English 300, Section 001
Fall, 2005
Dr. Susan Stewart
Hall of Languages 221
903-468-8624
e-mail: susan_stewart@tamu-commerce.edu
website: http://faculty.tamu-commerce.edu/slstewart/
Office Hours: M/T 3:00-4:00; W 10:00-noon or by appointment

Reading Folder Assignment

Using The Reading Teacher (a journal), Yellow Brick Roads, and any other reading journals and reference sources you may find useful, you will complete a variety of assignments in order to make connections between reading theory and classroom practice. This assignment is designed to help you find practical ideas for prereading, during reading, and after reading strategies that are based on the conditions for learning, so you may develop activities for your future classrooms that create successful learners/readers/writers. Your audience for this assignment is defined as the "naive audience": future colleagues (or yourself five years down the road when you will have forgotten what you have just read) who will decide what they want to read based on your materials.

Reading Folder:

You will need to have a way of clearly setting off each assign part of your Reading Folder. You can do so by stapling each section together and putting them all in a folder, or you can group materials in a notebook and use separators. My only rule is that everything be clearly labeled in order so I can easily see what is there and access all parts of it (do NOT put pages in PLASTIC sheets in the folder or notebook) as well as make comments on all parts. Clearly label everything: the harder it is for me to read/figure out what is in your folder (or what is not), the lower your grade is likely to be.

Part I: Prereading, During Reading and After Reading articles.

This part will consist of locating 3-5 recent articles (no older than 3 years) in The Reading Teacher or the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy and providing a copy of the article (with your own notes/annotations on the copy) in your folder along with material you have prepared. Each article should explain a prereading, during reading, or after reading strategy.

You should prepare the following information and place it in FRONT of each article. Be sure to use the author's name and article title in the first sentence of your summary. Note: Everything should be typed and double-spaced.

For each article, provide the following:

• MLA style bibliographic citation
• A brief summary of the article in your own words (approximately 200 words)
• The GOAL of the strategy
• Identify a text (bibliographic citation, one sentence description) you would use for teaching this strategy in your future classroom, appropriate to your level of specialization (4-8, 8-12).
• A brief rationale for WHY you would use that text for teaching the strategy with your grade level of students and this particular activity (written in complete sentences).
• A brief write up (in complete sentences) of the sample activity you would use in teaching this strategy (label the activity as "prereading," "during reading," or "after reading).

Part II

This part consists of locating 2-3 recent articles (no older than 5 years) in any reading journals (although publications by the International Reading Association have great up to date ideas that include literacy, learning styles, technology, etc.) that you think incorporate any of the conditions for learning--guided reading, shared reading, read alouds, ideas for struggling readers, classroom libraries, etc.--in a unique and beneficial way.

This part of the assignment is your opportunity to gather "extra" ideas/resources for your future classroom experience that may lie outside the assigned scope of the Reading Folder.

Make a copy of each article and annotate the copy with your own notes. You should prepare the following information and place it in FRONT of each article. Be sure to use the author's name and article title in the first sentence of your summary. Note: everything should be typed and double-spaced.

For each article, provide the following:

• MLA style bibliographic citation
• A brief summary of the article in your own words (approximately 200 words).
• A "Connection Statement": Connect the article to something you read in Yellow Brick Roads. What in your reading made this article stand out to you? What made you think it would be beneficial to your future students? (The connection statement should be approximately 100-200 words, written in complete sentences).

TIPS for Writing a Summary:

A summary is written for the purpose of describing, rather than evaluating or analyzing. The purpose is to provide a thumbnail sketch so that readers who have not read the original article (or for other assignments, the book)can decide whether or not the text is worth reading. Start your summary with the author's full name and title of the article.

Do NOT write your summary in the same organization structure as the essay is written: start your summary with the MOST IMPORTANT point the author makes, and then work down (skim the introductory and concluding sections to get a sense of the MAIN POINTS). The focus of the summaries is more on argument/main points/ideas rather than evidence (specific examples).

You may have noticed that many of the databases provide "abstracts" as well as title, author and publication information; these abstracts are summaries. You may have also noticed how Janet Allen is able to provide bibliographic and summary information on sources she considers important in the chapters of her book. Summary writing is a necessary skill.

I expect you to write your own summaries (summarizing a longer piece is a useful writing skill) to have rather than copying any abstracts/summaries that may exist in the databases or in the publications. Make sure your summaries are written in complete, grammatically correct sentences and in a fairly standard/formal tone. Use of first person, personal commentary, or evaluations--saying whether the article is good or bad--is inappropriate for this assignment. I expect that you will review a number of sources and choose ones which you think are good/useful.

The above taken verbatim from Lori Rios's description of Reading Folder Assignments used in previous semesters.

Part III:

Although the entire folder isn't due until much later in the semester, each student will give a presentation regarding an article s/he has found beginning with Week 5. There are some advantages to presenting early (you get some of your work done early), and there are some advantages presenting later in the semester (you know more about pre-reading, during reading, after reading strategies, and conditions for learning). You can use articles from either Part I or Part II in this presentation. Make a copy for each person (including me) in class as well as a handout for everyone. Expect to present for about 20 minutes.