January 17th 2011 lesson

Dear students,

Please hand in your portfolios for inspection today. There are three short academic word gap fill exercises for you to do. After that, you may study for the final test.

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

December 20 lesson

Dear students,

Today, you will have a thirty-minute practice test. You may spend more time or less time on this exercise, if you wish. After the practice test, please carry on with your portfolio. At the end of the lesson, or when everyone has finished, we will go over the test.

Kind regards,

Chris

December 13 lesson

Dear students,

Today you will have your final academic word list test. There will be twenty paragraphs about science related topics. For each paragraph there will be an average of five blanks for you to fill in from the list of academic words which are below each paragraph.

The test will be 70 minutes in length.

Kind regards,

Chris

December 6th lesson

Dear students,

Today there is a 10-point academic word matching test. This will be similar to the one we did on November 29th. After this, please carry on with your portfolio.

I would also like to check everyone's portfolio today to see how you are getting on. Please have your portfolio ready.

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

November 29 lesson

Dear students,

Today is the deadline in your Cornell homework, so please hand it in at the beginning of the lesson. In class, you will have two practice tests to get you ready for the two 10-point academic word list tests coming soon. You do not need to print out the files because I will be bringing copies to class.

The two prints are:

gap fill test 6

matching 1-10 A

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

October 22 lesson

Dear students,

Today, you will do a thirty-minute reading fluency exercise which will count as 5 points toward your grade. After that, you will do the matching exercise for the last academic word sub-list, 10.pdf. If there is time today, you may carry on with your 10-article portfolio.

Note, that you no longer need to download anything from the blog, as the office will print for you. This includes sublist 10 matching above. However, please check the blog every week for announcements about homework and mini-tests.

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

November 15 lesson

Dear students,

Today you will do matching test 9b, practice an academic word gap fill exercise, and if there is time start your Cornell note taking 5-point homework. You may choose any article or text for this assignment. The deadline is November 29th.

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

November 8 lesson

Dear students,

Today we will have a text structure 5-point test. (There will be ten short passages for you to identify the structure, similar to what we did in class). Today is also the deadline for you to hand in your 5-point SQ3R homework. After the test, you will do the matching exercise sublist 9A. If there is free time, please continue with your portfolio.

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

November 1 lesson

Dear students,

Please analyze the article below using SQ3R:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827834.600-bisphenol-a-is-everywhere--is-it-safe.html. The deadline for this homework is November 8. It is worth 5 points towards your grade.

In today's lesson, You will do test 8B, learn about the Cornell note taking method in your textbook, and take a practice Academic Word Gap Fill test: 9.4(4).

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

October 25 lesson

Dear students,

Today, you will do AWL matching exercise 8A. Then we will look at unit 8 of the textbook (time order / cause and effect). After that we will read about text organization and do an exercise on text organization. If there is time, you may carry on with your portfolios

October 18 lesson

Today, you will take test 7B. Then we will look at Unit 7 of the textbook (comparison / contrast). After that, please carry on with your portfolios. I can check them, if you wish.

Here is a print you may use for doing SQ3R.

Text structure: Within your article, identify the text structure of any one paragraph. Highlight the signal words within the paragraph, too.

TOEIC test dates

Dear students,

I have been asked to remind you all to please take the next TOEIC test which will be on January 30, 2011.

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

http://www.celese.sci.waseda.ac.jp/node/52

October 11 lesson

Dear students,

Today we will look at the new and finalized 2010 syllabus (which has changed), and the grading system for AR2. After that you will do the AWL test 7A, and then we will look at the Cornell note taking method in the textbook. If there is any time left, please show me your portfolio article(s).

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

How to find the Academic Words in your articles

Dear students,

Here is a link to a website that will find the Academic Word List words for you automatically.

Just paste in your words (to a maximum of 2400 characters), and your academic words will be highlighted.

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/awlhighlighter.htm

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

CHANGES TO THE COURSE

Dear students,

There have been some changes made to the course which makes my initial course outline invalid. Please download the course outline again. This outline is now final. Sorry for the inconvenience.

(There is no reading for pleasure in the new course).

Please start work on your portfolio soon. You may not be ready to identify the text organization, or take notes using SQ3R or the Cornell method yet, but you will be doing this in class, soon.

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

October 4 lesson

Dear students,

In today's lesson, we will do AWL test 6b and study unit 6 of the textbook. After this, we will start our portfolios. Please bring your first article to class. Finally, if there is time, we will read for pleasure. Please also bring your reading book and record to class.

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

reading sources for your portfolio

Dear students,

There are many good sites to read about science on the Internet in English.

Here is a link to just a few of the sites I use.

http://www.eflclub.com/waseda/readinglinks.html

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

September 27 Lesson

Hello again everyone, and welcome back.

Today, I will introduce this semester's schedule (course outline), afterwhich we do AWL test 6A,

and start unit 6 of the textbook. If there is time, you may start your portfolio or read for pleasure (download log here).

July 12 lesson

Dear students,

Today is your last lesson before the test on July 19th. Please hand in your reading logs today. You should use this lesson to prepare for the test. The outline of the test should help you to review your materials.

If you wish, you may also do a matching review exercise, or a gap fill test.

Please make good use of your time.

Kind regards,

Chris

July 5 lesson

Dear students,

Today you will take the final matching test (5B), and then finish the exercise on topics and main ideas (2.1).

Kind regards,

Chris

June 28 lesson

Dear students,

Today you will do matching test 5A. Then we will briefly look at chapter 5 of the textbook (topics and main ideas). After that please start the print that I handed out on June 21st (2.1).

Regards,

Chris

June 21 lesson

Dear students,

Today you will finish the print on logical connectors, and take matching test 4B. I will bring this test to class (I have a computer software problem).

Best,

Chris

June 14 lesson

Dear students,

Today we will do matching test 4A, look at unit 4 of the textbook, and then do an exercise about logical connectors. Please download 2.2 logical connectors and the corresponding information sheet.

Best,

Chris

June 7 lesson

Dear students,

Today, I would like to check your reading log and see your reader. After that, we will check the homework 3.1 (16-30), and then do matching test 3b.pdf.

May 31 lesson

Dear students,

Please bring your reader and record sheet to the lesson.

Today, we will do matching exercise 3A, and restatement print 3.1. After that, and if there is time, please read for pleasure.

Kind regards,

Chris

May 24 lesson

Today, we will do matching test 2B, and then study chapter 3 of the textbook.

Final Test date - July 19

Dear students,

Your final test will be in class on July 19th. This will be worth 50% of your grade. (The other 50% will be from your reading for pleasure, and an academic word matching exercise that we will do at the end of the semester. The matching exercise will be based on the first five sublists.)

There will be no standardized test by CELESE. Your in class test will be made by me, and be unique to each class.

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

May 17 lesson

Today, we will do sublist 2A test, and then practice searching for definitions within a text (3.2). Please bring these two downloads to class. Thank you.

May 10 lesson

Dear students,

For homework, please finish print 3.3 (prefixes, roots and suffixes). In class, we will look at Unit 2 and do the matching test sublist 1B. Please download this print and bring it to class.

Academic Reading in Science

Dear Students,

Academic Reading in Science is now available from Amazon.co.jp.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/Academic-Reading-Science-Students-Language/dp/1451566085/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=english-books&qid=1272229465&sr=8-2

This will certainly help you with your studies!

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

April 26 Lesson

Today, we will check the homework (3.4), do Sublist 1A test in class, and learn a little bit more about prefixes and suffixes (3.3). Please bring the downloads to class. Thank you.

April 19 Lesson

Please start to study the words in Academic Words List Sublist 1 (see CELESE website for these lists). We will have a matching test on April 26th.

Today, we will study words in context (chapter 1). If there is time, we will try to identify words in context from the supplementary print 3.4context and 8.5prefixes, which you should download and bring to class.

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

Welcome to Chris Elvin's Waseda University Academic Reading 2010 blog.

Welcome to AR1. If you did not get a copy of my course description, please download it here. You can also download your reading for pleasure log here. Finally, if you would like to purchase a copy of Academic Reading in Science, please visit your university bookstore or Amazon.com.

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin