AdvancedEnglish 10 Mrs. McConnell
2017-2018
Goals for the Year:
1. To prepare you for AP level classes by doing complex analyses on multifaceted literature.
2. To assist you in understanding meaning in literature. We willexamine the relationship between literature and life using high quality texts. Expect to be reading something every day.
3. To hone the writing skills you have already acquired. You will improve your writing throughout the year by writing continually, discussing what good writing looks like, practicing the process of editing, and learning new vocabulary. Expect to be writing something every day.
4. To improve on organization and clarity when giving oral presentations. The more speeches you give, the more comfortable you will be talking in front of an audience, so we will do several this year.
5. To eradicate common spelling and grammar errors from your writing. We will have daily discussions on topics such as homonyms, punctuation, spelling, slang and text lingo.
Literature:This is a tentative list of the texts we will cover throughout the year.
Short stories, poems, letters, and speeches from theHolt McDougal Literature book
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
Animal Farm, George Orwell
Lord of the Flies, William Golding
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare
Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Daily Routine:Every day when you enter the classroom there will be an assignment waiting for you on the board. It could be DOL, a sentence or paragraph that you need to correct, or it could be response writing about the reading homework, a poem, a picture/cartoon, or any other topic that relates to our class. I will take attendance and collect homework as you quietly write and reflect on your writing. We will then fix the DOL or discuss the writing topic. Next we will go over our vocabulary. The rest of class will be spent discussing readings in depth, working on writing, and/orlearning and applying literary devices.
Writing:It is a harsh reality, but you will be judged on your writing at some point in your life. Writing is a reflection not only of your ideas, but of who you are. Therefore, it is important that you can do it well. You live in in a society where writing is expected of everyone at some time. I guarantee that you will have to express ideas in the future where your skills as a writer will either get you something you want, or if you are lacking skills, will prevent you from obtaining something you want.
We will do many different writing assignments throughout the year, including journaling, letters, scripts, poems, newspaper articles, persuasive essays, andresearch papers. Please remember that this is an academic setting and you need to write accordingly. These basic infractions are unacceptable in English class:
- Text speak (2, U, IDK, LOL, CUZ, PROLLY, etc.)
- Uncapitalized proper nouns (specifically “I”, and obvious proper nouns)
- Punctuation abuse (too many !!!, -, ( ), etc.). You get three exclamation marks all year. Use them wisely.
- Run-on sentences or sentence fragments
- Lack of paragraphs
Cheating:Plagiarism is the taking of anyone else’s original work and passing it off as your own by not giving credit to the author. This will result in a zero for the assignment and will be reported. There will not be an opportunity to make up or redo assignments that involve cheating or plagiarism. When in doubt, give credit to the source. We will be relearning MLA headings, MLA in-text citations, and MLA works cited as we write papers throughout the year in order to review the correct way to cite sources.
Vocabulary:Language is the vehicle for thought and words are what shape our ideas about the world. The more words you know, the more ways you will have to express yourself and formulate ideas. Our goal is to thoroughly learn 300 SAT level words throughout the year, and more importantly, learn a love of language and words. These words will be from the texts we read throughout the year. I will introduce the words to you by showing you a visual of the new terms, examples, and definitions. Your job will be to write the words and the definitions in your English notebook. As the week goes on we will practice and review our new words. The words will be on unit tests along with a final semester test covering all the words we have learned, so make sure to write them down and label them.
Grades: Your grade in this course will be compiled from the following: homework assignments, reading quizzes, vocabulary quizzes, final tests, oral presentations, daily journaling, projects, and papers. My grading system is based on points and I will follow the school grading scale as explained in the handbook. I do not round grades up, so if you have a 79.9% that is equivalent to a C+, not a B-.
Late Work: Late homework can be turned in for up to half (50%) the original points. All late work must be turned in by the end of the quarter. If you are absent, you have the same number of days absent to make up the work. (For example, if you miss Monday and Tuesday, you have Wednesday and Thursday to make up the work. That means it is due Friday.) If there was an assignment due the day you missed, you need to hand it to me when you walk in the door on the day you come back or it is late. If you have a major paper or project that we have been working on for more than a week and you miss the day before it is due, it is still due on the original due date. This is because you have been working on it during the whole time given and not just the night before it is due.
Extra Credit: I will never, never, never, I repeat, never, offer extra credit. Do not bother asking. You have all semester to earn your grade and there are plenty of assignments throughout the year. If you are unhappy with your grade, it is because you have not done the required work in a timely manner to the best of your ability.
Attendance / Tardiness: You must take the initiative to come and talk to me to get make-up work if you miss school. At the end of every day I will update my blog with the homework and activities for the day. The blog is also a good tool if you forget what the homework is or need a test review. I expect you to be responsible enough to pick up missing assignments the day you return. I will follow the tardy policy outlined in your handbooks. The first two tardies will result in a warning. The third tardy will result in detention.
Cell Phones:I will be following the school policy. If I know you have a phone because I see it or hear it, I’ll confiscate it and turn it in to the office. There will be no warnings or second chances.
Wandering Around the Classroom:Please do not use the need to throw things away as an excuse to get up and wander around the classroom whenever you please. It is also very distracting to have balls of paper flying in the general direction of the recycling bin, so wait to dispose of your garbage. The same goes with sharpening your pencil. The time to do these activities, or any other that requires getting out of your seat without explicit teacher permission, is before the bell rings or after class has been excused.
You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
~ Ray Bradbury