English 11 Honors—American Literature
2017-2018 School Year
Instructor Information:
Name: Marinda Quist
Email:
Office Hours: By appointment. I’m available before and after school, but please let me know that you’re coming.
Course Description:
The Language Arts 11 Honors course is a literature and writing course designed to increase students’ understanding of American Literature. As an honors class, students should expect a rigorous class with high expectations intended to deepen their reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. In this class, we will read a variety of genres including, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama from major time periods and authors in American Literature. As a language arts class, this class will discuss current issues and mature texts. Please discuss with your student what we are doing in class. If you would like your student to read a different work, I will make that an available option.
This year, we will be using Canvas to turn in many of our assignments and engage in class discussions. In particular, all essays will be turned in through Canvas, which has a plagiarism checker. Students will also be able to use this program to check due dates and assignment details. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me.
In addition to the following primary texts, we will study a selection of short stories and poetry from a literature anthology throughout the year.
Primary Texts:
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Crucible, Arthur Miller
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
Macbeth, Shakespeare
Policies:
Participation: English classes are intended to help students develop both communication (verbal and nonverbal) and critical thinking skills. As such it is vital that each student come prepared to participate in class. This means that you need to come to class prepared having read the assigned reading and completed the assigned homework. You should be ready to participate in small and large group discussions. You will lose participation points for sleeping in class, doing homework for other classes, using your cell phone or electronics, refusing to engage in individual or group work, talking out of turn, or being otherwise disrespectful or disruptive. Students will receive a first warning to give them an opportunity to correct their behavior before they begin losing points. Participation points will not exceed 10% of the final grade at the end of each quarter. Full credit participation points will be put in at the beginning of the quarter and deducted from the total as necessary throughout the quarter.
Cell Phones: Cell phones are a great tool, but can also be a major distraction in the classroom. As a result, I will have a sign posted notifying students when cell phones are allowed and when they are not. When the “no cell phones allowed” sign is posted, any cell phones being used will be taken away for the class period and points will be taken from the student’s participation. The third time a cell phone is taken away, the cell phone will be taken to the administration and a parent will have to pick up the phone from the administrator.
Attendance: Please see the Bingham High School Attendance Policy.
Dress Code: Please see the Bingham High School Dress Code.
Tardy: Any unexcused tardy will result in the loss of participation points. You are tardy if you are not in your seat and ready to work when the bell rings. In addition, assignments are typically collected at the beginning of class, meaning that assignments will be counted late if a student is late to class without a hall pass.
Late Work: I will accept late work with a deduction to the assignment according to the following system:
You must turn in late assignments into the Late Work basket with a Late Work Slip that has been filled out completely to receive credit.
In addition, you must meet with me before turning in your late assignment to discuss the assignment and to discuss what prevented you from turning it in on time. Plan to allow time before or after school for this, since class time is intended for current work.
Deduction Schedule for Late Work:
1 day late : -10% (includes anything turned in the same day after it was called for in class)
2 days late: -20%
3 days late: -30%
4 days late: -40%
5 days late: -50%
No assignments will be accepted after 5 days.
Please note that this means days late, not class meeting times (counting only school days, not weekends). So, if you had an assignment due on Monday and you turn it in the next class time on Wednesday, it will be two days late. If you had an assignment due on Friday and you turn it in on Monday, it is only one day late.
Make-up Work: Make-up work can only be done for absences excused by parental or school authority. Students will have five total school days from the absence to make up assignments and quizzes that were assigned or completed in their absence for full credit. Homework given prior to the excused absence is due by 3 p.m. on the due date, whether the student is in class or not. Students must send it with a friend or email me the assignment. The assignment will be counted late if this protocol isn’t followed. Any scheduled tests will be given upon the student’s return.
I will not remind you to turn in any assignments or to take a test. It is the student’s responsibility to find out about assignments and to turn in missed assignments. I will not extend the due date on long term projects unless we make arrangements before the due date. In addition, for planned absences students are strongly encouraged to see me before they leave to collect any materials they missed. If you are absent for a school excused absence, your work must be submitted before it is due. In addition, students may come talk to me about missed assignments before or after school only. Do not interrupt my other classes to ask about missed assignments.
Re-do Work: My first priority is that student master the content of our class. Students should plan to talk to me before an assignment is due if they have questions. However, if a student receives less than 70% on an essay or other major project, they will have the option to re-do the assignment. As part of their re-do, they will need to complete an additional related assignment and have a meeting with me before correcting their work on the original assignment. This ensures that the students are learning the content while having the opportunity to earn back points once the content is understood. Students may not re-do tests or reading quizzes.
Academic Honesty: Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty in which you represent someone else’s work or ideas as though they were your own. Do NOT submit someone else’s work. All material must be original and in no manner copied, downloaded, or “borrowed” from any friend, colleague, book, article, online source etc. without appropriate credit. Plagiarism includes use of direct quotes, summaries, ideas, references etc. of another document or any resource without giving appropriate credit to the source. Any and all sources used for this class must be correctly referenced (MLA style). Failure to comply with this standard will result in a zero for the offending assignment. Any other form of cheating will result in the loss of all points for that test, quiz, assignment, etc.
Extra Credit: I rarely offer extra credit, but opportunities may periodically arise for extra credit. Don’t ask about extra credit; plan to earn your grade by doing your best on the assigned work.
Classroom Rules and Procedures:
1. If you need to speak with me about any matter, please come before or after school. During class when we are learning is not an appropriate time to ask questions about make-up work, grades, or absences. If you come to talk to me at the beginning of class, be forewarned that I will ask you to talk to me later. (With so many things happening at once, you’re also not likely to get the best answer at the beginning of class. So it is in your best interest to wait.)
2. Turn in assignments when they are called for and put your name and class period in the upper right-hand corner. Do not put assignments on my desk. Assignments turned in after they’re called for (even if it’s just later in the class period) will be marked late. Class time is not when you should be doing your homework.
3. Do not use electronics during class, unless I indicate that you may. They distract you and the students around you from learning. Any electronics found being used in class during prohibited times will be taken away.
4. Use school-appropriate language. This means no swearing or vulgar language, no hate speech, and no derogatory or insulting comments. I expect students to create a community by showing respect to each other and me through actions and language.
5. Raise your hand to speak.
6. Come well rested to class. My class is not nap time and I expect students to be working and engaged for the entire time.
If you follow my class policies and guidelines, I will reward you with full participation points for the day, a positive note home, a happy teacher, and a surprise reward at the end of the quarter if the whole class keeps 95% of their participation points. If you do not follow my class policies, the consequences will be a verbal warning, loss of participation points, note home to parent/guardian, and a referral to the administration.
Materials:
Students should always come to class prepared with a pen or pencil, a lined notebook dedicated to this class for their journal, and the text we are currently studying. Students will need to take notes and save assignments and handouts, so please have a folder or a section of a folder to keep track of your materials as well as your notebook.
Grading:
All assignments, test, quizzes, and projects will receive a point value and the percentage of points accumulated will then be used to determine final grades.
A 94-100% B 83-86% C 73-76% D 63-66%
A- 90-93% B- 80-82% C- 70-72% D- 60-62%
B+ 87-89% C+ 77-79% D+ 67-69% F 59% and below
I look forward to a great year! Please see the form on the following page and print it out to sign and turn in for credit. (You only need to print the last page.)
Student name (printed):______Class Period: ______
Parent name (printed):______
We have read and understand the course disclosure for ENGLISH 11 Honors. We understand that this is a rigorous class that will prepare students for further academic opportunities and that students will be required to use courtesy and respect for each other and each other’s work at all times.
Student Signature: ______Date: ______
Parent Signature: ______Date: ______
We will be watching the following PG-13 movies as we compare stories told through a variety of mediums:
· The Crucible (I will skip the beginning section, which has nudity, and I will skip a sexually suggestive scene in the middle).
· The Great Gatsby 2013 version. We will watch selections from this video. The movie is rated PG-13 because of a few sexually suggestive scenes, which I will skip. The movie also portrays drinking and unhealthy behaviors throughout.
· Macbeth This film is not rated since it is a video recording of the 2013 London Globe Production, starring Joseph Millson as Macbeth.
· Of Mice and Men 1992 version. This is rated PG-13 because of language and violence.
I will notify you of and request permission for any other PG-13 movies we watch.
Please select the statement that applies:
I, as parent/guardian, give permission for my student to watch ALL the movies listed above
I, as parent/guardian, give permission for my student to watch NONE of the movies listed above
I, as parent/guardian, give permission for my student to watch SOME of the movies listed above. Please indicate which movies your student may watch:
Parent Signature: ______Date: ______