Senior English Mrs. Walsh 2010-2011 In this year’s Senior English class, we are going to focus a great deal on the skills needed to become more and more critical, analytical thinkers and confident, skilled writers. It is my assumption that you come into senior year knowing how to write a good, solid essay and how to begin to analyze a work of literature for meaning and style. The primary goal of this year is that you become increasingly confident in your abilities as readers and writers, that you find your voice as writers, and that you finish this year with strong skills to carry you forward. Classroom discussion and active participation are very important and serve as a means of testing your ideas. Therefore, it is imperative that you come to class well-prepared and ready to work. We will do a variety of activities that involve careful study of literature, and you will have many opportunities to demonstrate your thinking and your strengths. You will have the chance to do many different kinds of writing: analytical essays, research papers, creative writing, journaling, reader response, college essays, poetry, and others. It is my goal that by doing a variety of kinds of writing, you not only learn about various genres and modes of communication, you also get many opportunities to play on your strengths. We will study many different kinds of texts, including novels, short stories, poetry, drama, and non-fiction, and we will address the skills of solid oral communication. I’d like you to view your class as a place where we are all working together toward an end goal and where we will all work to support one another. Respect and support are essential to everyone’s success and comfort in class. It is my expectation that you will have work completed by the date it is due, and work that is not turned in on time will receive a late grade. However, I also understand the demands of a busy and involved life. If you have particular circumstances that warrant an extension on an assignment, you must speak to me in advance about your need for an alternative due date. (Emailing me at 11:00 p.m. the night before an assignment is due does not constitute “in advance”). I’ll do my best to work with you to ensure your success and to assist you with the time management skills that are so crucial in your senior year. I will also assign work that I feel is manageable within the time given. Late Policy: · If work is not in at the beginning of class, the work is late. · Work is one day late whether it is received at the end of the day or the next day. · Late work will be docked one letter grade per physical day, including weekends. Over a weekend, you MAY email your assignment, but you must also come to class with it printed on the following Monday. · Printing and computer issues are not acceptable excuses for late work. · If you have an excused absence the day a written assignment is due, you must bring a printed copy the next day you are in school. If, however, you are chronically absent on days when major assignments are due, this will be considered unacceptable. · An emailed paper only constitutes proof you’ve completed the assignment. The printed copy is what will be graded. It is your responsibility to put a printed copy in my hand. If an email arrives with the attachment “missing” or “unreadable,” you will not get credit for the assignment’s being completed. · When you arrive without an assignment, you will need to complete a “missing assignment sheet”.
Homework:
Homework is an integral part of this class; homework is designed to help you develop your thinking and writing skills. I don’t like “busy work,” and you will not be given “busy work.” The assignments you are given out of class will be tied to skill development, and it is crucial that you complete your work thoroughly, thoughtfully, and on time. Most of the time there will be a written component along with reading assignments.
Vocabulary:
Vocabulary development is a part of this course and will follow the lessons in Power Plus: Vocabulary for the New SAT. It is my belief that vocabulary should help your grade rather than hurt it. If you study steadily and consistently and complete the exercises, you should do fairly well on quizzes. We will cover one unit of vocabulary approximately every week and a half. Vocabulary will also be drawn from context. Prior words will appear on future quizzes.
Assessment and Grades:
All of your grades will fall into one of the seven categories of the study of English: Reading Process, Literary Analysis, Writing Process, Standard English Conventions, Research, Oral Communication, and Language Development, as well as Work Habits, and you will receive multiple grades on most assignments. For example, an analytical essay may receive four grades: one for literary analysis, another for writing process, a third for use of standard English conventions, and the last for work habits (timeliness and diligence of the work).
Attendance and In-class Work:
Your attendance in class is important. When you are absent, your thoughts, experiences, and ideas cannot be shared with the class. You also miss the benefit of hearing the ideas of others and the instructional material for the day. The experience of being in class cannot be substituted with simply “doing the work” from the class period; however, you are expected to see me for the work from the day you were absent and to make up what can be made up within the time frame outlined in the YHS Handbook on Excused Absences. If you are absent the day an assignment is due, I expect that you will email it to me that day. If you are absent on the day of a test, you should plan to take it the day you return. It is also expected that you arrive to class on time and that you are prepared with the materials you will need for that day – laptop charged, pen, notebook, texts. If you are late to class, you will be required to make up time in detention after school. Headphones and cell phones are not permitted in class. All assignments must have the correct four-line heading on the top left corner of the first page of the paper and a page number header on the top right corner of each successive page (Name 2): Name Mrs. Walsh Senior English: Assignment Name Date (1 September 2010) In addition to class time, I will be available to help you nearly any day after school, during mutual free periods, and at other times that we can work out. Get ready for a great senior year!
Senior English Mrs. Walsh 2010-2011 First Quarter: Summer Reading:Choice Book Text Types: Form and Function Personal Essay and Memoir: A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah Essayists College Essay Workshop The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini Mini Poetry Unit: War and Brotherhood Vocabulary, Grammar, and Style Second Quarter: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka Short Story Unit Research Paper Vocabulary, Grammar, and Style Third Quarter: Drama:Tragedy to Farce Antigone by Sophocles Macbeth by William Shakespeare A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde Rumors by Neil Simon MiniPoetry Unit: Gender and Power Vocabulary, Grammar, and Style Fourth Quarter: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel Vocabulary, Grammar, and Style
Mrs. Walsh
2010-2011
In this year’s Senior English class, we are going to focus a great deal on the skills needed to become more and more critical, analytical thinkers and confident, skilled writers. It is my assumption that you come into senior year knowing how to write a good, solid essay and how to begin to analyze a work of literature for meaning and style. The primary goal of this year is that you become increasingly confident in your abilities as readers and writers, that you find your voice as writers, and that you finish this year with strong skills to carry you forward.
Classroom discussion and active participation are very important and serve as a means of testing your ideas. Therefore, it is imperative that you come to class well-prepared and ready to work. We will do a variety of activities that involve careful study of literature, and you will have many opportunities to demonstrate your thinking and your strengths. You will have the chance to do many different kinds of writing: analytical essays, research papers, creative writing, journaling, reader response, college essays, poetry, and others. It is my goal that by doing a variety of kinds of writing, you not only learn about various genres and modes of communication, you also get many opportunities to play on your strengths. We will study many different kinds of texts, including novels, short stories, poetry, drama, and non-fiction, and we will address the skills of solid oral communication. I’d like you to view your class as a place where we are all working together toward an end goal and where we will all work to support one another. Respect and support are essential to everyone’s success and comfort in class.
It is my expectation that you will have work completed by the date it is due, and work that is not turned in on time will receive a late grade. However, I also understand the demands of a busy and involved life. If you have particular circumstances that warrant an extension on an assignment, you must speak to me in advance about your need for an alternative due date. (Emailing me at 11:00 p.m. the night before an assignment is due does not constitute “in advance”). I’ll do my best to work with you to ensure your success and to assist you with the time management skills that are so crucial in your senior year. I will also assign work that I feel is manageable within the time given.
Late Policy:
· If work is not in at the beginning of class, the work is late.
· Work is one day late whether it is received at the end of the day or the next day.
· Late work will be docked one letter grade per physical day, including weekends. Over a weekend, you MAY email your assignment, but you must also come to class with it printed on the following Monday.
· Printing and computer issues are not acceptable excuses for late work.
· If you have an excused absence the day a written assignment is due, you must bring a printed copy the next day you are in school. If, however, you are chronically absent on days when major assignments are due, this will be considered unacceptable.
· An emailed paper only constitutes proof you’ve completed the assignment. The printed copy is what will be graded. It is your responsibility to put a printed copy in my hand. If an email arrives with the attachment “missing” or “unreadable,” you will not get credit for the assignment’s being completed.
· When you arrive without an assignment, you will need to complete a “missing assignment sheet”.
Homework:
Homework is an integral part of this class; homework is designed to help you develop your thinking and writing skills. I don’t like “busy work,” and you will not be given “busy work.” The assignments you are given out of class will be tied to skill development, and it is crucial that you complete your work thoroughly, thoughtfully, and on time. Most of the time there will be a written component along with reading assignments.
Vocabulary:
Vocabulary development is a part of this course and will follow the lessons in Power Plus: Vocabulary for the New SAT. It is my belief that vocabulary should help your grade rather than hurt it. If you study steadily and consistently and complete the exercises, you should do fairly well on quizzes. We will cover one unit of vocabulary approximately every week and a half. Vocabulary will also be drawn from context. Prior words will appear on future quizzes.
Assessment and Grades:
All of your grades will fall into one of the seven categories of the study of English: Reading Process, Literary Analysis, Writing Process, Standard English Conventions, Research, Oral Communication, and Language Development, as well as Work Habits, and you will receive multiple grades on most assignments. For example, an analytical essay may receive four grades: one for literary analysis, another for writing process, a third for use of standard English conventions, and the last for work habits (timeliness and diligence of the work).
Attendance and In-class Work:
Your attendance in class is important. When you are absent, your thoughts, experiences, and ideas cannot be shared with the class. You also miss the benefit of hearing the ideas of others and the instructional material for the day. The experience of being in class cannot be substituted with simply “doing the work” from the class period; however, you are expected to see me for the work from the day you were absent and to make up what can be made up within the time frame outlined in the YHS Handbook on Excused Absences.
If you are absent the day an assignment is due, I expect that you will email it to me that day. If you are absent on the day of a test, you should plan to take it the day you return. It is also expected that you arrive to class on time and that you are prepared with the materials you will need for that day – laptop charged, pen, notebook, texts. If you are late to class, you will be required to make up time in detention after school. Headphones and cell phones are not permitted in class.
All assignments must have the correct four-line heading on the top left corner of the first page of the paper and a page number header on the top right corner of each successive page (Name 2):
Name
Mrs. Walsh
Senior English: Assignment Name
Date (1 September 2010)
In addition to class time, I will be available to help you nearly any day after school, during mutual free periods, and at other times that we can work out.
Get ready for a great senior year!
Senior English
Mrs. Walsh
2010-2011
First Quarter:
Summer Reading: Choice Book
Text Types: Form and Function
Personal Essay and Memoir:
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
Essayists
College Essay Workshop
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Mini Poetry Unit: War and Brotherhood
Vocabulary, Grammar, and Style
Second Quarter:
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Short Story Unit
Research Paper
Vocabulary, Grammar, and Style
Third Quarter:
Drama: Tragedy to Farce
Antigone by Sophocles
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Rumors by Neil Simon
Mini Poetry Unit: Gender and Power
Vocabulary, Grammar, and Style
Fourth Quarter:
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Vocabulary, Grammar, and Style