Textbooks
Great Writing 3, 5th edition, by Keith Folse, Elena Vestri, David Clabeaux National Geographic Learning/Cengage ISBN=978-0-357-02084-5
Readings about global issues and sustainable solutions
Course description: Low-Advanced ESOL. Designed to develop student's ability to write basic essays. Emphasis is on controlling grammar at sentence level and organizing ideas into well-constructed essays with adequate support. Course includes reading academic text and summary writing. S/U grading.
Course outcomes: Upon successful completion of this course, each student should be able to...
Write an introduction for an essay.
Write a concluding paragraph.
Organize supporting ideas.
Use appropriate transitions to connect ideas.
Use appropriate vocabulary.
Correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors, once identified by instructor.
Summarize ideas in assigned reading without copying phrases from the original text.
Identify a set of terms used in conferencing, including subject, verb, tense, preposition, prepositional phrase, pronoun, possessive, infinitive, subordinator, independent and dependent clause.
Core learning abilities: WCC's core learning abilities (CLAs) - communicating, information literacy, quantitative reasoning, social justice, and thinking - are overarching skills that are taught and reinforced throughout our curriculum and a student's time at WCC. These skills are integral to students' professional and personal lives. This course will give you the opportunity to practice and develop one or more of these core learning abilities.
Course format
Standard – This class meets in person. The best way to reach me outside of class is by email or Canvas message. You can also attend my office hours or schedule an appointment to meet with me.
Course requirements and policies
All ESOL courses are graded either S (Satisfactory) or U (Unsatisfactory). At the end of the quarter I will give you a grade report to inform you of your final average for this course. You must have a grade of 75% or above to get an S grade for this course.
Here is how I will assess your grade for this class:
Homework and in-class work 25% of final grade
Out of class final drafts (OCE) 25% of final grade
Quizzes and tests 20% of final grade
In-class Essays (ICE) 20% of final grade
Reading Journals & Attendance 10% of final grade
For a few homework assignments I will not give a grade; I will just give a check if it is correct. I will also use the system below. Some of your homework and in-class work will be graded with the following marks:
+
Very good work
100 points
ü+
Good work
90 points
ü
Satisfactory work
80 points
ü—
Poor work
70 points
—
Very poor work
60 points
Late Homework –Please complete your assignments by the due date. If you miss homework, you will get 35% at best. HOMEWORK MORE THAN A WEEK LATE WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. Missed quizzes can be arranged to be taken at the Testing Center.
Reading Response Journals
I believe that reading and writing are very connected and that, in general, good readers make good writers, and international student readers of English make good writers of English. These are the primary motivations behind assigning reading journals to Transition ESOL students. I primarily want to read what you thought about what you read; therefore, your RRJ should be mostly (more than 50%) about what you thought about what your read. For ESOL 113, students will be required to complete and turn in 10 reading journals.
You will read 1 hour a week independently of my reading assignments. You do not have to read the one hour in one sitting. You can read 30 minutes one day, and 30 minutes another. Every Monday, please submit your reading journal in a blue book in this manner:
Name
Date
Source/Title of book/article
Number of pages read
Time spent reading
Homework and Essay Drafts
Notice that homework comprises the largest percentage of your final grade. The work that you do outside of class demonstrates to me the seriousness of your wanting to succeed in your classes. I assign homework that I think will help you become a better writer, reader, and user of English grammar.
Use of AI programs (ChatGPT)
The use of AI writing tools such as ChatGPT is acceptable in this class, however you must state at the beginning of your assignment what AI tool you used, list the search parameters you used to generate your response, and highlight the sections in the written response that are your own words or your revisions to the AI generated text. Follow the example declaration provided in Canvas, if you use an AI writing tool on an assignment.
Attendance
For this quarter, I am trying a new strategy to help you get a better grade by coming to class. Because students who fail usually do so because they miss classes, I am counting attendance (together with your RRJs) as 10% of your final grade. If you are more than 5 minutes late to class, I will mark you on Canvas as absent. If you are absent more than 5 times this quarter (that is more than one week of classes), you will not be able to pass this class.
Tests/Quizzes
You will be tested on grammar points, including a grammar terms quiz on which you will have to score 75% or higher in order to advance beyond this ESOL 113 class. You will also have reading comprehension and summary quizzes.
Student equipment check out: Students can check out a laptop for the quarter using the device checkout agreement available in MyWCC under the My Account tab.
Access and disability services : Any student with a disability requiring auxiliary aids, services, or other reasonable accommodations should contact the access and disability services office in Laidlaw 134 to make an appointment (ads@whatcom.edu, 360.383.3139, or 360.255.7182 [videophone for deaf callers]).
Affirmation of inclusion (required): WCC is committed to maintaining an environment in which every member of the College community feels welcome to participate in the life of the College, free from harassment and discrimination. We welcome people of all races, ethnicity, national origins, religions, ages, genders, sexual orientations, marital status, veteran status, abilities, and disabilities. Toward that end, faculty, students, and staff will treat one another with respect and dignity; promote a learning and working community that ensures social justice, understanding, civility and non-violence in a safe and supportive climate; and influence curriculum, teaching strategies, student services, and personnel practices that facilitate sensitivity and openness to diverse ideas, peoples and cultures in a creative, safe, and collegial environment.