College+Readiness+Skills

// College Readiness Skills //

** Critical Thinking **

A. Successful students demonstrate connective intelligence. They:


 * 1) Can discuss with understanding how personal experiences and values affect reading comprehension and interpretation.
 * 2) Demonstrate an ability to make connections between the component parts of a text and the larger theoretical structures, including presupposition, audience, purpose, writer’s credibility or ethos, types of evidence or material being used, and style.

B. Successful students demonstrate the ability to think independently. They:


 * 1) Are comfortable formulating and expressing their own ideas
 * 2) Support their arguments with logic and evidence relevant to their audience and explicate their position as fully as possible
 * 3) Understand full the scope of their arguments and the claims underlying them
 * 4) Reflect on and assess the strengths and weaknesses of their ideas and the expression of those ideas

** Reading **** and Comprehension **

A. Successful students employ reading skills and strategies to understand literature, they:

1. Engage in an analytic process to enhance comprehension and create personal meaning when reading text. This includes the ability to annotate, question, agree or disagree, summarize, critique, and formulate a personal response. 2. Make supported inferences and draw conclusions based on textual features, seeking such evidence in text, format, language use, expository structures, and arguments used. 3. Use reading skills and strategies to understand a variety of types of literature, such as epic pieces (i.e. //The Iliad//) and lyric poems, as well as narrative novels and philosophical pieces. 4. Understand plot and character development in literature, including character motive, causes for actions, and the credibility of events. 5. Identify basic beliefs, perspectives, and philosophical assumptions underlying an author’s work. This includes identifying points of view, attitudes, and the values conveyed by specific use of language. 6. Employ a variety of strategies to understand the origins and meanings of new words, including analysis of word roots and the determination of word derivations 7. Recognize narrative terminology and techniques, such as author versus narrator, state versus implied, historical versus present day reader

B. Successful students use reading skills and strategies to understand informational texts. They:

1. understand instructions for software, job descriptions, college applications, historical documents, government publications, newspapers, and textbooks. 2. use monitoring and self-correction, as well as reading aloud, as means to ensure comprehension. 3. understand vocabulary and content, including subject-area terminology; connotative and denotative meanings; and idiomatic meanings 4. exercise a variety of strategies to understand the origins and meanings of new words, including recognition of cognates and contextual clues

C. Successful students are able to understand the defining characteristics of texts and to recognize a variety of literary forms and genres. They:


 * 1) comprehend the salient characteristics of major types and genres of texts, such as novels, short stories, horror stories, science fiction, biographies, autobiographies, poems and plays.
 * 2) understand the formal constraints of different types of texts and can distinguish between, for example, a Shakespearian sonnet and a poem written in free verse.
 * 3) are able to discuss with understanding the effects of an author’s style and use of literary devices to influence the reader and evoke emotions. This includes devices such as imagery, characterization, choice of narrator, use of sound, formal and informal language, allusions, symbols, irony, voice, flashbacks, foreshadowing, time and sequence and mood.
 * 4) are able to identify archetypes, such as universal destruction, journeys and tests and banishment, which appear across a variety of types of literature, including American literature, world literature, myths, propaganda and religious texts.
 * 5) are able to discuss with understanding themes such as initiation, love and duty, heroism and death and rebirth that appear across a variety of literary works and genres.
 * 6) use aesthetic qualities of style, such as diction or mood, as a basis to evaluate literature that contains ambiguities, subtleties or contradictions.

D. Successful students are familiar with a range of world literature. They:

1. demonstrate familiarity with major literary periods of English and American literature and their characteristic forms, subjects and authors. 2. demonstrate familiarity with authors from literary traditions beyond the English-speaking world 3. demonstrate familiarity with major works of literature produced by American and British Authors.

E. Successful students are able to discuss with understanding the relationships between literature and its historical and social contexts. They:

1. know the major historical events that may be encountered in literature 2. demonstrate familiarity with the concept that historical, social and economic contexts influence form, style and point of view; and that social influences affect an author’s descriptions of character, plot, and setting. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 45pt; tabstops: list 45.0pt; tabstops: list 45.0pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">3. demonstrate familiarity with the concept of the relativity of all historical perspectives, including their own. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 45pt; tabstops: list 45.0pt; tabstops: list 45.0pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">4. are able to discuss the relationships between literature and politics, including the political assumptions underlying an author’s work and the impact of literature on political movements and events.

F. Successful students are able to read and interpret visual images, including charts and graphs. They:

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 45pt; tabstops: list 45.0pt; tabstops: list 45.0pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">1. identify the primary elements of the types of charts, graphs and visual media that occur most commonly in texts <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 45pt; tabstops: list 45.0pt; tabstops: list 45.0pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">2. interpret accurately the content of charts, graphs and visual media that occur in texts.

** Writing **

· Use strategies to write fictional, autobiographical, and biographical narratives that include a well-developed point of view and literary elements; present events in a logical sequence; convey a unifying theme or tone; use concrete and sensory language; and pace action
 * A. Narrative

B. Informational · Use appropriate strategies to write expository essays that employ supporting evidence; use information from primary and secondary sources; incorporate charts, graphs, tables and illustrations where appropriate; anticipate and address reader’s biases and expectations; and explain technical terms and notation · Use appropriate strategies and formats to write personal and business correspondence, including appropriate organizational patterns, formal language and tone.

C. Persuasive · Know the difference between a topic and a thesis · Write to persuade the reader by anticipating and addressing counterarguments, by using rhetorical devices and by developing and accurate and expressive style of communication that moves beyond mechanics to add flair and elegance to writing · Use a variety of strategies to adapt writing for different audiences and purposes, such as including appropriate content and using appropriate language, style, tone, and structure · Distinguish between formal and informal styles, for example, between academic essays and personal memos || · Know and use several prewriting strategies including developing a focus; determining the purpose; planning a sequence of ideas; using structured overviews; and creating outlines · Know the difference between a topic and a thesis · Articulate a position through a thesis statement and advance it using evidence, examples and counterarguments that are relevant to the audience or issue at hand · Use a variety of methods to develop arguments, including compare-contrast reasoning; logical arguments (inductive-deductive); and alternation between general and specific (e.g, connections between public knowledge and personal observation and experience)
 * A., B. Focus and Content
 * A., B. Focus and Content

C. Organization · Present ideas to achieve overall coherence and logical flow in writing and use appropriate techniques such as transitions and repetition to maximize cohesion · Use paragraph structure in writing as manifested by the ability to construct coherent paragraphs and arrange paragraphs in logical order · Use a style manual, such as MLA or APA to apply writing conventions and to create documentation formats in a manner consistent with the manual

D. Style · Use a variety of sentence structures appropriately in writing, including compound, complex, compound-complex, parallel, repetitive and analogous sentence structures · Use words correctly; use words that mean what the writer intends to say; and use a varied vocabulary

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; tabstops: list .25in; tabstops: list .25in; text-indent: -0.25in;">A. Revise · Review ideas and structure in substantive ways to improve depth of information and logic of organization · Reassess appropriate of writing in light of genre, purpose and audience · Use feedback from others to revise written work

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; tabstops: list .25in; tabstops: list .25in; text-indent: -0.25in;">B. Edit · Employ basic editing skills proficiently to identify obvious mechanical errors, clarify and improve the structure of the piece and sharpen the language and meaning · Identify and use correctly and consistently parts of speech, including nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, adjectives and interjections · Use subject-verb agreement and verb tense consistently and correctly · Demonstrate consistent, correct and appropriate pronoun agreement and the use of different types of clauses and phrases, including adverb clauses, adjective clauses and adverb phrases · Use commas with nonrestrictive clauses and contrasting expressions · Use ellipses, colons, hyphens, semi-colons, apostrophes, and quotations marks correctly · Capitalize sentences and proper nouns correctly · Consistently avoid run-on sentences and sentence fragments · Use a dictionary and other resources to spell new, unfamiliar or difficult words · Differentiate between commonly confused terms, such as “its” and “it’s” or “affect” and “effect” · Know how to use the spell-checker and grammar check function in word processing software while understanding the limitations of relying upon these tools ||
 * ** Research ** ||
 * A. Successful students understand and utilize research methodologies

· Formulate research questions, refine topics, develop a plan for research and origin with what is known about the topic · Use research to support and develop their own opinions, as opposed to simply restating existing information or opinions. · Identify claims in their writing that require outside support or verification · Identify through research the major concerns and debates in a given community or field of inquiry and address these in their writing

B. Successful students know how to find a variety of sources and use them properly. · Collect information to develop a topic and support a thesis · Understand the difference between a primary and secondary sources · Use a variety of print or electronic primary and secondary sources including books, magazines, newspapers, journals, periodicals, and the Internet · Understand the concept of plagiarism and how (or why) to avoid it and understand the rules for paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting, as well as conventions for incorporating information from Internet-based sources in particular. · Evaluate sources of information located on the Internet in particular to ascertain their credibility, origin, potential, bias, and overall quality · Select relevant sources when writing research papers and appropriately include information from such sources; logically introduce and incorporate quotations; synthesize information in a logical sequence; identify different perspectives; identify complexities and discrepancies in information; and offer support for conclusions. · Evaluate sources critically, discerning the quality of the materials and qualifying the strength of the evidence and arguments, as well as determining credibility, identifying bias and perspective of the author and using prior knowledge of the source. ||