College Readiness Academy - LACC
Language Arts – Basic English Skills
Academic Prep, GED and CAHSEE Prep
Fall 2011
Los Angeles City College (LACC) Noncredit Department
John Dentino, instructor
“Outside of a dog, a book is your best
friend, and inside of a dog, it's too
dark to read.” — Groucho Marx
Welcome
to athe
LACC
College
“Outside of
dog,
a book
is your best
Readiness
Academy’s
language
friend, and inside of a dog, it's too
arts
These
16 weeks
are dedarkclass.
to read.”
— Groucho
Marx
signed to help you prepare for passing community college English department
well best
as
“Outside entrance
of a dog, atests
bookas
is your
GED
or and
CAHSEE
tests.
friend,
inside of
a dog, it's too
dark to read.” — Groucho Marx
This class’s Web address is:
www.caaenglish.pbworks.com
“Outside of a dog, a book is your best
Class
friend,conduct
and inside of a dog, it's too
You
enrolled
in a college
darkare
to now
read.”
— Groucho
Marx class
where you’re in charge of your own education. Don’t be shy about asking
questions when you don’t understand
“Outside
of on.
a dog, a book is your best
what’s
going
friend, and inside of a dog, it's too
Please
and turn
off or
dark toarrive
read.”on—time
Groucho
Marx
silence cell phones. Please don’t text
message during class but rather wait
until break.
“Outside of a dog, a book is your best
Course
for success:
friend, Requirements
and inside of a dog,
it's too
Good
attendance,
journal
writing,
dark to read.” — Groucho
Marx and
completion of homework and a final
exam.
Writing
materials
“Outside
of a dog, a book is your best
Bring
a lined
paper of
notebook
andtoo
penfriend,
and inside
a dog, it's
cils/pens to class.
with these student learning outcomes:
• Improve your strategies for a better, more enjoyable reading experience
• Increase your comprehension at every level of what you read, from
the vocabulary, to the syntax (the way words are ordered), to the
grammar and punctuation
• Organize your writing for logic and easy understanding.
• Make connections between what you’ve read and personal
knowledge and experience.
• Understand the process of writing, including brainstorming, outlining, rough drafts, and rewriting.
• Identify and correctly use basic grammar rules, such as SVA, Punctuation rules, Modifiers, Tense shifts, etc.
• Practice precision and conciseness in your writing.
• Show competence in effectively writing a persuasive, expository, and
personal essay
• Identify and correctly use similes, metaphors, personification, and
other figurative language.
• Demonstrate an understanding of reading comprehension strategies
such as SQ3R
• Improve the mechanics of writing from the sentence level to the
paragraph level, and finally, the essay as a whole
Weeks 1 & 2 – Introduction to College Level Reading and Writing •Daily journaling - how to keep a personal journal and turn it into
a personal essay. Students will be exposed to the stages of the writing
process (creative brainstorming, outlining, and clustering), read some
exciting example essays, then break into groups and analyze their
strengths and weaknesses.
dark to read.” — Groucho Marx
Texts
These will be handouts distributed for
your
use inof
the
classroom.
“Outside
a dog,
a bookPlease
is your bring
best
your
own
dictionary.
friend,
and
inside of a dog, it's too
dark Dentino’s
to read.” —contact
Groucho
Marx
John
info:
If you have any questions about what’s
required, or you’re not going to make it
to“Outside
class, you
call
me atis323-528of may
a dog,
a book
your best
0119
or e-mail
me at:
friend,
and inside
of a dog, it's too
dark to read.” — Groucho Marx
johndentino@gmail.com
This class is designed to help you
“Outside of a dog, a book is your best
friend, and inside of a dog, it's too
dark to read.” — Groucho Marx
Week 3 & 4 – Developing Main Ideas and Supporting Details
Patterns of organization, transitions and types of relationships between different parts of the essay. Developing the skills of the persuasive as well as expository essay form, including comparison, contrast,
cause and effect, and other techniques
Weeks 5 & 6 – Writing Mechanics – The nuts and bolts of writing
require mastery on the sentence, paragraph, and essay levels.
•Grammar and punctuation, parts of speech, definition of a sentence,
sentence types (simple, compound, complex), subordinating ideas, sentence diagramming, subject-verb agreement, evaluating your work
and using proofreading marks.
Program Benefits: Free course
materials, one on one and group
tutoring, college survival workshops, and academic and career
advisement. NOTE: CalWorks
students purchase GED textbook individually at their own
expense.
Disability Accommodation
Statement: Students with a verified disability who may need reasonable accommodations for this
class are encouraged to notify the
instructor and contact the Office
for Special Services (for City College CH109 323-953-4000 X2270)
as soon as possible. All information will remain confidential.
District Academic Dishonesty
Policy: 9803.28 Academic Dishonesty. Violations of Academic
Integrity include, but are not limited to, the following actions:
cheating on an exam, plagiarism,
working together on an assignment, paper or project when the
instructor has specifically stated
students should not do so, submitting the same term paper to more
than one instructor, or allowing
another individual to assume one’s
identity for the purpose of enhancing one’s grade.
Basic Skills Enrollment Limitation: Title 5, California Code of
Regulations, limits student from
taking more than 30 units of “remedial” course work, which is defined as “nondegree-applicable
basic skills courses.” For more information on the limit and alternative noncredit courses that provide basic skills services, please
contact a college counselor and the
Matriculation website.
• Parallel construction
• Run-ons, fragments, dangling modifiers,
comma splices
• Punctuation and its function within a sentence;
capitalization, proper spelling. your work and using proofreading
marks.
Weeks 7 & 8 – Detailed Writing – Constructing well organized paragraphs with topic sentences; drafting and revision techniques
•The five paragraph essay •thesis statements •persuasive,
expository, biographical, business, and literary response writing
•peer review assignments and workshops
Weeks 9 & 10 – Fundamentals of critical thinking and
argumentation •paraphrasing
•avoiding plagiarism
• bibliography
•
citing sources for a research paper, including interview sources
• MLA documentation style/bibliographies •the fundamentals of research
• the I-
Search paper • library resources - books, reference materials, electronic publications
• Internet Web sites (commercial, educational, governmental)
• personal interviews, firsthand experiences
Week 8 – Word Analysis – context clues, signal words, punctuation
clues, multiple choice strategies, structure clues, etymology
Weeks 9– Grammar and Punctuation – parts of speech, defining
the sentence, sentence types (simple, compound, complex), subordinating ideas, sentence diagramming, subject-verb agreement, misplaced
and dangling modifiers
Weeks 10 & 11 – Introduction to Fiction
•Reading fiction for fun and enrichment – novels, short stories, poetry,
and drama
•Literary Response and Analysis
•Similes, Metaphors, personification, and other figurative language
•Fiction vs. non-fiction •Literary terms • Elements of fiction
•Reading nonfiction for the main idea and supporting details.
•Expanding your vocabulary with the use of context clues.
•Inferences vs. direct statements
Weeks 12 & 13 — Special Topics as introduced through the screeing
of documentary films •politics, sociology, psychology, business, technology, education, and more • advanced thesis development •essay
response to films
Weeks 14 & 15 – Practice writing workshops and GED testing
strategies Students will have plenty of opportunity to workshop with
the teacher and hone their writing for the final week.
Week 16 – Final essays and multiple-choice test – You’ll be able to
use everything you’ve learned in this last week. The tests are meant to
tell you where you are in your journey toward improvement.