English 262: Reading Improvement Instructor: Mrs. Jean Gerstenberg
Classrooms:	FEM 8. INC-I	Phone: 638-3641 Home: 591-5217
Hours:	TTh 6:00-8: IS	E-Mail: gbird2~earthlink.net

Class Goals
Improve Your College Study Skills
• Time management	• Research skills
• Active reading	• Summarizing/retelling in your own words

Improve Your Vocabulary Skills
• Dictionary usage	• Knowledge of word parts
• Parts of speech	. Active and passive understanding

Improve Your College Reading Skills
• Concentrating	• Using clues to sentence meaning
• Identifying a main idea	• Following the author’s thinking
• Responding to text	• Connecting ideas to see the big picture

Improve Your Reading Speed by:
• Setting a Purpose for Reading • Changing old, ineffective reading habits
• Predicting the author’s message • Using prior knowledge to learn new things

Material to Buy:
• Textbook: Joining a Community of Readers: A Thematic Approach to Reading, by Alexander and Lombardi. Buy your own copy at the college bookstore as soon as possible. For emergencies, there is a copy on reserve in the Library. This copy may not leave the library.
• A three ring binder	 A set of five dividers
• Filler paper	• A good dictionary*
*Translating from language to language is a beginning learning strategy which is no longer effective at this level. For this reason, no bilingual dictionaries should be used. Also, no electronic dictionaries should be used, as they do not give enough information for this level of reading skill.
Attendance
Please arrive on time and ready to work. Please turn off your cell phone and/or pager when you enter the classroom if you should miss a quiz or an exam, it is your responsibility to arrange for the make-up. Failure to do so will result in your receiving a zero for that assignment. You may miss a maximum of five days before the March 12th drop date. On the sixth absence before that date, you will be dropped.

Credit
This is a 4-unit, credit/no credit class. You should know your progress at all times by keeping track of your scores on the Point Total Sheet. There are extra point opportunities built into the class work. For this reason, there is no additional extra credit given. Work may be handed in late only if it has not already been scored and returned to the class. To pass the class, you must earn a minimum of 600 points total on all work.