English 12 Academic
Mrs. Kirk
Seniors! Welcome to your LAST year of high school! I understand the many demands and stress you will have this year, but I also know you will have fun and it will go quickly! Even though this will be a rigorous course, I do want you to enjoy your last year and make some great memories as the class of 2010.
My goal for you in this class is to prepare for college-level thinking and a strong work ethic that will be valued after high school. This class will make you a better critical thinker.
The focus for this British Literature course is to not only learn and appreciate the great classics that lay the basis for our culture today (“know for the sake of knowing”), but also to understand how literature reflects the dominant tendencies of an era- W.H. Auden. We will look critically at many pieces of literature and try to connect what was written to the surrounding culture’s beliefs, values, historical events, leaders, and other literature. Reading, writing, and discussion will be used frequently in this class, and we have over one thousand years to cover, so be prepared!
School Rules Apply:
Refer to your student handbook. In short, no cell phones, bookbags, coats, hats or jacket hoodies up, drink (including water), food, I-pods, PDA (cuddling, canoodling, smooching, etc.), weapons, inappropriate clothing, tobacco, drugs, alcohol, rock n’ roll (well, maybe on some days), cussing, spitting, flag-burning (fire at all, for that matter), swearing on your great grandmother’s grave, …
Grading Policies:
ü Homework is due at the bell at the front of the room on the stool.
ü Points are deducted for each day late (…and, yes, later that same period is one day late.)
ü Extremely late work will not be accepted.
ü ALL Copying/plagiarism receives a ZERO and a call home.
ü I promise, I like you, I’m pretty nice, and I won’t bite! If you have a question about a grade, ask me about it nicely and maturely after class, and we can discuss it.
ü Contrary to popular belief, teachers are people, too! I don’t sleep under my desk; I have a life at home with a husband, a dog and a cat, friends- the whole nine yards. Therefore, I do not have your grade up-to-date every day. A lot of the work in English class requires quite a while to grade, so it may be a couple of weeks before you get some work back. I will let everyone know what their grade is BEFORE midterms and report cards with enough time to take care of any discrepancies (KEEP ALL GRADED WORK FOR PROOF!!).
Absences and Make-up Work:
Excellent attendance is crucial in succeeding in this class! If you do miss, YOU are responsible for checking what you missed on the “Daily Agenda” clipboard under the windows and picking up any worksheets in the absent tray. The amount of days absent = the amount of days you get to complete it. If you missed a lot of school, get with me to discuss due dates. Absences and late work are a HUGE issue during Senior year; do not miss school and get your work completed on time.
Hall Passes (Restroom, Locker, Nurse, etc.):
You will only be allowed 2 restroom/locker passes per quarter and they may only be issued during “down-time.” As your teacher, I hold the right to refuse to allow further hall passes in cases of inappropriate timing during a lesson, poor behavior, previous hall pass abuse, and failing grades.
TARDIES: 3rd unexcused tardy = Detention; Unexcused Tardy of more than 2 minutes
late=School DT
NURSE PASS: Unless excused by a doctor/parent, repetitive Nurse Passes will not be
issued.
Supplies:
§ One three-ring binder for English only!
§ paper
§ Pens and pencils
§ English Literature textbook OR paperback when issued
§ AGENDA BOOK: your hall pass and “Daily Agenda.” Record your homework! This is going to be a very busy year.
Class Syllabus
Major ideas guiding this class:
- Literature Reflects the dominant tendencies of an era.
- The Senior Position Paper (due in Spring)
1st Semester / Content CoveredInvasions & Language Development
- Romans, Germans, Vikings/Danes, French
- The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles & Exeter Book
Anglo-Saxon Era: 449-1066
- Beowulf
Medieval Era: 1066-1485
- Romances & Arthurian Legend: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- Ballads
- Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
Renaissance: 1485-1660
- King James Bible
- Shakespeare’s Tragedies: Macbeth & Hamlet
- Sonnets: Shakespeare, Spenser, & Sydney
- Pastoral Poetry & Companion Poems
- 17th Century Poetry: Metaphysical, Cavalier, and Puritan (Milton’s Paradise Lost)
2nd Semester / Content Covered
18th Century/ Age of Reason/ Enlightenment: 1700s
- Johnson, Pope, Swift
Pre-Romantics/Transitional Poets
- Gray, Burns, Blake
Romantic Era: 1798-1832
- Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats
- Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
- Wuthering Heights
Victorian Era: 1833-1901
- Tennyson, Browning, Arnold,
- Wilde’s Importance of Being Earnest
Modernism: 1901-present
- A.E. Housman, T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas
- Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
- More Modernist short stories