PCC: Pre-College Communications

What Is Pre-College Communications?

Pre-College Communications is an enriched reading course designed to introduce you to the reading, writing, and communication demands of college level courses. Coursework will consist of four kinds of activities: structured writing assignments, directed reading instruction (tests, quizzes, discussions and exercises for reading, vocabulary, and grammar), computerized drills, and free voluntary reading.

Course Goals

If you successfully complete the course, you should:

• Know more about a variety of topics and ideas that appear in college-level reading, writing, and discussion;
• Know and use a variety of strategies that will help you understand, organize, remember, and express information and ideas;
• Be able to summarize what you have read, seen, or heard;
• Be able to express and support opinions about what you have read, seen, or heard;
• Develop strategies for time management, note-taking, test-taking, and goal setting;
• Develop a habit of reading for pleasure in a variety of areas.

Learning Objectives

• Identify main ideas and supporting details in simple paragraphs.
• Make inferences based upon suggestions or evidence presented.
• Demonstrate knowledge of context clues used to deduce the meaning of unfamiliar words.
• Demonstrate knowledge of structural clues in determining the meaning of unfamiliar words.
• Demonstrate knowledge of vocabulary appropriate for academic discourse.
• Apply the SQ3R or equivalent method of textbook study to reading from various content areas.
• Write notes in a modified outline format by using principles such as indenting, headings, and markers.
• Generate thoughtful questions from lecture notes.
• Use basic preparation techniques for test-taking.
• Demonstrate sustained interest in reading by completing 1,500 pages of Free Voluntary Reading.
• Participate effectively in small group discussions in an academic setting.
• Demonstrate a rudimentary understanding of writing as a process, which includes gathering information, exploring ideas, clarifying thoughts, developing and supporting a thesis, organizing information, revising, editing, and proofreading.
• Write narrative, analytical, and persuasive essays that are focused on a central thesis, adequately supported, and logically divided into paragraphs.
• Write clear, accurate, and objective summaries of brief essays.
• Demonstrate time management, reading, word processing, and study skills necessary in the writing process.

You may not take PCC more than two times. If you do not receive a "P" grade in the second semester, you must talk to one of the counselors and consider other plans for getting basic skills instruction.