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READING SKILLS III:
INSTRUCTOR'S COURSE OUTLINE
COURSE GOALS: Students will develop a broad spectrum of skills that will prepare them to
deal independently with college-level reading. Upon completion of the course, they will…
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be able to demonstrate the ability to express in their own words and in complete
sentences the main ideas of multi-paragraph reading essays.
be able to accurately summarize longer multi-paragraph essays.
be able to identify rhetorical strategies, appearing alone and in combination with other
strategies within multi-paragraph essays.
be able to demonstrate critical and inferential reading skills based upon their
understanding of multi-paragraph essays.
be able to demonstrate proficiency in critical reading by analyzing two multi-page essays
and comparing the authors’ views.
REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS:
Custom Package: Opening Doors (7th Edition. Joe Cortina and Janet Elder.) with 75 Readings
Plus (10th edition. Santi Buscemi, and Charlotte Smith, McGraw Hill, 2013).
Students should also own a good quality dictionary, such as Webster's New World Dictionary
NOTES ON THE TEXT: The two texts in the package, Opening Doors (OD) and 75 Readings
Plus (75+), complement each other. OD is a developmental reading text that introduces the
language and skills of the essay analysis used in 75+. The chapters cover the skills of topic, main
idea (stated & implied), and supporting details mostly in relation to single paragraphs. At the
end of each chapter, there is a section entitled “Test Your Understanding,” which consists of
short paragraphs for practice, and multiple choice answers. You should supplement them with
practice using the skills in longer readings, including those readings included at the end of each
chapter. Test with EXAM ONE only after you have covered Chapters 4, 5, & 6 in OD. Chapter
1 can be used for helping students with college success skills and for providing supplemental
readings. Chapter 8 can be used to introduce many of the concepts we cover in the 75+ essays,
including purpose, audience, tone, bias, and language.
The second text, 75+, is an anthology of essays arranged both rhetorically and
thematically. Obviously, it is impossible to cover all the essays in each section. The suggested
outline is arranged to cover the most common rhetorical strategies, with suggested readings for
each one. However, you are not bound by these selections, nor are you bound by the order of the
chapters. Feel free to select any of the essays in each chapter with the exception of those that
will be used in EXAM TWO and the FINAL EXAM. (See "Exams") Make sure to cover the
classification and cause & effect strategies before exam two and the persuasion and argument
strategies before the final exam. The Instructor’s Guide to 75+ (available as a hard copy by
contacting the department secretary or on the department’s Weebly site,
http://camdencountyadjuncts.weebly.com/), has study guides, vocabulary activities, and quizzes
for selected readings.
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INDEPENDENT READING PROJECTS: Camden County College is committed to
information literacy goals, and in Reading III, teachers are welcome to incorporate these goals in
various ways. The course itself meets some of these objectives. However, if you want students
to find materials that interest them, practice summarizing and responding to articles, and orally
present their work, you may create an independent project as one requirement of the course. If
you prefer that everyone engage in the same text, some sets of book are available on reserve
through the library (The Price of a Child, The Color of Water, The Glass Castle, The Things They
Carried, Nickel and Dimed, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Incidents in the Life of
a Slave Girl, Everyday Heroes, Facing Addiction and What Is the What?). Presentations make a
wonderful way to conclude the class, but divide the work into components due at regularly
spaced intervals so that students don’t fall into the trap of trying to do the whole project during
the last week of class. An alternative project that allows students to explore topics of personal
interest to them as individuals involves seeking, reading, outlining, and summarizing articles and
reporting findings in short essays.
EXAMS: You must administer the three major departmental exams. EXAM ONE covers
material from Chapters 4-6 in OD (topic, stated and implied main idea, supporting details, and
inferences/drawing conclusions) and contains only supply-answer questions on given reading
passages. EXAM TWO and the FINAL EXAM are based on selected essays from 75+ and
contain both multiple choice and supply-answer questions of comprehension, strategies, and
synthesis. Because the exam readings are extensive, assign them no less than one week in
advance. EXAM TWO is based on Casey’s “Our Oceans Are Turning Into Plastic…Are We?”
(314) in the Fall semester and Sheehy’s “Predictable Crises of Adulthood” (149) in the Spring
and Summer semesters. The FINAL EXAM is based on two essays, Lame Deer / Erdoes’s
"Alone on the Hilltop” (96) and Alexie’s “Superman and Me” (493) in the Fall and Lake’s “An
Indian Father’s Plea” (422) and Bures’s “Test Day” (487) in the Spring and Summer. DO NOT
ASSIGN ANY of these readings as part of the regular assignments in any semester.
Furthermore, do not tell the students what essay(s) are on the exam until the week before the
scheduled exam. Do not discuss these readings in class; students are to study them without
teacher aid, though you may use a class period for independent study groups and preparation.
Some teachers have found it helpful to coach students on how to study for an exam with a group
(rather than to “teach” the articles).
For 50-minute classes, teachers should allow extended time for students to complete
exams, particularly Exam Two and the Final. This can be most effectively done by scheduling
two consecutive class periods for the exam, physically dividing the exam in half, and giving half
the first class session and half the second. Keep all department exams secure. Although you
may review corrected exams with the students, be sure to collect them back and retain them
until after the course ends.
GRADING: All assignments should "count" toward the final grade. You might want to assign
percentage values to the different types of assignments. For example, the cumulative exams
could be worth 70%, quizzes 10%, homework 10%, and independent reading project 10%, or the
exams could be worth 75% and all other work 25%. Please make sure, however, that the
department exams are the deciding factor on whether the student passes the course. In addition
to earning a passing class average (70%), a student must have either a passing grade (70%) on the
Final Exam or a passing average (70%) on the three exams together to pass the course.
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WRITING ASSIGNMENTS: Although this is not a writing course, we believe it is important
to integrate reading and writing. You can use the response questions that are with the longer
readings in OD as writing assignments. Writing suggestions also appear with the essays in 75+.
In addition, students should be summarizing essays with some regularity.
SUGGESTED OUTLINE:
*Create your own specific outline based on the version provided below. Then, distribute a copy to
students, making sure that it specifies the due-dates for all readings, exams, and assignments.
WEEKS 1 – 2
 Introduction to the Course:
 Study Skills and Success Strategies: [OD Ch. 1: Making Yourself Successful in College, p. 3
is NOT mandatory or covered on the exam, but it be helpful as introductory material.]
 Topic and Stated Main Idea: Stress that topic, also known as subject matter, is always
expressed as a phrase. Practice with paragraph and multi-paragraph passages. Teach the
terms topic sentence and thesis statement. The review cards at the end of each chapter are a
good assignment for effective notetaking. [OD Ch. 4: Determining the Topic and the Stated
Main Idea, p. 205]
 Suggested readings:
 Selection 1-1: "Why Go To College?" Feldman, p. 27 (Study Skills)
 Selection 1-3: "Saved" Malcolm X, p. 55 (Literacy) *also included in 75+
 Selection 4-1: "A Warning to Students: Plagiarism, Term Papers, and Web Research"
Williams and Sawyer, p. 235 (Education)
 Selection 4-3: “Muhammad” p. 261 (History)
WEEK 3
 Implied Main Ideas: [OD Ch. 5: Formulating Implied Main Ideas, p. 273]
 Suggested readings:
 Selection 5-1: “Identity Theft: You Are at Risk,” CALPIRG, p. 301 (Public Interest)
 Selection 5-2: "Violence in Television and Video Games," Feldman, p. 315 (Psychology)
 Selection 8-2: “Think Before You Speak,” Lucas, p. 563 (Communication)
WEEK 4
 Supporting Details: Once students can make the distinction between major and minor details,
practice with finding supporting details can be combined with outlining [OD Ch. 6:
Supporting Details, p. 331]
 Suggested Readings:
 Selection 6-1: "Shaping Your Health: The Millennial Generation and Early Adulthood"
Payne, Hahn, and Lucas, p. 371 (Health)
 Selection 6-3: “What Can Be Done to Help 3rd World Countries?” Epping p. 397 (Econ)*
* useful for teaching charts/graphs although this selection is challenging
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WEEK 5
 Summarizing: Outlining and summarizing provide a review for the impending exam as well
as preparation for the rest of the course. Make sure that students know that a summary
includes title, author, overall main idea (author’s thesis), major supporting details, author's
conclusion, and appropriate attributions (“The author said…she noted that…etc.) It does not
include excessive minor details, or the student’s opinion. Sectioning or mapping activities
are helpful for practice.
 Review for EXAM: The exam includes 4 passages & addresses literal comprehension (topic,
stated & implied main idea, supporting details) and inferential comprehension. [OD Ch 4-6]
WEEK 6
 EXAM ONE: Keep all exam papers secure. STUDENTS DO NOT KEEP THEIR
EXAMS. They must be returned to you after review.
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Reading Critically and Recognizing Rhetorical Strategies: Introduce the ideas of purpose,
audience, point of view, tone, bias and rhetorical strategies [OD Ch. 8: Reading Critically, p.
513]. Call attention to the Table of Contents in 75+ so students see how the book is
organized. You can also use its chapter introductions for an overview of the patterns you’ll
cover. Teach students that the terms “pattern of organization,” “rhetorical pattern,” and
“rhetorical strategy” are synonymous and that they can expect to see “rhetorical strategy” on
exams.
WEEK 7
Start 75+. You may decide which essays, and how many, to cover for each rhetorical strategy,
although two essays per strategy for seven or eight strategies is reasonable. You must cover
Cause & Effect and Classification before Exam Two, and Argument/Persuasion and Process
Analysis before the Final Exam. Ask questions about thesis statement, supporting details,
audience and author's purpose, and help students to synthesize information from different essays
and authors, which they will have to do on the Final Exam. Consider assigning one summary or
writing assignment for each rhetorical strategy.
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Narration [75+ Chapter1 1, p. 1] & Description [75+, Chapter 2, p.47]:
Suggested Readings:
 “Salvation” Hughes, p. 10
 “Grandmother’s Victory” Angelou, p. 14
 “37 Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police” Gansberg, p. 26
 “Mother Tongue” Tan (mixed rhetorical strategy), p. 457 * can also be studied as
definition or comparison/contrast
 “Fifth Avenue Uptown” Baldwin, p. 49
 “Marrying Absurd” Didion, p. 61
 “A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood” Cofer, p. 66
Process Analysis: [75+ Chapter 3, p. 84]
Suggested Readings:
 “Why Leaves Turn Color in the Fall” Ackerman, p. 85
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“Writing Drafts” Marius, p. 90
“Chronicles of Ice” Ehrlich, p. 103
"On Dumpster Diving" Eighner (mixed strategy), p. 465 *can also be studied as narration,
definition, or cause/effect
WEEK 8
 Classification: Students MUST learn Classification before they take Exam 2. [75+ Ch 5, p.
148]
DO NOT ASSIGN Sheehy’s “Predictable Crises of Adulthood” since it is an exam essay.
 Suggested Readings:
 “Growing Up Asian in America” Noda, p. 159
 “The Truth About Lying” Viorst, p. 168
 “Doublespeak” Lutz, p. 174
 “The 12 Most Annoying Types of Facebookers” Griggs, p. 187
WEEK 9
 Cause and Effect: Students MUST learn Cause and Effect before they take Exam 2. [75+ Ch
8, p. 267]
 Suggested Readings:
 “Where Have All the Parents Gone?” Whitehead, p. 277
 “If Hitler Asked You to Electrocute a Stranger, Would You? Probably” Meyer, p. 286
 “Shattered Sudan” Salopek, p. 300 – This is a LONG essay (although very good).
 “The Value and Price of Food” Petrini, p. 325
WEEK 10
 Review for EXAM TWO. Some teachers use the class meeting prior to the exam as a study
session. Students must read the essay in advance. Teachers may create an organizational
structure for the students’ study, but CANNOT provide input in terms of the essay’s content
or vocabulary. This exam measures students' ability to deal independently with text.
Remember that EXAM TWO is based on “Our Oceans Are Turning Into Plastic…” (314) in
the Fall and “Predictable Crises of Adulthood” (149) in the Spring and Summer. Assign the
exam essay the week before the exam.
 EXAM TWO, open book: Students may refer to the text during the exam. Keep all exam
papers secure and do not let the students keep them. They must be returned to you after
review.
WEEK 11
 Definition: Students need to practice more increasing independence in text analysis and
discussion throughout the rest of the course, as well as how to synthesize information from
two essays. [75+ Chapter 4, p. 114]
 Suggested Readings:
 “The Company Man” Goodman, p. 121
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“The Green-Eyed Monster…” Epstein, p. 130
“’Blaxicans’ and other Reinvented Americans” Rodriguez, p.140 (This can be compared
to “Growing Up Asian in America” p.159 to give students practice synthesizing
information.)
WEEK 12
 Comparison/Contrast: [75+ Chapter 6, p. 193]
 Suggested Readings:
 “Two Views of the Mississippi” Twain, p. 199
 “The Men We Carry in Our Minds” Sanders, p. 203
 “Neat People vs. Sloppy People” Britt, p. 208
 “Like Mexicans” Soto, p. 223
WEEK 13
 Argument and Persuasion: Students MUST learn Argument and Persuasion before they take
the Final Exam. Students also need to have the experience of relating one essay to another
(not necessarily from the same chapter) before the Final. The Argument section gives paired
readings that can easily be used for relating/synthesizing essays. [75+ Ch 10, 363]
DO NOT assign “An Indian Father’s Plea” since it is an exam essay.
 Suggested Readings:
 “Tapping into Text Messaging” Kornblum, p.364 and “Texting in Class is Rampant”
Rubinkam, P. 369.
 “Should This Student Have Been Expelled?” Hentoff, p. 373 and “Shouting Fire!”
Dershowitz, p. 382 (free speech)
 “I Have a Dream” King, p. 407 (This works well with Obama speech below.)
 “A More Perfect Union” Obama, available on http://camdencountyadjuncts.weebly.com/
(not in book)
 “To Any Would-Be Terrorists” Shihab Nye, p. 413 (religious tolerance)
 “Let Them Eat Dog” Safran Foer p. 428 (cultural differences)
The FINAL EXAM is based on “Alone on the Hilltop” (96) and “Superman and Me” (493) in the
Fall and “An Indian Father’s Plea” (422) and “Test Day” (487) in the Spring and Summer.
Assign these about one week in advance to be read and studied independently. DO NOT teach
the exam essays.
WEEK 14/15
 Review for FINAL EXAM: Students may discuss the exam essays in study groups in class.
 FINAL EXAM, open book: Students may refer to the text during the exam. Keep all exam
papers secure. They must be returned to you after review.
 Independent Project Presentations (optional)
 LAST DAY/INDIVIDUAL CONFERENCES
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