 weeks of Total Reader, which is an online reading program designed to help readers individually.
  7. Mini-quizzes will usually consist of one or two questions regarding homework readings. Often, the mini-quizzes will be pop-quizzes.

Quizzes: 600

Written Responses to readings:100

Vocabulary Log:120

In-class Activities: 50

Homework: 50

Total Reader: 50

Mini-Quizzes: 30

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. The instructor 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 of 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 new words that you have learned in our class. In the beginning of class each Monday, you will submit your list of 10 vocabulary words. The list will include the parts of speech of the words, the definition 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 two classes in a row, contact the instructor to talk about the problem. I reserve the right to drop students who have missed more than two classes. 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.

Finally, you are encouraged to submit your assignments on time. Late assignments cannot receive a grade higher than a B. 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 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!

Course Schedule (Subject to change based on need)

The course schedule is divided into four week sections. Homework assignments will be announced in class and posted on our course website.

Week 1

/ Introduction to the course. Begin Chapter 1 of Reader’s Choice.

Week 2

/ Reader’s Choice: Chapters 1; Start Chapter 2
Hand in vocabulary log on Monday.
Week 3 / Reader’s Choice: Chapter 2 and 3
Hand in vocabulary log on Monday.
Quiz 1
Week 4 / Reader’s Choice: Chapters 3

Hand in vocabulary log on Monday.

Important Dates:

Friday, February 22:Add Period and Program Change Period Ends

Friday, February 22:Last day to drop with refund

Friday, March 7: Deadline to drop semester-length classes without a “W” notation

Friday, May 9:Last day to drop with a “W”

Friday, June 6: 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 on this website throughout the semester. In addition, our website has a discussion board, on which you can discuss course readings and writing topics. To access our website, go to and type in your user ID and password.

A Final Note

This course is linked with Jenny Simon's ESL 53B class. This means that the materials covered in this class will help you for her class because she will use the readings that we discuss for your essays in her class. In addition, she and I will be able to work closely together to improve instruction for each one of you. Finally, you will save money on books by taking part in these linked classes!

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