Academic reading workshops

April 15

Project Task 1: Reading strategies assessment

10%

Do the analysis of the paper you chose:

1. Analysis of Context, Purpose and Audience of texts

To recognize the context of a text you should ask questions such as:

Who wrote the text?

When was the text written?

Where was the text written?

Where was the text published?

What is the purpose of the text?

(To recognize the purpose of the text you should consider the following intentions:

Does the text intend to Inform, narrate, recount, describe or illustrate a fact? These are some text types and their purposes

2. Recognition of Topics: 

Recognize the topics of the text (Write the general idea of the paper).

3. Analysis of sections of the text: 

Identify the titles, subtitles and headings. Write on the margins the sections of the paper (introduction, paragraphs with specific ideas or topics, conclusion)

Design the topic outline of the article: 

Thesis: -------- 

Introduction: ----- 

1. (Main idea) 

A. (Supporting idea)

B. (Supporting idea)

2. (Main idea)

A. (Supporting idea)

B. (Supporting idea)

3. (Main idea)

A. (Supporting idea)

B. (Supporting idea)

Conclusion

4. Analysis of Paragraphs: 

- Underline or highlight the main idea of each paragraph with one color.

- Underline or highlight the secondary supporting ideas with other color.

- Write the topic of each paragraph on the margins of the text. Remember that the topic of a paragraph is expressed in key words or concepts. 

5. Analysis of terminology and parts of speech:

Build a glossary with unknown words from the text. Write the definition of the word in English and the part of speech of it. You should use a monolingual dictionary to define the words:http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/britanico/

If the word is a specific term of a field of knowledge you can use Technical Dictionaries:http://www.engineering-dictionary.org/Materials-Science-and-Engineering-Dictionary/

http://dictionary.babylon.com/science/

6. Graphic Organizer:

Organize, classify and summarize the information of the text using an appropriate graphic organizer. Remember that the purpose of a graphic organizer is to represent graphically the main themes or ideas of a text and the logical relations existing among them.

You can use the following graphic organizers according to the text you chose:http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/

http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/spanish/

http://edhelper.com/teachers/graphic_organizers.htm

Tip: These are some online tools to design your graphic organizer: http://www.spiderscribe.net/ and https://bubbl.us/

Example: https://app.box.com/s/697u8z677u1utqvf3j0cfm6tja2yuw0m


April 13

Academic Reading  Workshop 3

The ocean cleanup

What is the video about?

What is the problem described in the video?

What were his motivations to solve this problem?

How is he going to tackle this problem?

1.  Recognition of Topics: 
Recognize the topics of the text (Write the key words of the paper).

2. Analysis of sections of the text: 
Identify the titles, subtitles and headings. Write on the margins the sections of the paper (introduction, paragraphs with specific ideas or topics, conclusion)

Identify the topic outline of an article: 

3. GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS: The purpose of a graphic organizer is to represent graphically the main themes or ideas of a text and the logical relations existing among them.

Graphic Organizers

Reading exercise: https://app.box.com/s/i7fqr41yjmerspf4bf0g2sxiykc43t92

April 6

Academic Reading  Workshop 2

Reading Strategy

ANALYSIS OF TERMINOLOGY: The purpose of this reading strategy is to increase your vocabulary on the topic by building a glossary of terms or words from the text

The Use of  the Dictionary 

Parts of the Speech Explanation 

Parts of the Speech Exercise

TIP

Nouns often end: -ment, -ion, -ness, -ity.

People nouns often end: -er, -or, -ist, -ian.

Adjectives often end: -able, -ible, -ive, -al, -ic, -ed, -ing.

Some verbs end: -ise, -ate, -en.

Adverbs often end: -ly.

Practice:

Parts of the Speech 
Game 1
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/grammargames/pandapopPartsofSpeech.htm

Game 2
http://www.abcya.com/parts_of_speech.htm

Prefixes and Suffixes

Read this explanation and take notes:

Prefixes and Suffixes Explanation

Prefixes and Suffixes Video

Do some exercises:

Elementary: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/ks2_activities/english/spelling.shtml

Intermediate: http://www.english-grammar.at/online_exercises/prefixes-suffixes/ps005-adjective-suffixes.htm

Advanced: http://www.sadlier-oxford.com/phonics/5_6/fishtanks1/fishtanks1.htm

Jeopardy: http://www.eslgamesplus.com/adjectives-prefixes-suffixes-extreme-adjectives-opposites-jeopardy-game/

Prefixes and Suffixes Game

Project Homework

Look for an academic article in English about the problem you will be addressing with your project proposal.

You may find an academic paper in this database:http://www.biomedcentral.com/journals

The university also counts on databases available for the academic community using the username and password:http://sinab.unal.edu.co/index.php/recursos-bibliograficos/bases-de-datos

April 1

Objective: After doing these workshops you should be able to read academic papers, use vocabulary related to a specific topic from your area of study, analyze those topics by describing their context, evaluating facts, gather information from reliable sources, and give a recommendation based on the information gathered.

Academic Reading  Workshop 1

Objective: To study some strategies to improve our ability to read academic texts and explore the topic of our projects.

Work in class

Work at the lab:

Reading Strategies Workshop 1

Skimming & Scanning

Reading Homework

Choose one of the texts below, read it by using the studied reading strategies, and take the quiz to check your knowledge:

Scientists: Prepare for el Nino 

Companies make gas from Garbage 

Nigerian President Promises Malala to find the Girls 

NASA: Close to discovering Life Outer Space 

Pro-Democracy Protesters Fill Hong Kong

In order to analyze a text we should take into account the following aspects:

ANALYSIS OF CONTEXT, PURPOSE AND AUDIENCE OF TEXTS:

To recognize the context of a text you should ask questions such as:

Who wrote the text?

When was the text written?

Where was the text written?

Where was the text published?

To recognize the purpose of the text you should consider the following intentions:

Does the text intend to Inform, narrate, recount, describe or illustrate a fact? 

To recognize the audience of a text you should ask the following questions?

According to the level of difficulty of the language used, the topics or ideas complexity, the organization of the text, or the level of formality, is the text written for... (children, adults, students, researchers, etc.)