IEP 061 Reading Writing Grammar Spring Quarter 2010

Instructor Name:Amy Fenning

Instructor Office HoursBy appt (after class is better)

Instructor Phone/Office206)528-4554 (also VM)

Instructor prefer email

Class TimesM-F, 12 noon to 1:50 pm in CC3457

Schedule:April 5 to June 11 (Holiday May 31)

No RWG class on April …….

Materials you will need for this class

  • A three-ring binder and lined paper
  • Pen/Pencil and highlighter pen.
  • Required Text: Destinations 2: Writing for Academic Success*by Nancy Herzfeld-Pipkin
  • Required Text: Destinations 2: Grammar for Academic Success* by Nancy Herzfeld-Pipkin
  • *These two books are sold as a bundle at the bookstore for a cheaper price. Do not buy online!
  • A dictionary of some kind, preferably English-English. If you get too focused on the dictionary and do not engage with the class, I will take it away!

Everyone should have the required textbooks in hand by Wednesday April 7th.

Course Description/Objectives:

Emphasis is on reading and writing for academic purposes, including appropriate grammar and vocabulary skills.

The texts for this course foster these goals and offer students a chance to learn and discuss various academic topics.

Group discussions on the topics will help students improve their listening, speaking and critical thinking skills.

Mainly, students will work on improving composition skills by journaling and writing formal essays out of class and timed essays in class.

Learning Outcomes: In this course, the student will…

  • increase reading skills and acquire new vocabulary.
  • incorporate a variety of sentence types into essays with a clearly defined thesisand effective supporting details, and an introduction, body, and conclusion.
  • use appropriate grammatical structures for introductory college work.
  • work effectively within small groups and show courteous, active discussion skills.

GRADING

I. Four Essays (35% -- 100 points each). The points will be for drafts, peer or self reviews and the overall process and final product. I will always give you my grading paper (called a ‘rubric’)in advance.

Essay 1: Process This will be a group essay. You will write part of it, and your small group will ‘bring it together’ in class.

Essay 2: Cause and Effect: You will work on this in class and at home.

Essay3: Compare Contrast. You will conduct an interview of two people and write a comparison and contrast essay on the topic of consumerism.

Essay 4: Argumentative/Opinion.You will choose an academic or current topic in the news, formulate a thesis for or against it and defend your choice.

Final Exam Essay: I will choose the topic and genre. You will write a four-paragraph essay in two hours in the final week of class. You will receive a holistic score on this exam.

  1. Quizzes (20% -- 100 points each)

We will have weekly quizzes, generally on Thursdays or Fridays. Sometimes the quizzes will be about the reading text, grammar, or something else we discussed in class. There should be no quizzes in Weeks 5 and 10. Quizzes cannot be made up. I will drop the lowest quiz score.

Here are our textbook topics:

Unit / Topic / Skills / Writing
1 / How we learn: Learning styles / Coordinating conjunctions (FANBOYS)
Grammar book: Verbs Part I / Paragraph review
Summary writing section in Appendix.
2 / African American Experience / Subordinating conjunctions
Grammar book: Verbs Part II / Narrative; we may skip this chapter and summarize some of the readings
3 / Health and Lifestyle / Transitions
Grammar Book: Modals / Process
4 / The Earth and its Resources / Reason/result/conditions
Grammar Book: Passives/conditionals / Cause and Effect
5 / Cross Culture and Native American / Adjective clauses
Grammar book: articles/preps / Opinion
6 / Business and Consumerism / Compare/contrast language
Grammar book: Adj, ger.infin / Compare Contrast
  1. Homework and in-class work (25% -- 10 points each):
  1. You will write 8 journals. They must be handwritten. I will give you topics each week.
  2. You will write 2 summaries, one in class and one at home.
  3. You will have homework each evening and you will also have in-class work. I cannot predict how much. Late homework is acceptable up to two days late, but each day you are marked down one level. It is your responsibility to show me your late homework! I will not chase after you for it.

High Pass: +(10 points)

Pass:(7 points)

No Pass/Fail:-(5 or less points)

No pointsX (0 points – not handed in or not done in class)

If I see you completing homework in class or working on other homework for another class, you will receive a ZERO.

  1. Attendance, Participation and a positive ‘can-do” attitude (10% of your grade)

Attendance and punctuality is a work, life and school skill. You are expected to come to class awake, alert, prepared and with a good attitude. You should treat your classmates and me with respect. You will fail Level 6 if you are absent more than 10 times. Two late arrivals will count as ONE absent.

  1. Mid-term and Final (10% of your grade)

Week 5: Our mid-term will be about writing and grammar/structure covered thus far in the class.

Final Week: You will have an essay exam and a reading/vocabulary exam.

YOUR Expectations of ME:

You are the customers. You should ALSO have expectations of ME, the teacher! I promise to come prepared and be on time every day. I intend to make your learning experience interesting. Please communicate with me! Let me know what is hindering your learning and how I can help you learn better. If you have a serious personal issue, a housing concern or emotional problem, PLEASE go to your International Advisor!

PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism refers to turning in another person’s writing as if it were your own. It can be copying only a sentence or twowithout proper citation (quotation marks and the name of the author), or it can be copying entire paragraphs, pages, or essays from another source. Plagiarism in any form is an egregious offense in academia.

Because plagiarism is a serious academic offense, it will not be tolerated. I have the right to automatically fail you if you cheat on a quiz or exam, borrow parts of your essays from the Internet, copy homework from a classmate, etc. Always do your own work.