DEVELOPMENTAL READING Course Description Developmental Reading for science-oriented high school serves as a reading laboratory focusing on science

texts. It is intended to equip students with reading comprehension skills and the ability to determine the text structure of scientific and technical written discourse. This serves as a preparatory course to Research Writing 1-Technical Writingwhich will be taken up in the second year. It provides students with further exposure to and practice in decoding texts that could serve as models in the forthcoming writing course. The reading laboratory consists of two sets of materials; a) the basic texts made up of multi-level graded work-type reading selections targeting vocabulary and reading comprehension skills, and b) intensive exercises for remediation focusing on skills not mastered by the learner As a reading laboratory this course has the following features: 1. Students work independently reading multi-level graded self-access texts 2. They read the materials suited to their own reading grade level and work on the accompanying exercises designed to develop skills in discourse analysis and information mapping. 3. They check their own work-at least two selections per one hour weekly session-using the Key to Answer that goes with each text. 4. They plot their own progress on a reading chart designed for that purpose 5. Remediation on items missed is done in the regular English class. a) Determining the reason for the error (error analysis) b) Follow-up intensive exercise on the skill missed

Objectives: As a result of the work done in the reading laboratory the students are expected to be able to do the following tasks: 1. Arrive at the meaning of terms by using word-attack skills and strategies 2. Employ affixes as a tool for expanding vocabulary 3. Determine the text types and structure of reading selections 4. Map out information from texts to concept and schematic diagrams 5. Single out words of interclausal thought relationships 6. Determine the objective of the text and the means used by the writer to attain it. Learning Competencies 1. Arrive at the meaning of unfamiliar words by using word attack skills and strategies 1.1 Single out the words that make up simple noun compounds to arrive at the meaning of the terms 1.2 Determine the noun headword and modifiers of complex noun compounds 1.3 Single out the rootword and affixes of subtechnical vocabulary 1.4 Arrive at word meaning by noting context clues ( e.g. definition, restatement, example, comparison or contrast) given in the text 1.5 Note synonyms, collocations and differences in shades of meaning Determine the text type and structure of reading selections 2.1 Single out the macro discourse pattern (TopicRestriction, Illustration TRI, Problem-Solution PSn) of written texts 2.2 Distinguish between the thesis statements, supporting details, transition paragraphs and restatements 2.3 Determine the structure of different genre 2.4 Note the difference between the types of paragraphs (conceptual vs physical, inductive vs deductive

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Map out information from a text to concept maps and schematic diagrams 3.1 Choose the concept map suited to a given set of rhetorical functions (e.g. tree diagram for classification, flow chart or process for causeeffect; grid for comparison and contrast) 3.2 Use different thought organizers (e.g. outlines, graphs, tables, schematic diagrams) to present data and to show relationships between concepts in a given text 3.3 Match schematic diagrams with their write-up 3.4 Note the sequence of presentation of details as an aid to mapping out concepts Single out word signals of interclausal thought relationship 4.1 Identify the type of connectors used in line with the relationships they signal 4.2 Choose the appropriate signal words to indicate a given relationship taking into account the order of presentation of the concepts

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Competencies Targeted in the reading texts Word Study 1. Use affixes to expand vocabulary 1.1 Single out the rootword and affix of given terms 1.2 Determine the added meaning, if any, given by affixes to a term 1.3 Determine the affixes used to change the part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, or adverb) of a term 1.4 Distinguish between affixes and non-affixes 1.5 Distinguish between meaning-bearing and non meaningbearing affixes 2. Use word-attack skills to arrive at the meaning of terms 2.1 Single out the words that make up compound terms 2.2 Determine if the meaning of the words that make up noun compounds may be used to arrive at the meaning of the terms 2.3 Distinguish differences in shades of meaning of words belonging to the same semantic field 2.4 State if words or phrases have similar or opposite meanings

2.5 Note the difference in meaning of a given term used as a part of the technical register of varied disciplines 2.6 Arrive at the meaning of idiomatic and technical phrases 2.7 Use context clues to arrive at the meaning of unfamiliar terms A. Reading Comprehension 1. Determine the objective of the text and the means used by the writer to attain it 1.1 Use varied aids (e.g. the title, thesis statement, space allotted to concepts, etc.) to determine the main topic of the selection 1.2 Determine the objective of the text and state if it is indicated explicitly or implicitly 1.3 Single out the rhetorical techniques or modes of development (e.g. comparison and contrast, exemplification, cause-effect, definition, etc.) employed by the writer to attain the objective of the text 2. Determine the text type and structure of reading selections 2.1 Give the text type (exposition, description, recount, etc.) of the selection based on its rhetorical function 2.2 State the macro-discourse pattern used (e.g. PSn Problemsolution, TRI Topic-restriction-illustration, or their variants) to develop the selection 3. Map out in schematic diagrams the information and concepts given in texts 3.1 Determine the concept or information map that a selection would lend itself to 3.2 Use non-linear texts (e.g. flowcharts, tree diagrams, grids, graphs, etc.) to show schematically verbal relationships evident in the text 4. Single out word signals of interclausal relationships 4.1 Pick out the micro-discourse signals or connectors used to establish semantic relationships in the text 4.2 Identify the cohesive devices used in the text