Bunker Hill Community College

ESL 076 ACADEMIC NOTE-TAKING I w/(RWGXC)

w/reading, writing, and grammar across the curriculum

This low intermediate course focuses on listening and note-taking skills. Students will begin to develop a system for note-taking and learn how to use their notes to answer comprehension questions and summarize lectures. All listening and note-taking activities will include reading and writing exercises. Grammar is taught in the context of the materials used for listening and reading activities and in student generated writing. This course must be completed with a “C” grade or better in order to take ESL 086.

Prerequisite: A grade of C or better in all ESL level I courses or ESL Placement test.

GOAL Upon completion of this course, students will develop a preliminary system for note-taking, which enables them to use their notes to answer comprehension questions, and write summaries, reactions, and paragraphs based on the information from academic lectures presented in class and readings assigned as homework.

OBJECTIVES I. Listening/Note taking

A. While listening to lectures of varying lengths between 5-20 minutes, students will be able to note:

1. the speaker’s agenda if given

2. main ideas

3. supporting details

4. specific information

5. relationships between ideas

B. Based on their understanding of lectures and their notes, students will be able to:

1. draw inferences

2. use context clues to define new vocabulary

3. answer comprehension questions w/at least 75% accuracy

4. summarize main points

5. distinguish facts from opinions

C. Over the course of the semester, students will demonstrate significant improvement in understanding lectures of increasing difficulty by practicing the following skills:

1. Note-taking while listening to lectures

2. filling in outlines of lectures

3. summarizing lectures in writing

4. reacting to lectures verbally and in written form

D. Over the course of the semester, students will demonstrate significant

improvement in sound discrimination in the following areas:

1. Distinguish 3 sounds of “S”- “s”/ “z”/ “ez”, and “ED”- “t”/ “d”/ “id”

2. recognize speech reductions such as “gonna,” “wanna”, “hafta”, “didja”

3. distinguish the sounds of “S” and “ED”

4. distinguish helping verbs

5. recognize academic lecture cues and transition signals

II. READING

A. Prior to or after listening to an academic lecture, students will be assigned a reading passage of 350-500 words related to the topic. Over the course of the semester, the length and difficulty of the reading passages should increase in order to challenge the students’ levels of academic literacy. In class activities and homework assignments over

the course of the semester, students will repeatedly:

1. demonstrate at least 75% comprehension of the assigned readings

2. relate the ideas of the reading passage to the lecture and vice versa

3. understand and use the master schedule

4. make significant progress on the ESL 078 reading curriculum objectives

5. gather information from several sources on a factual topic related to class activities

III. WRITING

A. After listening to lectures, students will write summaries based on their notes. After reading articles on topics related to the lectures, students are expected to write personal reactions to the readings. In class activities and homework assignments over the course of the semester, students will demonstrate writing proficiency by doing the following:

1. write summary paragraphs of lectures based on notes both as in-class assessments and as homework

2. write an opinion paragraph in reaction to lectures, relating one’s own ideas to those of the lecture and reading passages

3. freely and frequently write journal entries on topics related to classroom activities

4. score at least 3.6 on the REEP rubric on an in class writing assignment by semester’ end

5. write a 1-2 page factual report as part of a project that involves extending a topic related to class activities

6. write at least 3 drafts of the factual report on a research based project

IV. GRAMMAR/EDITING OBJECTIVES

In the context of the class lectures, readings, and student-generated writing, students will practice or review the following structures:

1. present and past real conditionals

2. quotations

3. simple and continuous aspects of present, past, and future tenses

4. gerunds and infinitives

5. subordination with for, and, but, or, yet, so,

6. expansion of nouns with adjectives

7. editing the errors in drafts of a report on a research based project

V. PROJECT-BASED LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will extend their knowledge of a topic related to class activities by doing research and writing a
report. In doing so, students will:

1. use resources such as encyclopedias, almanacs, and periodicals to gather facts

2. choose a factual topic related to personal interests, career/educational goals, etc.

3. evaluate the usefulness of sources, relevance to one’s topic

4. revise at least two drafts before submitting a final draft

5. quote, paraphrase and cite sources

6. base report on notes taken from readings

RECOMMENDATIONS

A. RECOMMENDED TEXTBOOKS 1. Contemporary Topics 1, 2nd ed. Ellen Kisslinger/Michael Rost. Longman. 2002

ISBN 0-13-094853-5

2. Quest L/S in the Academic World, Book 1 Hartmann/Blass McGraw-Hill 2000.

ISBN 0-07- 006249-8

3. Tapestry Listen/Speak 2, Hartmann/McGill, ITP:2000, ISBN 08384-0016-7

4. an English dictionary, American Heritage ESL Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin. 1998.

ISBN 0-395-873-7

5. Talk it Up Joann Rishe Kozyrev/Marni Baker Stein. Houghton Mifflin. 2001.

ISBN 0-618-01268-0

B. RECOMMENDED TEACHING PROCEDURES

1. Prior to listening to or after lectures, students should be given a reading passage of at least 500 words related to the topic as homework.

2. Some lectures should be delivered by live speakers, while others may be delivered by audiotape or videotape.

3. Students’ notes should be evaluated by the teacher periodically.

4. Students should write summaries of the lectures based on their notes both in-class and as homework.

5. Students should write frequently about topics related to lectures and readings.

6. Students should revise and edit a t least one long, or several short writing assignments.

7. Students should be given 2-4 in-class writing assignments, which should be assessed w/the REEPwriting Rubric.

C. RECOMMENDED PROJECTS

1. mini-research paper of 1-2 pages on topic related to class activities

2. conduct interviews on topic related to class activities, write report

3. watch movie and write movie review

4. listen to and then review of book on tape

5. prepare and give a mini-lecture to the class

6. critique a TV series or program

D. RECOMMENDED GRADING SCHEME

1. Note taking portfolio 15-25%

2. Lecture summaries 20-40%

3. Journal 15-25%

4. Project 10-20%

5. In-class assessments 15-25%

6. Attendance and participation 10-20%

E. RECOMMENDED EXIT CRITERIA

1. By taking notes and writing a summary of a lecture prepared for students of an intermediate level of ESL, student demonstrates at least 75% comprehension of the information presented.

2. In response to an open-ended question designed to elicit a reaction to the lecture, student relates own ideas to those of the lecture by writing at least a paragraph, which can be independently scored at least 3.6 on the REEP rubric.