Honors English 9 Course Guidelines
Mrs. Booth
Welcome to 9th Grade Honors English! This course is designed for advanced students and will continue an intensive study of the core areas with a heavy emphasis on reading and writing. This course will utilize the Utah Core and will include many varied reading and writing assignments. Other learning activities include journals, argumentative essays, descriptive writings, literary analyses, peer and self revision, grammar, short story elements, nonfiction readings, TED Talk warm-ups, analogies, and projects and other writings based on novels. Two literary analysis papers are completely independent. You must maintain a grade of 80% or better to remain in this class. This class will prepare you well for 10th Grade Honors English and so forth. I would hope that you develop a love for this material that will carry throughout your high school career.
Materials: Please bring pens or pencils, paper, and Post-its with you every day.
Classroom Rules: Please refer to the student handbook for tardy and truancy policies. Please remember that tardies count if you are not in your seat when the bell rings. Since this is the third year you have been in junior high, you know what is expected in every English classroom. Please make sure you are working on the mug shot as soon as you enter class. Please be respectful when the teacher (including a substitute) is talking. Raise your hand and wait to be acknowledged. I allow only one hall pass a quarter, so use it wisely.
Mug Shots: We will do Mug-Shot (Mechanics, Usage, Grammar) warm-ups on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. The sentence for the quiz will be taken from one of the Mug Shots done in class that week. It is important to review and study Mug Shot sentences in order to do well on the Friday quizzes. Thursdays will be TED Talk warm-ups.
Late Work/Absences: I allow students to turn in work late throughout the quarter with a loss of 10% credit per assignment. If a student is absent the day an assignment is given or the day it is due, the district policy is in effect. This does not mean that students have extra time to turn in assignments or take quizzes during the course of novel assignments. If they are absent the day the novel is assigned, the policy provides extra time for the first quiz only. Their entire reading schedule is not bumped back. Students must find a way to catch up. Also, this does not apply to the end-of-the-quarter final due dates for late/make-up work. (Thank you, Mrs. Booth, for taking late work.) Please try to be at school every day of every quarter unless you are ill. I don’t want to be sick, and neither do other students! In addition, quizzes must be taken the day they are assigned unless a student is absent that day. If you are not prepared because you didn’t read, you will still be taking the quiz. If you are absent, make-up quizzes will be given before or after school only. Not during Spartan Forum. There are no re-do quizzes.
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I have read and understand the above disclosure statement for Mrs. Booth’s English class.
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Signature of parent of guardian Signature of student
I give my student permission to view the following movies pertaining to the curriculum:
Yes / No The Muppet Christmas Carol, 1992 rated G
Yes / No The Scarlet Pimpernel, 1982, starring Anthony Andrews and Jane Seymour, no rating (made for
TV movie)
Quarter Projects: There will be a literary analysis on theme due during 2nd and 4th quarters. Students should use books they have already read, but not books we have read in class, because this is a writing assignment, not necessarily a reading assignment. In completing this assignment, students will find themselves rereading quite a bit of the book, anyway. Second quarter’s literary analysis will be due December 1. They will be put on students’ grades as soon as they are graded. Students have until the end of the quarter to turn this assignment in without a late assessment. Fourth quarter’s analysis will be due April 20. Same rules apply.
Citizenship: Citizenship grades are reflective of students being prepared, on time, and behaving in class. Typically, I do not have trouble with students being disrespectful, but if there are chronic disturbances, I will put that student on a 100 point program.
Respect: Yourself, others, and your school. Examples include but are not limited to choosing to disrespect any substitute teacher. This will result in your citizenship grade automatically dropping to a U. This is your only warming. Cheating, especially on quizzes, will result in an automatic zero, an automatic U, and a notification being sent to parents and current/future teachers. Excuses for any disrespect will not be tolerated.
Food and Drinks: With the exception of water—which I highly suggest each student brings regularly—there is no food or drink allowed in class. I will allow gum until this becomes a problem. If you must chew gum, please be respectful of others—no chomping or popping. And if I see it out of your mouth, it goes in the garbage. If I see it under my desks or on the carpet, it will be banned!
Dressing Appropriately: My room is freezing when the air conditioning is on! Please wear clothes you will be comfortable in without falling into an ice-coma. There is nothing I can do about the temperature. I must suffer as an icicle as well.
MLA Formatted Papers: All typed papers must be formatted according to MLA rules. Feel free to locate information that will help you guide your child to format their papers correctly. Many websites contain accurate information, including The Owl at Perdue: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/, as well as MLA style guides and MLA templates you can install on your computer.
Weekly Schedules, Reading Schedules, worksheet assignments, Prezis, and other work are posted at my blog each week: http://blog.weber.k12.ut.us/dbooth
I am looking forward to a fun year! I love this curriculum, and I love being in the class teaching it. Teaching students to be critical thinkers is one of my goals. If you have any questions or concerns, please e-mail me or call me here at the school.
Novels: The Princess Bride, Whirligig, Inventing Elliot, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Book Thief, The Little Prince or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or The Importance of Being Earnest or Pygmalion, The Scarlet Pimpernel, 5 portions of The Odyssey, most of Romeo and Juliet
Short Stories: “The Most Dangerous Game,” “A Christmas Carol,” “The Interlopers,” “Orange,” “The Necklace,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Sniper,” “Cranes,” “The Gift of the Magi,” “The Lady, or the Tiger,” “The Scarlet Ibis,” “Ordeal by Cheque,” and a few others.
**First Assignment: Return the bottom portion of this sheet for 20 points. (That means cut it off, please!)
**Please keep the top portion for your records. Additional guidelines can be found on my blog**