AWL highlighter

Dear students,
Please use the AWL highlighter to highlight the AWL words.

AWL highlighter

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

Portfolio Upload

Dear students,
Please use the form below to upload your portfolio articles (use the form three times). Ideally, you should show your article to me first, then I will grade it, and then you should upload. At the end of the semester I will check them for plagiarism and regrade if they have been edited.
You may edit your articles after you have uploaded by using the link in your email responses.

Portfolio Upload

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

June 11th lesson

Dear students,
Today you will take the AWL 4B test and then upload your first portfolio report. After that, do the extensive reading, and if you finish, show me.

AWL 4B worksheet

AWL 4B online test

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

June 4th lesson

Dear students,
Today you will look at paragraphs (2.6). Then you will show me your summary and opinion of your first article. Make sure that your in-text citation and reference are in APA format and correct.
After that you will study the AWL wordlist.

AWL 4A worksheet

AWL 4A online test

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

May 28th lesson

Dear students,
Today you will have science news test which will be 24 multiple choice questions (T/F or a/b/c/d) about the first six articles on the CELESE website for this semester. The test is worth 8 points.
After that you will have an AWL practice test.

AWL 3B worksheet

AWL 3B online test

Then you will continue with the textbook.
Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

May 21st lesson

Dear students,
Today you will study the AWL 3A words.

AWL 3A worksheet

AWL 3A online test 

Then you will learn more about abbreviations and technical terms, so please download and bring the technical word and abbreviation worksheet to class. Then you will learn about paragraphs (2.5). Finally, you will study APA formatted references.

APA formatted references matching exercise

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

PS.
The answers to the APA formatted references matching excercise are here:
APA formatted reference matching excercise answers

May 14th lesson

Dear students,
Today you will study the AWL 2B words.

AWL 2B worksheet

AWL 2B online test

Then you will learn about APA formatted in-text citations.

APA in-text citation matching exercise

An after that you will study about technical terms and abbreviations (2.3) and work on your portfolio summaries and reaction statements, which should be about 150 words each. Please show me your in-text citations and references for your first portfolio articles, which should be formatted in APA style.
Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

May 7th lesson

Dear students,
Today you will study the AWL 2A.

AWL 2A worksheet

AWL 2A online test

After that you will learn about reaction statements (5.1) and practice identifying topics and main ideas, so please download print 2.1 (1-6) and bring it to class.
Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

April 23rd lesson

Dear students,
Today you will learn about word types (2.1), and topics and main ideas (3.2). You will also try the AWL 1.B online test.
Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

Monday April 16th lesson

Dear students,
Today we will check the answers to the AWL 1A matching homework and do exercises 1.2 (interests), 1.3 (motivations), and 2.2 (Academic Word  List) from the textbook.
If you have chosen your first portfolio article and are unsure about its appropriateness, let me see it today and I will give advice.
For homework, please try AWL 1B.

AWL 1B matching woksheet

AWL 1B online matching practice test

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

Monday April 9th lesson

Dear students,
Please print out and complete the homework below by next lesson.

AWL 1A worksheet

Alternatively, you may practice online. It is to your advantage to include your student ID when doing the exercise (as it is a record of your endeavour), but you may be anonymous if you wish. Please also check the radio button for which class you are in as I would like to monitor classes separately. You may do the exercise as many times as you like.

AWL 1A online practice test

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

AR syllabus

Academic Reading 1

Spring 2018

Chris Elvin

Contact:before or after class, or email via CELESE website

Class blog: http://elvinar.blogspot.jp/

Required textbook:

Rose, R. (2016). Academic Reading in Science and Engineering Book 1. Tokyo: Waseda University.

Course Description

Welcome to Academic Reading 1. This course has been designed to help you improve your academic reading ability through study and discussion of newspaper, magazine, and journal articles of varying lengths related to important issues in science and engineering. Emphasis will be placed on developing a deep understanding of sentence and text structure, and on developing micro and macro reading skills, so that relevant information can be found quickly and effectively without the need for translation into Japanese. In particular, you will be urged to start understanding English in English. You will also be encouraged to read beyond the target texts to gain a deeper understanding of the topics covered. After completing the course, you should be familiar with a wide range of academic texts, be able to understand and apply a wide range of reading skills necessary to tackle such texts, and have an understanding of recent issues in science and engineering.

Course Goals

Goal 1: To Learn the first 300 words of the Academic Word List

Goal 2: To guess word meaning from context

Goal 3: To recognize technical word definitions

Goal 4: To understand pronouns and restatements

Goal 5: To understand logical connectors

Goal 6: To understand topics and main ideas

Goal 7: To develop fluency in comprehending academic texts: your portfolio.

Grading

a) Portfolio

Your portfolio should contain 3 articles*. Make sure to include the source and date of your article, and do not use articles that were published earlier than the date of the beginning of the semester. If you read an article from a website, please cite the URL, as well as printing it out. You should number the articles, and for each article, you should highlight all the academic words (those which appear in the Academic Word List 570). You should identify the technical and unfamiliar words and write a definition of these words, or translate them into Japanese. Finally, in your own words, you should write a one paragraph accurate summary of about 150 words, and a reaction statement paragraph of similar length. This means that you should not copy from the original text (not one sentence, or even part of a sentence). At the end of the semester (or earlier), you will hand in your portfolio to me for final assessment. Your portfolio should be entirely your own original work, and it should not be recycled from other courses or colleagues.

* The length of the articles that you read should be over 1000 words, with 700 words as an absolute minimum.

* Do not recycle old articles from previous semesters or from fellow students.

* Do not use the CELESE Trending Science News articles.

* Do not use English language learning websites that provide learning support.

(You may use such sites for studying English, of course).

* Choose articles which you find interesting.

* Your portfolio should demonstrate your integrity: responsibility, respect, trust, honesty, fairness, and courage.

* Each article should include its reference in APA format.

Serious willful plagiarism will be heavily penalized.

Lazy foolish copying will be punished.

Do not copy sentences. Do not copy strings of words of more than five words long. Do not copy sentences and change the words. Your summary should be in your words.

b) Science News Quizzes

There will be two tests during the semester. These tests will be based on the linked articles that are uploaded to the CELESE website on a weekly basis.

Science News Test 1 (8 points)

Science News Test 2 (8 points)

c) Intensive Reading

Students should complete five intensive reading exercises in the textbook and show them to her teacher. (5 points)

d) Academic Word List Quizzes

There will be many practice exercises for you to master the Academic Word List. At the end of the semester, you will have two Academic Word List tests.

a)  Match Academic Word List words with their definitions. (10 points)

b)  Fill in the blanks of a text with Academic Word List words that you can choose from the list provided. (10 points)

e) Final Test

This test is prepared by CELESE department and is scheduled after our final lesson as a class. For further information, and to view previous copies of the test, please check the CELESE website. (32 points)

Evaluation and Grading Criteria

a)  Portfolio: 27%

b)  Science News Quizzes 16%

c)   Intensive Reading 5%

d)  Academic Word List Quizzes 20%

e)  Final Test: 32%

Cheating:

The maximum grade for anyone suspected of cheating will be “C”.

Please do your best, be honest and diligent, and good luck!

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Chris Elvin

Welcome to Chris Elvin's Waseda University Academic Reading Blog - April 2018

Dear students,
Welcome to the course.
Please visit here every week before and after class. I will be posting regularly about the lesson content, homework assignments for you to download, and occasional changes or updates.
Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

Science News Test 2 - January 2018

Science News TEST 2

Science News Test - November 2017

Dear students,
To take the Science News Test, please click on the link below.

SCIENCE NEWS TEST

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin