Official Course Outline
Date: 4/30/03
1. TITLE: READ 813: Reading
Enrichment
1-3 variable units; 3 lecture hours per week (1 unit =
16 hrs; 2 units = 32 hrs; 3 units = 48 hrs); Open Entry
Prerequisites: None
2. COURSE CLASSIFICATION:
Credit course not applicable to the Associate Degree.
3. CATALOG DESCRIPTION:
This course is designed to increase your enjoyment, fluency, and
understanding of fiction and/or non-fiction such as short stories,
biographies,articles, autobiographies, poetry, and plays. As you
read, you will improve your vocabulary, learn about different forms
of writing, and come to see reading as a source of pleasure in your
life.
4. OVERALL AIMS:
This course is suited for those students who drop a class
mid-semester, but who want to continue reading in a college setting;
nonnative speakers of English, such as those who want to take a
transitional class before taking regular English classes; community
residents who want to read and discuss books but who are not
interested in matriculating; all students who want to read for
pleasure.
5. SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES:
Upon successful completion of the course, students will:
A) Improve vocabulary and comprehension.
B) Analyze and compare literary works.
C) Examine and interpret diversity of experience embodied in literature.
D) Compare and evaluate political and social ideas and issues
in literature.
6. COURSE CONTENT:
A) Class readings and discussions
..........i) Assigned readings
.................... (1) Historical background
.................... (2) Social background
.......... ii) Characteristics of individual works
.................... (1) Synthesis of common characteristics
.................... (2) Concerns and issues of works
B) Independent readings
.......... i) Responses to:
.................... (1) 4 long books (100+ pages) OR
.................... (2) 8 medium books (50-99 pages) OR
.................... (3) 16 short stories and/or articles (3-49 pages) OR
.................... (4) any combination
C) Reports/ presentations on independent readings
.......... i) Oral
.......... ii) Written
7. METHODS OF INSTRUCTION:
A variety of methods will be used: lecture, group discussions (small
and large), collaborative group work, writing assignments in
response to the reading, research, media presentations, and
student presentations.
8. REQUIRED TEXTS:
Recommended Books:
Night by Elie Wiesel
Farewell to Manzanar by Maxine Hong Kingston
When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago
Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Hoop Dreams by Ben Joravsky
The Amateur Naturalist by Gerald and Lee Durrell
The Journey is the Reward by Steve Jobs
Hot Zone by Richard Preston
Pearl Cleague Deals the Devil
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleague
Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Beals Patillo
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
Recommended Short Stories:
"A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty
"The Garden Party" by Katherine Mansfield
"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker
"The Guest" by Albert Camus
"A Christmas Memory" by Truman Capote
"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner
"What We Mean When We Talk of Love" by Raymond Carver
Recommended sources of articles:
Newsweek, New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, etc.
New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, SF Chronicle, San
Mateo Times, etc.
9. EVALUATION OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE:
Credit/ No credit. Number of units awarded depends on attendance.
Evaluation is dependent on attendance and completion of
assignments.