Dear Parents/Guardians,
Welcome to IB English. Thank you for loaning me your students for the upcoming year. You should know three things about me: 1) I will come to love every student in my classes; I always do. 2) I always imagine that the future president is in my class. Indeed, he or she is in someone’s class this year, and it might be mine, so I approach my curriculum and my students as if the future of the country depends on it. 3) Despite the enormity of that self-imposed responsibility, I still make sure that I (and my students) have fun. It’s the reason I have lasted for 25 years in this profession, still loving the job.
Dear Students, Welcome to the class; I am excited to be part of your 2017-18 school year experience. Be prepared to challenge yourself and to have some fun along the way.
Course Description: This is the IB program’s mission statement, and I am posting it here because I believe in it and absolutely love it: “The International Baccalaureate® aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.” This course stresses the importance of expressive and meaningful communication. Throughout the year, we will work to become more effective readers, writers, and speakers. Students will be encouraged to engage actively with their texts to create meaning and to master the subtleties of language. Our goal is to become more sophisticated readers, more attentive to voice, style, and language, and more skilled at inferring meaning and makings links between these texts and our own lives
The bottom line is that by the end of this course, students will be able to read and write with breadth and depth and express themselves clearly.
We’ll also have some fun along the way. My ultimate goal is for students to finish the class with a stronger love for reading and writing than when they entered this class.
Literary Content Overview: This course will complete parts one and four of IB English A, Literature. The Cliff’s Notes version of what that means is as follows: Part 1 consists of three works in translation and one 1500 word essay; Part 4 consists of three works that come from the Prescribed List of Authors or elsewhere and one 10-15 minute Individual Oral Presentation. There will also be a great deal of other types of reading, writing, quizzes, and discussions.
First semester books include (this will actually be Part 4 of the IB program): City of Thieves by Benioff, The Green Mile by King (or both the screenplay and the book Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption); and another novel/play that’s still to be determined.
Second semester books include (this will be Part 1 of the IB program: The Reader by Schlink; The Stranger by Camus; and The Metamorphosis by Kafka or A Doll House by Ibsen.
**The specific books for both Parts 1 and 4 may change, but what’s listed will give you an idea of the types of books/plays that we will read.**
Writing Assessments Overview: In addition to meeting the requirements of the IB program, students will write essays and paragraphs throughout the course—which will mostly be written in-class.
Course Policies: Daily assignments are posted on the white board in the classroom as well as on the class website. Students are responsible to keep up with daily assignments and due dates. You are expected to complete all assignments on time and prove competency in all areas of the curriculum covered for successful completion of this course.
Late Work: Late work is accepted…with a point deduction.
Absent Policies: If you are absent, it is the student’s responsibility to make up any work missed. You must make up any missed work within TWO days of your absence. *This is district policy*. If a student is absent it is their responsibility to check the “Absent” box in the classroom and ask a peer to explain to you what you missed. If the student has additional questions, please make arrangements to come in during office hours. The student should also check the class website for make-up work, assignments and handouts.
Academic Integrity: This is important to me. I won’t “B.S” you, and the expect the same in return. If your name is on your paper, it signals to me that it is YOUR work. If you get help from someone else or from a source off the internet, you need to cite it. If you don’t know how to cite, don’t use someone else’s words or ideas.
General Class Policies
*This may seem obvious, but make sure your name, class hour, date, and some sort of title are on the top right-hand corner of every assignment.
*Please use ink for handwritten work; pencils smears and is harder to read.
*Cell phones are not allowed. If you absolutely have to make a call or send a text (and it better be for a good reason), you need to step outside to do so.
*Don’t take yourself (or me) too seriously.
Below are new district policies you should know:
Classrooms are now designated as ‘No Phone Zones’ except with teacher permission. All phones are expected to be housed in backpacks during class time.
District Policy JK-R
A student may be subject to disciplinary action when the student engages in any of the following forms of academic misconduct:
· Lateness - For missing or leaving school or class without permission or excuse.
· Cheating - Including but not limited to copying, using unauthorized help sheets and the like, illegally obtaining tests in advance, substituting for a test-taker, and other forms of unauthorized collusion.
· Plagiarism - Representation of the ideas or work of another person as his/her own.
· Collusion - Supporting malpractice by another student as in allowing one’s work to be copied or submitted for assessment by another.
· Duplication of work - Presentation of the same work for different assessment components and/or requirements.
· Fabrication of Data - Manufacturing data for a table, survey, or other such requirement.
· Any behavior that gains an unfair advantage for a student and/or affects the results of another student.
Cactus Shadows High School takes academic dishonesty seriously. Any violation of this policy will result in a zero for the assignment/assessment for a first offense, a zero for the assignment/assessment and short term suspension for a second offense and a loss of credit for the semester course (.5) and short term suspension for a third offense.
Students who share assignment/assessment information with other students via pictures, paper or electronics will receive a zero on the assignment/assessment and a short term to long term suspension (prior academic misconduct referrals from any other school or CCUSD grade level will be considered).
School Absence Policy
Students are responsible for contacting teachers to complete missed work. Parents can e-mail teachers to request homework to pick up during a student’s absence. For every day of excused absence, a student has two days to make up homework, classwork, quizzes, and tests (parents have 24 hours to contact the school to excuse the absence). Work previously assigned with a due date during an absence is due on the first day of his/her return to school (including suspension dates). Be advised that each department, which assigns extended projects, has specific deadline dates. All make up work from an excused absence is eligible to receive full credit if completed and turned in within the 2 day window. Some courses such as Honors, Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Dual Enrollment courses have numerous long-term projects or portfolios, which may have absolute deadlines. Students will be advised of these project/portfolio deadlines in the course syllabus or on grading outlines and will be expected to turn in projects/portfolios prior to the designated date for credit regardless of days absent. Assignments, tests, quizzes not completed within the 2 day window will receive a zero. (Ref: Board Policy JH-R)
Student Name(Please Print):______Period:______
I have received and read Ms. Marsh's classroom policies, rules and consequences. I understand the expectations and the consequences of my actions. If I have any questions or concerns, I will direct them to Ms. Marsh.
______Student Signature
______Parent/Guardian Signature ** Cut off the bottom portion of the page, sign, and return for credit**