Course Outline for English 210
English Jam: Non-Credit Preparation for English Composition

Effective: Fall 2024
SLO Rev:
Catalog Description:

ENGL 210 - English Jam: Non-Credit Preparation for English Composition

27.00 Hours

May be repeated 99 time(s)
In the English Jam, students will review and practice components of academic reading and writing in a supportive environment. This course will emphasize strategies for active reading, reading comprehension, and critical thinking about texts. Students will practice pre-writing, drafting, and revision strategies with brief assignments and a more extended essay. This is a non-credit class, tuition-free and repeatable, and can count towards earning a Non-credit Preparation for English Composition certificate.
1501.00 - English
Pass/No Pass/Satisfactory Progress
Type Hours
Lecture 27.00
Total 27.00
Measurable Objectives:
Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:
  1. demonstrate critical thinking and reading skills in both class discussion and in writing:
    A. practicing critical thinking and reading skills, and enhance and develop comprehension skills;
    B. identifying arguments in reading, and presenting an argument in writing;
    C. discussing how racism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and classism shape the contexts for thinking, reading, and writing;
  2. take charge of reading, apply strategies to annotate and unlock the meaning from texts, including:
    A. identifying passages that are causing difficulty to comprehension;
    B. identifying and correcting reading miscues;
    C. understanding such text features as text structure, transitions, captions, charts, graphs, etc;
  3. demonstrate composition strategies preparing students for college-level standards of academic prose:
    A. generating ideas for writing based on the reading, using a variety of pre- and post-reading and prewriting techniques;
    B. organizing coherent essays by summarizing central ideas;
    C. providing evidence primarily from the reading to support points;
    D. recognizing and practicing features of academic voice;
    E. writing sentences demonstrating control of basic sentence structure;
    F. developing editing and proofreading strategies of his/her/their own prose;
    G. focusing on metacognitive development including differentiating fact from opinion.
Course Content:
  1. Instruction integrating critical thinking, reading, and writing
    1. Reading and writing as meaning-making processes
  2. Reading and writing as tools for meaning-making
    1. ​​​​​​​Using one's cultural capital to engage in academic discourse
    2. Using one's cultural and linguist capital in to amplify students' voices in academic setting
    3. Elements of academic culture, including texts as conversation, attribution, re-mixing of ideas
  3. Reading and critical thinking
    1. Strategies for making meaning of text.
    2. Active reading, including summarizing and posing questions.
    3. Critical reading, including making connections, exploring significance, and evaluating evidence.
    4. Reading for conceptual understanding and synthesizing multiple ideas from reading.
    5. Forming legitimate inference.
  4. Academic writing
    1. Forming a controlling idea in writing.
    2. Essay structure.
    3. Evaluating specific data/evidence used to support general ideas.
    4. Understanding audience in reading and writing.
    5. Sentence focus and development.
  5. Individualized instruction in reading and writing skills, including modeling and practicing reading strategies.
Methods of Instruction:
  1. Presentation
  2. Group Activities
  3. Practice/Demonstration
  4. Distance Education
  5. Textbook reading assignments
  6. Class and group discussions
  7. Activity play
  8. Large and small group presentation
  9. Lecture/Discussion
  10. One-on-one coaching
  11. Written assignments
  12. Oral and Written Analysis
Assignments and Methods of Evaluating Student Progress:
  1. Dialog Journal: Read the Chapter 1 from Enrique's Journey. Your reading response journal allows you to "talk to the text" as you read--and take more space to interact with the text than you do in your annotations. This will help with comprehension, class participation, and with gathering material for your writing. Each week we will work on recording our reading responses. This assignment requires you to record six (or more) places where you stopped and thought about your reading. You will record a quotation from the reading, then you will record your observations or response. (Usually about 3 sentence, but sometimes more in depth).
  2. After reading the brief reading "Superman and Me," answer: Why are so many of the kids at Sherman Alexie’s school resistant to learning? Why does Alexie think reading will save their lives? Respond in paragraph implementing the elements of PIE (Point/Illustration/Explanation), citing two specific examples from the text.
  1. Written assignments
  2. Journals
  3. Demonstration of practice and skills
Upon the completion of this course, the student should be able to:
  1. organize a paper so that it is unified and coherent;
  2. demonstrate sentence-level fluency and control of grammar.
  3. respond to a topic, demonstrating critical thinking, comprehension and use of text to support ideas;
Textbooks (Typical):
  1. Trevor Noah (2016). Classic in the field of composition; in particular used with introductory composition classes. One World.
  2. Dashka Slater (2017). The 57 Bus Farrar S.
  3. Sonia Nazario (2007). Enrique's Journey: The Story of a Boy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother Random House.
Abbreviated Class Schedule Description:
In the English Jam students will review and practice components of academic reading and writing in a supportive environment. This is a non-credit class, tuition-free and repeatable, and can count towards earning a Non-credit Preparation for English Composition certificate.
Discipline:
English*