CCR 092

Fall 2014

Course Title: College Composition and Reading

Credit/Contact Hours: 5.0

Instructor: Mr. Cochran

Contact:

Phone: 720.424.0420

Email: brian_cochran@dpsk12.org OR bcochra@dpsk12.net  EMAIL IS THE BEST WAY TO REACH ME

Twitter: @mrcochranlit

Facebook: MrCochranLit

Office: Room 208

Office Hours: Mon-Tues 3pm-4pm

REQUIRED MATERIALS IN CLASS EVERY DAY:

• CCR092 Reader
• Everyday Writing, Glau and Duttagupta– custom bundle with MyCompLab access card – New York: Pearson
• AVID Binder with section for CCR 092 that is further divided into: Writing, Reading, Notes
• dpsk12.net Google Account

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Students in this course will learn new and purposeful ways to engage with reading, writing, and thinking. Through this engagement, students will create an academic identity, which will enable them to persist through college until they complete their degree or certificate program.  The course work will first focus on understanding concepts and relationships and then move to a stronger focus on evaluating and critiquing ideas and arguments.  This course is specifically designed to prepare students for the reading and writing tasks they will face in 100-level content courses.   

COURSE OUTLINE AND STUDENT OUTCOMES

• Learning Objectives (Competencies):

1. Demonstrate knowledge of and ability to read for multiple levels of understanding, to read critically, and to apply the steps of the reading process, including pre-reading, annotating and analysis, using college-level readings and materials.

2. Demonstrate knowledge of and ability to summarize course materials applying the steps of the reading and writing processes, using college-level resources.

3. Demonstrate knowledge of and ability to use the writing process—including prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing— to write informatively and persuasively in multiple genres using college-level course materials.

4. Demonstrate knowledge of and ability to reflect on their reading and writing processes and to apply strategies to cross-curricular reading and writing tasks.

5. Demonstrate knowledge of and ability to engage in the behaviors of persistent and successful college students.

Topical Outline:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of and ability to read for multiple levels of understanding, to read critically, and to apply the steps of the reading process, including pre-reading, annotating and analysis, using college-level readings and materials.  

A. Engage in pre-reading to organize the reading task, to activate schema, and to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and concepts.

                1. Use headings and sub-headings to determine topics and sub-topics.

                2. Create a plan for reading.

B. Annotate texts to identify key points, organize relationships between information, exemplify, explain, infer, summarize, and paraphrase.

1. Use context clues and word parts to define unfamiliar words, phrases, and expressions.

2.  Use signal words and phrases to identify organizational patterns.

3.  Use a variety of strategies—read out loud, alternate text, re-read, visualize, summarize, represent concepts in graphic form, talk it out, for example— to improve reading comprehension.

C. Analyze college level course materials through post reading activities such as outlining or graphically organizing from the text.

D. Analyze readings and course materials to determine

                1. Author’s purpose and tone

                2. Bias

                3. Point of view

                4. Author’s credibility

                5. Validity

                6. Adequacy and relevancy of support        

                7. Differences between fact and opinion

                8. Patterns of organization

2. Demonstrate knowledge of and ability to summarize college-level course materials applying the reading and writing processes.

1. Identify and communicate main points without bias.
2. Use academic tone, diction, and conventions.
3. Structure and organize information into a coherent format.
4. Differentiate between summarizing and paraphrasing.  
5. Integrate source information, with judicious use of direct quotations, following a standard citation format.        

3. Demonstrate knowledge of and ability to use the writing process— including pre-writing, drafting, revising, and editing— to write informatively and persuasively in multiple genres using college-level resources.

1. Generate ideas through pre-writing activities.
2. Choose topics appropriate for an academic audience.
3. Create multiple drafts of complete, multi-paragraph academic essays—moving beyond formulaic five-paragraph essays.
4. Revise drafts for clarity, purpose, audience, unity, and support.
5. Edit for punctuation, grammar, mechanics, and conventions within the context of their writing.
6. Use standard formatting and citations.

4. Demonstrate knowledge of and ability to reflect on their reading and writing processes and to apply strategies to cross-curricular reading and writing tasks.

1. Evaluate their reading and writing processes in order to transfer them to new situations.
2. Identify and utilize academic support resources.

5.  Demonstrate knowledge of and ability to use the behaviors of persistent and successful college students.

In addition, Students will hold beliefs about learning and the acquisition of knowledge at an experienced novice level. 

• Specifically, students will:

• Hold beliefs about the nature of knowledge that are in alignment with sustained college success.  Specifically:

• Students will acknowledge that truth often exists in multiple theories and the similarities between them.  
• Students will approach ideas as a set of interrelated concepts.
• Students will hold the belief that understanding is created from within and is not something that is transmitted from the teacher.  

• Hold beliefs about the nature of learning that are in alignment with sustained college success.  Specifically:

• Students will understand that the ability to learn is not fixed at birth or determined by previous experiences.  
• Students will understand that they hold the ability to learn specific subjects, even if they struggle with the content.  
• Students will recognize when they are tired or have overloaded their attention or memory.
• Students will be appropriately interpret exhaustion and not interpret it as inability.
• Students will understand and accept that learning is uncomfortable and not always enjoyable.  
• Students will understand that ease of learning is contextually bound and all learners have areas where they need to compensate for their weaknesses and work harder.
• Students will know and accept the universal limitations of attention, memory and learning.
• Students will recognize that the only way to reach sophisticated or college levels of understanding is through sustained and gradual interaction with information.
• Students will have realistic expectations of the time it takes to complete sophisticated or college level tasks.  

• Hold beliefs about success that are in alignment with sustained college and life success.  

• Accept that IQ or other traditional academic markers of ability are weak predictive markers of success.  
• Students will accept that past failures do not define future successes.  
• Students will understand that successful people often have significant failures.
• Students will understand that successful people were not born with specific abilities rather they reached extraordinariness through deliberate practice.  
• Students will understand the differences between perfection and excellence.          

EVALUATION PROCEDURES:

Class policies:

Attendance and Late Work: To help you learn the lessons this class teaches you, your attendance is very important.  Because there is so much to learn, every day matters.  If you attend every class meeting, your chances for success are much greater.  So, to give yourself the best chance to succeed, remember that:

1. You cannot learn if you are not in class.  By registering for this course, you have agreed to attend all class meetings and complete all work in a timely manner.  While instances may arise where you must miss class, there will be no excused absences.  Missing class will result in an absence marked in the attendance record, regardless of the reasons for your absence.
2. Any in-class work missed due to absence cannot be made up.

3. You are responsible for all work assigned, even in cases of absence.  
4. All work must be submitted the class period it is due.  Even if you are absent from class, you are responsible for submitting the work on time, as many assignments can easily be submitted via e-mail.

1. Many reading assignments for this course require work that is not possible to submit electronically.  Therefore, if you are absent from class the day a reading assignment is due; you may submit the assignment, as long as you do so BEFORE the next class meeting.

5. Any student that misses more than 20% of the class meetings for the semester with automatically earn a failing grade (‘F’), regardless of the amount of points he/she has earned in the class.
6. At any point in the semester, if it becomes mathematically impossible for you to pass the class, please read the student handbook to learn about your options.  You are also welcomed to discuss your options with your counselor.

Arriving Late and Leaving Early: If you arrive to class late or leave early you will disrupt the learning of your classmates, your classmates may think you are rude, and you will miss important lessons.  So, remember:

1. You must be on time every day and stay for the entire class period.
2. Arriving 10 minutes late or leaving 10 minutes early 3 times equals 1 absence.  If you arrive more than 10 minutes late for class, you will be counted as absent.  
3. If you miss an assignment or do not turn in an assignment because you are late or leave early, you will not be able to make up the work.
4. If you arrive late or leave early so often that it disrupts your classmates’ learning, your instructor may ask you to leave class for a day and may refer you to a meeting with the department chair or a student affairs staff member.

Correspondence With Instructor:

• My DPS or Goggle emails are my preferred methods of correspondence.  If you have an immediate question or concern, this is the best way to get a hold of me.
• I often do not check email or my phone on the weekends.  Please do not expect an immediate response during these times.
• I also do not consistently check D2L, email, or my telephone after 4 p.m. during the week.  Please do not expect an immediate response during these times.
• With the exception of weekends, the instructor can guarantee response to e-mails within 24 hours.  Please do not send additional e-mail until after the 24 hour period has elapsed.  

Classroom Environment/Conduct:

Students are expected to contribute to, and not detract from, the learning environment of the class.  Students are also expected to be respectful of themselves, their classmates, and their instructor.  In addition, all students are expected to abide by CCA’s Student Code of Conduct.

• Personal electronic devices should be turned to silent and NOT visible in class (unless permission has been granted by the professor); this includes Bluetooth earpieces.  
• Text messaging is NOT allowed during class. If a student is repeatedly observed (more than 2 times) texting during class, they will be asked to leave their phone with the instructor.    
• Students should be familiar with the disciplinary procedures of the college concerning plagiarism, cheating, academic integrity, and disruptive behavior.

Work Submission Policy:

Homework/Classwork:

• It is the student’s sole responsibility to keep up with all assignments.
• ALL assignments must be submitted in class unless otherwise specified. If an emergency arises and a student needs to submit a hard copy of an assignment by the due date, the student must clear the submission with the instructor via EMAIL prior to the due date.    
• Work that is incomplete will not be graded and students will receive an automatic 0.
• Computer failure is not an acceptable reason for late work.  

Missed In-Class Work:

• Any in-class work that is missed due to tardiness or absence cannot be made up.  
• Only under extenuating circumstances and with prior arrangement with the instructor can this work be made up.  Again, students must receive approval from the instructor prior to the missed work.  
• If the instructor allows a student to make up a missed exam or assignment, students must be prepared to evidence the reason for their absence.  This might include documentation such as:

• A doctor’s note if the absence is due to illness.
• A funeral program if the absence is due to a death in the immediate family.
• A police report if the absence is due to an emergency situation or accident.
• Orders if the absence is due to deployment.
• Court documents if the absence is due to a court appearance.  

The instructor reserves the right to re-evaluate these policies with individual students, however only under extraordinarily extenuating circumstances.

Evaluation Criteria:

I am being successful in this course?

• General

To ensure any grade discrepancies can be promptly and equitably straightened out, please keep copies of all work.  Except in the case of instructor error, grades are permanent.  Please be aware of the deadlines and penalties for withdrawing from a course.  

Assignments/Point Distribution

4 essays                                                 

• 2 Reflective                                                        10% of final grade

• 1 Classification/Analysis         
• 1 Compare and Contrast         

• 2 Academic                                                        20% of final grade

• 1 Cause and Effect OR Analysis        
• 1 Argumentative                 

Formal, Academic Reading Assignments                

• Comprehension                                                        15% of total grade
• Critical                                                                15% of total grade

1 In-Class Evaluative Essay                                                10% of final grade

Final Portfolio                                                                15% of final grade

Process                                                                        15% of final grade

Total                                                                        100%

Assignment Descriptions

Below you will find general descriptions of graded assignments.  You will receive additional, more detailed descriptions of these assignments as the course progresses.

4 Essays:  You will be writing four essays as a requirement for this course.  Two of these essays will be reflective pieces (writing about yourself) in which you will apply concepts from the reading assignments to your own life.  Topics will be assigned to you for these pieces.  These essays will be approximately 2 pages in length.  The other two essays will be academic essays in which you will write about topics of your choosing.  These will not be personal essays, but rather, you will be expected to write about academically appropriate topics that are removed from your personal experience.  These essays will be expected to be between 3 and 4 pages in length.  All essays you write for this class must be presented in proper MLA format.  For your first academic essay, you will be expected to choose between a cause/effect or analysis essay.  This essay must incorporate at least one, but no more than two outside sources.  The second academic essay must be an argumentative essay.  This essay must incorporate at least two, but no more than three outside sources, one of which must be from an academic database.  This database source must be from a journal specific to the subject you are writing about.  More detailed descriptions of these essays and the research process will be given as the semester progresses.

Formal, Academic Reading Assignments:  We have two general reading goals in this class.  The first is to improve your overall comprehension of a text by showing you how to recognize patterns and relationships between information/concepts/ideas.  The second is to improve your ability to think critically about what you read by examining the credibility and reliability of various texts.  At the start of the semester, your assignments will focus on the first goal of pattern/relationship recognition.  During the second half of the course, your assignments will focus on the second goal of critical reading.  However, all assignments will additionally focus on issues of vocabulary development, author’s purpose, and the recognition of key points within texts.

In-Class Evaluative Essay:  Near the end of the semester, you will be required to produce a short piece of writing in class.  This essay will be evaluative in nature. You will be asked to read a short academic text outside of class and construct a written evaluation of the text in class.  A more detailed description of this assignment will be given to you later in the semester.

Final Reading and Writing Portfolio

A portfolio is a collection of work. Your final portfolio will be a collection of several assignments that serve as a final assessment of your work. Like any final exam, the portfolio is designed to test the learning and skills you have acquired this semester. This is your opportunity to demonstrate what you have learned in CCR 092.

GRADE DEFINITION

PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU ARE REQUIRED TO HAVE 4 YEARS OF ENGLISH IN ORDER TO GRADUATE.  FAILURE TO PASS THIS CLASS WITH AT LEAST A D WILL PUT YOUR GRADUATION IN DANGER.  

The Writing Process and Workshops:

While a “passing” grade for an assignment is technically a 70%, we would like you to work to achieve the best that you can, so the goal for your essays in this course will be that you earn at least an 80% on each one.  In order to work towards this goal, the writing and essay submission process will be as follows:

• Rough Draft – There will be specific dates when a rough draft will be due for each paper.  On the days when they are due, you will receive informal feedback, both from your peers and from me.

• Submission Draft – After the review of the rough draft, you will have a short period of time to revise and edit the essay based on the feedback you have received.  The submission draft is a formal draft that you will submit to me for review.  These will have specific due dates.

• Additional Drafts (if needed) – If your submission draft does not earn a “minimal revision needed” across all categories of the essay revision rubric, you will be required to revise the essay one last time.  You will be given a designated period of time during which you can continue working on the essay(s), both at home and in class during designated workshop periods.  There will be a specific date by which these revisions must be submitted, but at this stage of the process, you may submit your revision at any time before and up to the final due date.

• A Note About the Argumentative Essay – Because the argumentative essay is the most difficult piece of writing you will compose all semester, you will be required to work on/submit all three drafts (rough, submission, additional), just to make sure you earn the best grade possible and have a strong final portfolio.

Workshop Days – Workshops days are class sessions which will contain little to no lecturing.  The majority of the time will be dedicated to you working on your essays, reviewing the work of your peers, and/or conferencing with me about your essays.  A more detailed description of this process will be given to you in class.

If I have passed my submission drafts, what will I do during the remaining workshop periods? – If everyone is to be successful in this class, we must form a “community of writers.”  Writers do not work in a vacuum; they ask others for help.  If there is still workshop time remaining after you have passed your essays, you will be expected to help your peers with their work.  In essence, you will be expected to help me help your classmates!  A more detailed description of what you will need to do will be given to you if the situation arises.

Required Tutoring – If after your submission draft you have not yet met the criteria to pass the essay, your instructor may require that you see a tutor as a part of your revision process.

Tentative Course Calendar

This calendar is subject to change based on the needs of the class.  All changes will be posted on D2L and announced in class.  It is the student’s responsibility to keep track of these changes once they are announced.

Other Important Information

Instructional Policy on Academic Dishonesty:

Academic dishonesty includes cheating and plagiarism. Cheating is the unauthorized use of assistance with intent to deceive an instructor or any other individual responsible for evaluating a student’s work. Note the following examples:

• Submission of any materials not prepared by students but presented as their own.
• The unauthorized possession and/or use of notes, books, or the soliciting of assistance from another student during an examination.
• Illegitimate possession or disposition of examination or test materials and/or answer keys to tests and examinations.

Plagiarism refers to the use of another person’s work without giving proper credit to that person. A student must give proper credit through the use of appropriate citation format when (a) copying verbatim another person’s work (i.e., words, phrases, sentences, or entire passages); (b) paraphrasing another person’s work (i.e., borrowing but rewording that person’s facts, opinions, or ideas); and (c) summarizing another’s work (i.e., use of one’s own words to condense longer passages into a sentence or two).

Consequences of Academic Dishonesty:
When dishonesty is evident, the following minimum sanctions will be applied:

• First offense: The student will receive an “F” or “Zero” as the grade for the assignment. In addition, the first incident may result in the loss of testing privileges in the Learning Resource Center for the current and next semester in which the student is enrolled in the college.
• Second offense: The student may receive an “F” for the course and may be expelled from the class. A second offense may also result in permanent loss of testing privileges in the Learning Resource Center.
• Third offense: The student may receive an “F” for the course and may be expelled from the college

ACCESSIBILITY SERVICES/ACCOMMODATIONS:

CCA will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified students with disabilities.  To request an accommodation, complete the Needs Assessment and provide documentation of disability.  Online forms are available at http://www.ccaurora.edu/accessibility. Students may request assistance with the forms.  The ASO is located in the Learning Resource Center (LRC) in the Student Centre building at the CentreTech campus, in Room S-202A.  Arrangements may also be made at the Lowry Campus.  You may contact the ASO at (303)340-7548 Voice, (303)361-7395 Voice/VideoPhone, (303)340-7533 FAX, or e-mail: ASO.CCA@ccaurora.edu.

EMERGENCY PROCEDURES:  
Information on how to respond during an emergency at CCA and an evacuation map are posted in each classroom.  Please review this information.  During an emergency or when an emergency alarm sounds, uniformed security officers or safety wardens will provide instructions which must be followed.

E-MAIL:
Email Communication: I will contact you through email exclusively.  You are responsible for reading your email regularly.  All emails will be sent to your DPS assigned email address (your ID@dpsk12.net). You may opt to have copies of the email messages sent to your DPS address automatically forwarded to another email address, but you do so at your own risk. You must take responsibility for the consequences that may arise because of missed or delayed messages due to use of non-DPS email services.

Controversial Material:  The course contains controversial material.  Students will be expected to intellectually engage with this material.  Anyone wishing not to read and/or discuss controversial material should not take the course.  

Computer Classroom Rules:  

1. You must work on your writing the entire class period.  If you finish the assignment, you can still work on your writing. Writing is a process of rewriting. If you receive a perfect score on your portfolio, then I will consider letting you leave early.
2. You may not surf the web, write emails, use your cell phone, or other electronic devices, or disturb other people.
3. If you do not abide by the rules, I will ask you to leave and you will be counted absent.   That will be your one warning.  After that, I’ll ask you to withdraw from the class.  If it is after the withdrawal date, you will receive an “F” in the course.  

Google Classroom

Google Classroom will be the repository of work for this class.  Assignments MUST BE TURNED IN through Google Classroom unless I tell you otherwise.  Assignments that are assigned in Google Classroom but are completed outside of Google Classroom WILL NOT RECEIVE CREDIT.  In order to use Google Classroom, you must opt to have and use your dpsk12.net Google account.