How to get an A in Reading Skills and Strategies

We all know how to read… I am Professor Susan Mills, and this is my dog, Hazel. Hazel is the KU Mascot! Since we already know how to read, what are we doing in this course?  Textbooks—different from other kinds of reading materials  Comprehension—improve the ability to absorb and retain information you read.  Related Skills—improve vocabulary, word recognition, contextual understanding of what you read.

In the 10 weeks of this course: We will learn about how to read textbooks effectively and efficiently. We will learn about note-taking strategies that help us retain the valuable information we read in textbooks. We will strengthen our writing skills, too! Reading and writing go hand-in-hand.

Important information! Final Average Requirement Conditional Acceptance Late Assignments Extenuating Circumstances We will now explore each of these important items…

Final Average Requirement Students who do not pass both KU 120 and KU 121 with a 73% (730 points out of 1,000) or better on their first attempt will be academically dismissed from the University. 73% is a C- in letter grades. We have 10 weeks to earn a C- in the course.

Conditional Acceptance Students enrolled in KU120 and KU 121 must have a course average of 65% or higher in both KU 120 and KU 121 at the end of Unit 5 to be officially enrolled at Kaplan University. If an average of 65% or higher is not achieved in both KU 120 and KU 121, a student will have their enrollment reversed at the end of Unit 5. 65% is a D in letter grades. We have 5 weeks to earn a D in the course.

Conditional Acceptance At the end of the fifth week of classes, the University will review the academic performance of online conditionally accepted students. Online students who have earned a grade up to that point of 65 percent or higher for all foundational coursework will become fully instated students, and will only then be eligible to earn financial aid and course grades. The University will reverse the enrollment of any online student not meeting these criteria, and such a student will not owe any financial obligation to the University except for the tuition deposit, which is not refundable. Grades for the conditional basis checkpoint at the end of Unit 5 will consist of the KU 120 and KU 121 grades in Units 1 through 5 only.

Late Assignments and Extenuating Circumstances, Units 1-5 No late assignments will be accepted during Units Please refer to your course syllabus for complete details. No extenuating circumstances will be considered during Units 1-5. Please refer to your course syllabus for complete details. We can refer to the Syllabus for those details right now! Grab your Syllabus!

What is expected of you: Microsoft Word 2007 is required in order to do your work at Kaplan. Microsoft Word will also work, but NOT: Microsoft Works for Word or Open Office. The 90-day free trial version of MS Word (it will stop working before you are finished with the course, and you will lose all your work!) Microsoft Office is available at a discounted price to Kaplan students. Go to KU Campus page/Resources/Special Highlights at bottom of page.

What is expected of you: Remember that our week begins on Wednesday morning and ends on Tuesday night (at midnight). Why? Course Home and Announcements Left side of the page: Unit tabs and assignments for each week. Top of page: Doc Sharing, Drop Box, , Grade Book

SYLLABUS The Syllabus can also be called “How to Get an A on Every Assignment”. It is located in two places—can you tell me where those two places are? Print a copy of the Syllabus and keep it next to your computer. Rubrics: they are your friends! I use the rubrics from the Syllabus to grade your work. One student wrote her grade for each assignment beside the rubric in her copy of the Syllabus. She could see what she had done well, and what she could do to improve. We will now look at each weekly assignment and find the rubrics for it in our Syllabus. Grab your copy, or click on the Syllabus page in your Course Home!

Weekly assignments: Find them on the Unit page of each Unit tab. The Unit tabs are on the left side of the page. The goal of this course and these assignments is to make the process of reading and absorbing textbooks easier, less time-consuming, and more rewarding. We will now look at each weekly assignment in order, and read the grading rubrics for each one in the Syllabus!

Reading Textbook More reading material on the Reading page Always complete the reading assignment FIRST! Look for any additional buttons or links in the Reading pages: Games, Key Terms, Glossary, Study Mate, Guide. No Syllabus rubrics for Reading, but you must complete it before you can complete the graded work.

My Reading Lab and My Writing Lab Do not work ahead in My Reading Lab or My Writing Lab. Stay within the current unit. For example, during Unit 1, complete only the Unit 1 My Reading Lab activities in KU 120 and the Unit 1 My Writing Lab activities in KU 121. Continue to complete sets of exercises until you hit the MASTERED status. THEN you can take the test! NO test tubes in our lab! No explosions either! Have you taken the Pretest yet? Hurry up!

Discussion or “DB” Each week in Discussion, you will be asked to respond to a question and interact with your peers. Be sure to include answers to all of the questions in the DB in your initial response. Please respond to the following questions in at least 1-2 well thought out paragraphs of 5- 7 sentences each. For each question, you must respond to a minimum of two peers. For additional information on discussion requirements, please see the discussion rubric in the syllabus. Because professional presentation of writing is critical to your success, please compose all discussion posts and responses to peers in MS Word even if you are asked to cut/copy and paste rather than attach.

Discussion At a minimum, you must run grammar and spelling check before submitting all work. You should also proof carefully for typos and other noticeable mistakes. You also must employ a formal, professional writing style. Do not use chat lingo. For example, do not use "i" for "I,” capitalize the first letter of each sentence, and do not use abbreviations like IMHO, TY, etc.

Discussion, step by step First or second day of Unit: Initial Post, answering all questions in full paragraphs. Composed in MS Word, copied and pasted to the Discussion Board. Never attached (unless you are specifically asked to do so). Third or fourth day of Unit: Return to DB to read your peers’ Initial Posts. Also look for my response to your Initial Post, and your peers’ responses to your Initial Post. Just 15 minutes and you are done. Write a response to two peers’ Initial Posts. Write responses to those who have written to you about your Initial Post. Start a discussion! Fifth, Sixth, Seventh days of Unit: Continue to read and respond to each other’s posts and responses. Ask questions, answer questions, refer to the Reading materials, make a point, defend a point. Get to know the material better by discussing it with each other. Rubrics in the Syllabus for grading Discussion—let’s read them!

Q: What is a Flex Seminar? A: Flex means flexible. Classes with flex seminars will have two or more seminar options for you each for each Unit. This provides you with more opportunities to attend seminar and a chance to learn from different instructors.

Q: Do I have to attend all of the seminars in that Unit? A: No. You only have to attend one of the scheduled seminars per Unit. But you are welcome at all of them! If you cannot make it to Monday night seminar with me, you now have the option to attend Wednesday at Noon ET with Prof. Carrie, or Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. ET with Prof. Kira.

Q: What if I can’t make any of the seminars in a given Unit? A: The expectation is that you attend at least one of the scheduled seminars in a Unit. However, in an emergency, you can complete Option 2. Option 2 is a written assignment using MS Word. You can find the Option 2 assignment information in Doc Sharing. The assignment is attached to the Dropbox for the unit marked Seminar.

Q: Will the information be the same in all the seminars that week? A: Yes, because the general content is the same. The style in which the information is delivered may be different, but that gives you an opportunity to learn in a variety of ways.

Q: What if I have a question for my primary instructor and he or she is not the one conducting the seminar I attend? A: Whenever you have a question for your instructor that is not about general course content, materials, or an assignment question, visit office hours, post to Questions for the Professor under course home, or send an . Your instructor’s contact information is found in the syllabus. You can ask for general help from the other seminar instructors. We are all in this together, and we are happy to help!

Q: How do I know when the seminars are scheduled for my course? A: You can find the seminar schedule in your syllabus and in the announcements area. The various instructors will also send out invitations each week.

Q: May I attend more than one seminar per Unit? A: Of course. If you are struggling with a concept, attending a second or third seminar may very well help you! Wed. Noon Wed 8 pm Mon. 8 p.m.

Q: May I earn credit for more than one seminar per Unit? A: No. You will be graded on the first seminar you attend in any given Unit.

Q: Who grades my seminar? A: Your primary instructor grades all of your assignments – seminar, discussion, projects, etc. All instructors have access to seminar rosters and transcripts. We can also access the archived seminars, just like you…

Q: If I want to review the seminar, can I? A: Yes, the seminar is recorded and an archive is generated. You access the archive via the link you used to get to seminar.

Q: How is my seminar graded? A: For a complete guide to seminar grading – called a rubric – see the syllabus. In your syllabus, find the rubric for seminar.

Q: Where can I find more information about flex seminars? A: There are two places. Under Course Home, in the Seminar area and in Doc Sharing. Both documents can be saved to your computer and referenced as you need them.

KU 085 Activities—NOT!! There is a link for “Activities” in the Unit 1 home page. Do NOT bother with these KU085 activities. You are no longer required to complete the activities. You will see similar links in Units 4, 7 and 8. Ignore, ignore, ignore! I am ignoring KU085!

Learning Styles: what is your style? Visual? Auditory? Kinesthetic? A mixture of two? Most people are more than one style. What can we do to make the most of these styles?

Questions? me. I will respond within 24 hours most of the time! Any questions right now?