English for American History

Cindy Barnett, LeShawnda Fitzgerald, Patricia Lovett ● TSL 615

Murray State University ● 113 Sparks Hall● Murray, KY 42071

Who should take this course? Lessons & Activities

This course is designed for college level
ESL students with various linguistic backgrounds.
Lessons
▪Taking notes
▪ Pre-Columbian peoples and colonial beginnings
▪ Cause and effect
▪ American Revolution and the early republic
▪ Using the library’s reference section
▪ Civil War and reconstruction
▪ Evaluating websites for use in research

Program Goals ▪ Industrialization and emergence as a world power

▪ Citing Sources overview
▪ Depression and World War II
*To prepare students for academic success in ▪ Organizing the research paper
▪ Cold War, Civil Rights, Vietnam
their chosen areas of study at the college level by
▪ Giving a research presentation
strengthening their knowledge in one or more ▪ Contemporary U.S. Society
content areas: U.S. history, academic writing, the
sciences, and life skills.
Activities
*To prepare students for academic success at the ▪ Paired/Group Collaborations
college level by strengthening their English skills ▪ Pre-Reading/Post Reading
(reading, writing, speaking, and listening) in an ▪ Library/Internet Research
▪ Class Discussions
academic setting. ▪ Note Taking
▪ Website Evaluation
*To develop research and study skills in the ▪Classroom Presentations
students that will help them to become more ▪ Historical Research Paper
academically efficient at the college level.
.

Course Goals & Objectives
Course Goals
*Students will acquire a broad overview of U.S. history.
*Students will acquire English skills necessary to achieve
academic success at the college level.
Needs Assessment
The Needs assessment is an attempt to obtain
deeper, more holistic information about
students’ perceived academic and social needs
for learning English and American History, their
previous language learning experience, their
attitudes about English and U.S. culture, and
their preferred ways of learning.

*Students will develop research and study skills needed for

academic success at the college level.

Course Objectives

*Students will demonstrate an understanding of how events in

U.S. history have influenced U.S. mainstream cultural traits.

*Students will participate actively in classroom discussions.

*Students will demonstrate research skills.

*Students will make effective classroom presentations.

Assessments
Assessment of students’ performance in
the “English for American History” course will include
a variety of methods—quantitative and qualitative,
formal and informal. The purpose of the assessment
is to determine how effectively the goals and
objectives of the class are being met and what
changes need to be made to improve the course in
the future.