Course Description
This course is designed for beginning readers and writers who want to continue developing basic decoding skills, increase sight word recognition and spelling, improve their comprehension of simple reading passages and begin writing groups of sentences. Students will identify short and long-term personal goals for literacy learning. The course will emphasize behaviour and learning skills appropriate to the classroom and the community. Job related skills will be identified and integrated throughout the course where appropriate.
Course Content
Students will receive instruction in skills and strategies in the following areas (Cumulative):
Reading
- reading simple sentences;
- identifying parts of speech and end punctuation in simple sentences;
- using context clues to find meaning;
- employing pre-reading skills to enhance understanding (e.g. KWL, prediction);
- reading 150 to 300 personal and functional words (200-300 sight words);
- using phonics to decode unknown words.
Writing and Spelling
- printing or writing complete sentences;
- participating in brainstorming to generate writing;
- printing or writing short messages and one to three sentences to a familiar audience;
- printing or writing sentence answers to who? what? when? where? or why? questions about reading passages;
- using assigned vocabulary words appropriately in sentence writing;
- spelling approximately 75-100 sight words;
- using end punctuation correctly;
- using capitals at the beginning of sentences, and for proper nouns;
- spelling some consonant-vowel-consonant and consonant-vowel-consonant+ e words with basic suffixes.
Skills and Strategies for Classroom Learning
- identifying short and long term personal goals for literacy learning;
- working with concrete materials and actions and indicating preferences;
- working independently, for short periods of time on assigned tasks;
- concentrating on individual work during class;
- participating in group discussions and responding in a meaningful way;
- being aware of themselves as different from others, and with some help, identifing some of their attributes;
- organizing work for ready access, with help (e.g. organizing a three ring binder into sections);
- arriving for class and from breaks punctually and making arrangements for transportation, appointments and child-care to allow regular attendance.
Computer Skills
- learning basic word processing skills;
- naming hardware components;
- turning the computer on and off;
- opening word processing programs, typing and saving documents.
College and Community Resource Skills
- identifying personal needs and accessing appropriate college services and resources (e.g. counseling, women’s centre) with assistance;
- accessing the public library with assistance;
- understanding the concept of cities, provinces, countries.
Job-related Skills (in addition to those integrated above)
- maintaining and improving skills at the ENGU 0100 level course
- arriving punctually
- working as a team
- managing time
- following oral instructions
- reading words commonly used as safety warnings at job sites (e.g. danger, hazard);
- with assistance, completing basic forms personally identified as relevant;
- following simple written instructions.
Learning Activities
A combination of instructional methods will be employed in order to balance instructional efficiency with individual student needs, such as:
- tutorial
- class and small group instruction
- individual assistance in lab-tutorial or scheduled appointments
- pair work on tasks
- in-class reading and writing practice
- computer assisted learning
- instructor feedback
Means of Assessment
Student achievement will be measured using formative assessment tools and the mastery system in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. Evaluation will be based on learning outcomes and course content. Progress towards course objectives and personal literacy goals will be monitored on a regular basis by the instructor in consultation with the student. Students will receive ongoing f feedback from the instructor and informal progress reports. A student will have completed the course when satisfactory completion of exercises and assignments demonstrate that the course objectives have been achieved. Mastery will be granted to students who maintain regular attendance and punctuality and achieve an average of at least 70%. Evaluation will include, but need not be limited to, the following tasks:
Reading
- physically demonstrating activities required by directions (e.g. on a map, in a simple recipe);
- answering literal and inferential questions about a familiar topic;
- getting basic information from short, simple, notes or letters;
- stating or writing opinions about a familiar topic;
- identifying characters, main ideas, events in a story;
Writing
- writing sentences to answer who, what, where, when, why questions;
- writing phone messages, directions, emails, requests;
- writing an opinion about a familiar topic;
- writing an experience story of two to three sentences.
Sample grade breakdown (based on tasks):
|
1
|
Reading and following/demonstrating understanding of directions
|
10% (total)
|
|
2
|
Reading 5-7 sentence paragraphs / short stories and identify characters, main ideas, events in the paragraph/story
|
15% (total)
|
|
3
|
Writing life experience/written stories independently and answering literal questions (who, what, where, when, why) and inferential questions using the words and phrases in the question
|
10% (total)
|
|
4
|
Reading and Writing tasks giving or getting basic information (phone messages, directions, emails, requests)
|
15% (total)
|
|
5
|
Reading and Writing tasks involving personal and common sight words/abbreviations/symbols and assigned vocabulary
|
15% (total)
|
|
6
|
Writing 5 complete simple sentences independently with capitals and end punctuation
|
15% (total)
|
|
7
|
Written tasks involving capitalization/ use of punctuation / subject / verb / part of speech identification /completion
|
10% (total)
|
|
8
|
Participation & in-class work
|
10% (total)
|
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, successful students will be able to (cumulative):
Reading
- read and follow directions written in simple sentences using two formats (e.g. geographical, practical);
- read five to seven sentence paragraphs containing familiar topics and vocabulary, and supported with visual clues (e.g. illustrations).
Writing
- write five complete sentences;
- write two messages of one to three sentences to a familiar audience.
Supporting
- identify personal short and long-term goals for literacy learning;
- increase sight vocabulary of common words and personally relevant words (200-300);
- identify parts of speech and end punctuation in simple sentences;
- improve his/her phonic skills;
- develop an awareness of word context as a decoding strategy;
- write simple sentences to answer reading comprehension questions;
- develop a prewriting strategy to generate ideas;
- begin learning basic word processing;
- improve his/her ability to independently organize personal classroom materials;
- identify personal needs in relation to college and community resources and services;
- continue to develop the classroom and learning behaviours introduced in ENGU 0100 as well as
- develop classroom and job related time-management skills
- improve ability to work independently
- begin to develop interpersonal conflict-resolution strategies appropriate to the classroom context;
- begin to develop an understanding of basic civics.
Textbook Materials
Textbooks and Materials to be Purchased by Students
Students are required to supply a three-ring binder, paper, eraser, pen and pencil.