English 11 Syllabus C.Forte Page 1

English 11 Syllabus C.Forte Page 1

English 11: Syllabus

Selma High School, Room 214

Spring Semester 2010

Ms. C. Forte’

“The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.” --William Faulkner, Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, 1950.

Instructor:

Ms. C. Forte

email:

phone: (Selma High Office)

Bachelor of Arts, English, Miles College

Bachelor of Language Arts Education, Miles College

Enrolled in Master of English Language Arts Education, University of West Alabama, Livingston, AL

Course Description:

Survey of American literature with an emphasis on vocabulary development, reading comprehension, and communication through writing and speaking.

Core Course Objectives:

Measurable Objectives:

·  Prepare students for success (at least a proficient grade) in English

·  Practice research methods leading to the preparation of a well-documented research paper.

Nonmeasurable Objectives:

·  Instill in students a greater appreciation for the English language and for documents and texts written in English

·  Increase students’ self-esteem through the satisfaction of

v  completing course objectives

v  improving reading comprehension and analytical skills

v  creating writing over which they feel a sense of ownership

Materials Needed:

·  A notebook (preferably one with clasps or a three ring binder)

·  Dividers

·  Dictionary

·  Blue or black ink pen/s

·  Loose leaf paper

Texts:

·  The Language of Literature

·  Other Materials

Course Requirements:

·  Good attendance (unexcused absences result in zeros)

·  Responsibility for make-up work (the student is responsible for asking about work missed and for making up any tests in a timely fashion)

·  Make-up tests will be taken by appointment only 3:15 to 3:30 p.m Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays. Missed tests must be taken within a week of the test date. See the instructor if unusual circumstances arise.

·  A passing average on course work

·  A research paper

Grading Scale:

·  90-100 A (Final marking period averages cannot exceed 100%.)

·  90-89 B

·  70-79 C

·  65-69 D

·  0-64 F

Method of Determining the Grade for Each Marking Period:

·  30% Major tests (literature tests and major writing assignments)

·  15% Minor tests (vocabulary and/or grammar tests, and smaller writing assignments)

·  20% Daily assignments (at least one daily grade will be dropped each marking period for any student who has all of his/her grades)

·  30% Projects/ Notebook/ Portfolio (Including Research Packet and Project)

·  5% Homework

(A student who does not miss class during a marking period, has no more than two tardies, and has no referrals to the office will receive a bonus of 2 points on the marking period average.)

Class Procedures:

·  The instructor will greet students at the door.

·  Students will be on time and be prepared to work when they enter the classroom.

·  Students will bring materials with them to class

v  textbooks (both literature and writing)

v  notebooks

v  blue or black ink pen

v  loose leaf paper

·  Students will respond politely to the instructor and to each other.

·  Students will make every effort to pay attention and stay on task (no sleeping).

·  Students will complete work on time (late policies will be enforced).

(Please note that the above procedures are the expectations of a work place. My goal is to treat each of you in a professional manner, as though I were your supervisor. I consider your education a team effort. Your role and my role are both important to your success.)

Class Rules

1.  Be on time

2.  Be prepared

3.  Be dressed appropriately

4.  Be informed

5.  Be respectful

6.  Be responsible

Consequences

1.  Verbal Warning

2.  Teacher/ Student Conference

3.  After School Detention

4.  Parent Notification

5.  Office Referral

Any major offense: Immeadiate Removal

ENGLISH PORTFOLIO:

THIS IS A MUST. THE ENGLISH PROTFOLIO IS WORTH 30% OF YOUR NINE WEEKS GRADE. TAP INSERTS ARE NEEDED. IF A STUDENT IS ABSENT IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE STUDENT TO ASK CLASSMATE FOR MISSED ASSIGNMENTS PRIOR TO CLASS TIME. ITEMS IN NOTEBOOK MUST BE PLACED IN ORDER BY DATE. MOST RECENT DATE FIRST.

CHAPTERS FOR ENGLISH PORTFOLIO-

I.  Syllabus and Classroom Expectations

II.  Reader’s Notebook

III.  Writer’s Notebook (Including Journals and Bell ringer Activities)

IV.  Test/ Quiz Insert

V.  Homework Insert

VI.  Classwork

VII.  Projects

VIII.  Notes

IX.  Other

The Design of a Typical Lesson in Ms. Forte’s Class:

Note: Because we study literature, writing, research methods, grammar, and vocabulary, lessons vary from day to day. Some typical patterns are given below:

·  On a typical Monday, we will focus on vocabulary, leading to a test later in the week.

·  Writing skills and strategies will be important throughout the semester, but will receive special emphasis the fourth six weeks.

·  Research skills and writing using research will be emphasized especially in the fifth six weeks.

·  Literature will be the main focus of the class. Reading assignments are crucial, along with the special vocabulary used in the discussion of literature. A typical class that features a literary selection will involve a discussion of the selection, examples from the selection (especially ones that feature the application of literary terms), and a discussion of how the writer and piece represent the period of American literature with which they are grouped. In addition, worksheets, written responses, outlining, paraphrasing, and critical analysis will be used from time to time on various of the reading selections.

·  Objectives will be covered in the order of the weekly objectives attached to the syllabus. (Syllabus is subject to change depending on student comprehension of skills taught.)

Discipline Policy:

·  Be on time

·  Treat everyone with respect (including yourself!)

·  Stay on task (no sleeping or disruptive talking)

·  Follow school rules (all school rules will be observed in my classroom)

·  Cheating and plagiarism are unacceptable and result in grades of zero on any work so compromised (however, some assignments are joint ventures and you will be allowed to work together in those situations; you are also encouraged to have fellow students proofread your written work before you revise)

·  Three bathroom passes will be allowed each six weeks

Accommodations:

Any student requiring accommodations should inform the instructor in writing, listing specifics as well as appropriate documentation. Arrangements to meet accommodations will then be made.

Schedule and Topics of Lessons:

Note: All reading selections (unless otherwise noted) are from The Language of Literature. Students are responsible for reading the information about the writer, information about the selection, and accompanying questions about each selection. Page numbers may be found in the Table of Contents of the textbook.

Also Note: For each six week, study of the different disciplines (reading, writing, grammar, research, vocabulary) will be integrated. The plan given below shows what I hope to accomplish each six weeks. Although the literature study will proceed sequentially, the writing, grammar, research, and vocabulary will be fitted into the reading schedule. Therefore, the number of days for each unit is only a target goal.

1st Grading Period:

q  The Colonial Period 6 days

·  Bradford: from Of Plymouth Plantation

·  Byrd: from The History of the Dividing Line

·  Equiano: from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

·  Bradstreet: “Here Follow Some Verses Upon the Burning of Our House, July 10, 1666”

·  Taylor: “Huswifery”

·  Edwards: from “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

q  The Revolutionary Period 4 days

·  Franklin: from The Autobiography

·  Henry: “Speech to the Virginia Convention”

·  Payne: “The Crisis, No. 1”

·  Jefferson: from The Autobiography: The Declaration of Independence

q  American Romanticism 4 days

·  Irving: “Rip Van Winkle”

·  Bryant: “Thanatopsis”

·  Longfellow: “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls,” “The Cross of Snow”

·  Whittier: from “Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyll”

·  Holmes: “The Chambered Nautilus,” “Old Ironsides”

q  The American Renaissance 5 days

·  Emerson: from “Self-Reliance”

·  Thoreau: from Walden, or Life in the Woods, from “Resistance to Civil Government

·  Poe: “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Raven”

·  Hawthorne: “The Minister’s Black Veil”

·  Melville: from Moby Dick

q  Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter (classroom set) 1 day

·  Critical essay

q  Herman Melville: Billy Budd (classroom set) 2 days

·  Literary research into allusions

q  Writing Assignments 2 days

·  Narrative Essay

·  Persuasive Essay

q  Vocabulary (Vocabulary for Achievement, 5th Course) 3 days

2nd Grading Period:

q  A New American Poetry 4 days

·  Whitman: “I Hear America Singing,” “10. Alone far in the wilds,” “33. I understand the large hearts of heroes,” “52. The spotted hawk swoops by,” “A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak”

·  Dickinson: “Heart! We will forget him!”, “If you were coming in the Fall,” “The Soul selects her own Society,” “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church,” “I taste a liquor never brewed,” “Much Madness is divinest Sense,” “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant,” “Because I could not stop for Death, “ “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died”

q  American Drama 8 days

·  Miller: The Crucible

q  Writing Assignments (Creative) 2 days

·  Expository Writing

·  Poetic Writing (write two poems, one in the style of Whitman and one in the style of Dickinson)

q  Mark Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (classroom set) 3 days

·  Classroom debates

q  Edith Wharton: Ethan Frome (classroom set) 1 day

·  Character analyses

q  Research 5 days

q  Grammar

q  Vocabulary 3 days

3rd Grading Period:

q  The Rise of Realism: 5 days

·  Douglass: from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

·  Chopin: “A Pair of Silk Stockings”

·  Twain: from Life on the Mississippi

·  Bierce: “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”

·  Crane: “A Mystery of Heroism”

·  London: “To Build a Fire”

q  The Moderns and Contemporary Literature 6 days

(Modern)

·  Cather: “A Wagner Matinee”

·  Wolfe: “His Father’s Earth”

·  Frost: “Design,” “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” “Once by the Pacific,” “Neither Out Far Nor In Deep,” “Birches,” “The Death of the Hired Man”

·  Ransom: “Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter”

·  Jeffers: “Shine, Perishing Republic”

·  Fitzgerald: “Winter Dreams”

·  Steinbeck: “The Leader of the People”

·  Welty: “A Worn Path”

·  Robinson: “Richard Cory,” “Minister Cheevy”

·  Hemingway: “Soldier’s Home”

·  Eliot: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

·  O’Connor: “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”

·  Masters: “Richard Bone,” “’Butch’ Weldy,” “Fiddler Jones,” “Petit, the Poet,” “Mrs. George Reece”

·  Millay: “Recuerdo”

·  Porter: “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”

·  Aiken: from “Discordants”

·  Faulkner: “A Rose for Emily”

·  Johnson: “Go Down, Death”

·  McKay: “America”

·  Cullen: “Tableau,” “Incident”

·  Hughes: “The Weary Blues”

·  Pound: “The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter”

·  Williams: “The Red Wheelbarrow,” “The Great Figure,” “Spring and All”

·  Stevens: “The Anecdote of the Jar,” “Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock”

·  Moore: “Poetry”

·  MacLeish: “Ars Poetica:

·  Sandburg: “Chicago”

·  Cummings: “what if a much of a which of a wind,” “somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond”

(Contemporary)

·  Auden: “The Unknown Citizen”

·  Malamud: “The Magic Barrel”

·  Roethke: “Elegy for Jane,” “Night Journey”

·  Wilbur: “The Beautiful Changes,” “Boy at the Window”

·  Shapiro: “Auto Wreck”

·  Bishop: “The Fish”

·  Wright: from Black Boy

·  Agee: from Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

·  Tan: from “Rules of the Game”

·  Plath: “Mirror,” “Mushrooms”

·  Borges: “Borges and Myself”

·  Dickey: “The Lifeguard”

·  Cofer: “The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica”

·  Dove: “The Satisfaction Coal Company”

q  August Wilson: Fences (classroom set) 3 days

·  Personal Interview

q  Research Paper 6 days

q  Vocabulary 3 days

q  Exam 2 days

Essential Vocabulary for the Study of Literature:

Note: Vocabulary is given according to literature units. When a term is repeated in a later unit, that term has an asterisk beside it to remind you that it is a repeat. For each literature unit, the words given will be your essential vocabulary for that test. However, all the terms are important to the study of literature and for the Reading/Research SOL test. Try to learn all these terms thoroughly.

English 11 Syllabus C.Forte Page 1

Colonial Period:

1. Rationalism
2. deism
3. plain style
4. allusion
5. syntax
6. archaic
7. Renaissance Man
8. Cavalier
9. Puritan
10. satire
11. tone
12. autobiography
13. inversion
14. rhyme
15. meter
16. paraphrase

(Colonial Period, cont.)

1. extended metaphor
2. aphorism
3. conceit

1. figure of speech
2. image

Revolutionary Period:

1. *autobiography
2. “rags-to-riches”
3. *aphorism
4. *tone
5. biography
6. persuasion
7. appeal to logic
8. appeal to emotion
9. rhetorical question
10. metaphor
11. *allusion
12. analogy
13. anecdote
14. style
15. diction
16. argument
17. *deism
18. parallelism
19. rhythm
20. theme
21. main idea
22. *Rationalism

American Romanticism:

1. Romanticism
2. *Rationalism
3. Gothic novel (145)
4. Fireside poets (know their names)
5. inference
6. foreshadow
7. setting
8. plot
9. motif
10. stereotyped character
11. inflated (elevated) diction
12. *theme
13. character
14. *satire
15. *tone
16. *image
17. *inversion
18. *meter
19. scanning
20. foot
21. iamb (iambic)
22. trochee (trochaic)
23. anapest (anapestic)
24. dactyl (dactylic)
25. spondee
26. monometer
27. dimeter
28. trimeter
29. tetrameter
30. pentameter
31. onomatopoeia
32. personification
33. sonnet
34. Italian sonnet
35. Shakespearean sonnet
36. quatrain
37. couplet
38. octave
39. sestet
40. *rhyme
41. rhyme scheme
42. refrain
43. alliteration
44. mood/atmosphere
45. idyll
46. *allusion
47. *extended metaphor
48. apostrophe
49. symbol
50. *paraphrase

American Renaissance