NYTimes.com: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors

Recommending article for watching:

Findings: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors

Sample article for group presentation

The following article is an example to be chosen as the Class Presentations:


Carl Zimmer visits Dr. Roger Hanlon in his lab at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.

Cuttlefish Camouflage Hiding in Plain Sight. The original video is located at:
Click to watch the video from New York Times
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• The Text:Revealed: Secrets of the Camouflage Masters

• The video in Youtube is shown as follows:

For more New York Times video, go to nytimes.com/video

In case that the above video is not working, you may listen to the audio as follows:

曹老師第一堂說明

如何在網頁中加上文字翻譯器

本學期的課程中，同學每一週都要閱讀New York Times的文章。這是一件很好的事，希望你能以此養成閱讀英文新聞的習慣。但是閱讀英文網頁時，常碰到查生字的困擾。其實Google 的 [文字翻譯器] 目前已經能立即為你提供字典翻譯的服務（雖然很艱澀的生字仍無法顯現），只要你將滑鼠指到不認識的字，它就會有窗口顯示其中文的對照翻譯，非常方便。此功能最好能使用Firefox(火狐狸)瀏覽器，但微軟的(IE)瀏覽器也可使用。其安裝與設定的步驟如下：

A. 安裝工具列(若出現英文顯示，可在右上角更改為中文)。
B. 設定翻譯器

Voluntary Free Reading

Voluntary Free Reading

The Procedure

1. Choose an English book that you are interested in and would really want to read.
2. Bring your books to class for teacher’s advice/approval. (on Feb. 29)
3. Plan to read for 30minutes everyday and mark your daily progress on the reading log. If you skip a day, skip the entry for that day. This log must be turned in at the end of each month.
4. Every other week, submit a reading journal (RJ) and post it on class blog before the due date. There will be 7 journals for this semester. More submissions do not guarantee extra grades. No late journal accepted. You are encouraged to look at your classmates journals and give feedback when possible.
5. This activity will continue throughout the semester. If you finish reading one book before the semester ends, read another. Always talk to the teacher before you begin a new book.

1. Choosing an English book for this project

1. Your motivation is the most important. The ideal situation is that you are so carried with the content that you “forget” that it is in English. Exclude textbooks. (They are to be studied.)
2. This class requires that the text be mostly continuous discourses (not simply exchanges of dialogues as often seen in comics) and in English only (avoid bi-lingual, side-by-side presentations).
3. The Humanities Library (10th fl. Humanities Bldg) and the Reading Lab (6th fl., Humanities Bldg) offer graded English readers and you can borrow them. It may also be a good idea to share books among friends and classmates.
4. Please don’t feel you must begin at high level to “justify” your reading proficiency. Start at the level you are most comfortable with. It is probably better to have a humble beginning and make steady and speedy progress than to begin with excessively high expectation then feel frustrated and disappointed. The “feeling good” factor is essential for the success of the reading project. There must be a few pleasant incentives to attract you to continue.
5. There is no limit to the amount or the level each student must achieve. The guiding principle is “each person to his/her own best ability”. We certainly would like to see each of you feel proud of your growth.

2. What to write in your reading journals

1. What you have read so far—even if you have not finished the book. You can tell what you have read up to that day.
2. Your feelings, thoughts (critical responses) of it
3. How you do it, and how effective you think you are
4. Reflections of how might you enjoy the exercise more—how to be more effective, how to choose a more appropriate book, how to make your reading more comfortable, etc.
5. Questions related to this reading project

Group Presentations of “Web-Learning” Experience

Group Presentations of “Web-Learning” Experience

1. The class will re-organize into 10 groups. Feel free to form new groups—to make new friends from different departments and learn to work with new people.
2. As a class, we will look at New York Times (on line). There are ten subject areas and each team will draw (or choose) to present on two different subjects at the assigned weeks of the semester. The ten subjects are: world, science, technology, health, arts, sports, style, business, travel and education/politics.
3. Everyone, not just the presenting group, will read a major article and other supporting material for the subject area of the week. However, it is reasonable to expect that the presenting groups will be do a more through job because they will be the resource people for the session.
4. Each presentation will be 10 minutes. Every member of the group must be responsible for a part, such as the major article content, background information, reader feedbacks, audio-visual links, personal responses to the featured reports.
5. The presentations must be in English. Handout is welcome. Use of Internet to show NYT is necessary.
6. The audience will raise questions—as they have also read the featured section, there should be some interesting and enthusiastic responses.
7. The teacher will be happy to answer questions to help you prepare for this presentation.

Syllabus

English (P) 下

Prof. Ding-ren Tsao

Fridays 8:10~10:00 AM in Humanity Bldg #201

Office Hours: Wednesday afternoons or by appointment in Humanity Bldg #612

Suren Chat Room: Wednesdays 8:00pm-9:00pm

Class blog site: http://g5102b.blogspot.com/

The purposes of this class remain basically the same as the previous semester. Mosaic One will remain as the main text for in-class activities.

Proposed Grade composition

• Reading Journals and feedbacks 35%
• Group Presentations and feedbacks 20%
• Class participation (including quizzes) 15%
• Mid-term & Final Exams 30%
  

Proposed Course Schedule

	Date	Major Contents	Activities	Notes
1	2/22	Intro to a new semester, Free Reading, NY Times on line
2	2/29	Mosaic One: Chap 4	Book time
3	3/7	Mosaic One: Chap 4 Evaluating Facts (for Critical Thinking)
4	3/14	Mosaic One: Chap 4,	GP1 (L , J)	RJ1 due 3/12 , 服務 A 組
5	3/21	Mosaic One: Chap 5	GP1 (F, C)	服務 B組
6	3/28	Mosaic One: Chap 5	GP1 (D, K)	RJ 2 due 3/26 ;服務 C組
7	4/5	No Class		Reading Log (Mar) due 4/1
8	4/11	Mosaic One: Chap 5	GP1 (A, G, H)	RJ 3 due 4/9; 服務 E組
9	4/18	Mosaic One: Chap 6	GP1 (B, E, I)	服務 D組；GP2 Draw
10	4/25	Mid-term: Mosaic I and other material		RJ 4 due 4/23
11	5/2	Mosaic One: Chap 6	GP2	Reading Log (Apr) ; 服務 F 組
12	5/9	Mosaic One: Chap 6	GP2	RJ 5 due 5/7; 服務 G組
13	5/16	Mosaic One: Chap 7	GP2	服務 H組
14	5/23	Special arrangements		RJ 6 due 5/21;
15	5/30	Mosaic One: Chap 7	GP2	Reading Log (May); 服務 I組
16	6/6	Mosaic One: Chap 7 CEF Revisited	GP2	RJ 7 due 6/4; 服務 J組
17	6/13	Final