Ind. Study in English—Course Syllabus—2017-2018
Robert Hoffman
RoomD-204
291-577-2800
Ind. Study in English teaches students advanced English writing style, but without the stress and rigor of an Advanced Placement or Dual Credit English class. In a seminar like teaching setting, with a rigorous practicum, students will receive instruction and will practice writing their sentences by strategically adding structures as free modifiers, constructing sentences in the active voice, assembling striking, discerning antithesis, and formulating balanced,parallel structures.
Each week, students will write a 300 word article about a current world event or a New Caney High School current event using these advanced writing techniques. The instructor will edit and review each article, and students will sharpen and revise their work before submitting it to the instructor for a final grade.
Selected articles will appear on Eagle Times Bulletin, New Caney High School’s online newsletter. Although some instruction may intersect, this class does not teach students formal journalism or prepare students for UIL competition. Instead, this class focuses on improving writing skills to prime students forapplying excellent writing techniques in their other high school classes and upcoming college studies. If students want formal journalism instruction, then they should enroll in journalism class offered at New Caney High School.
Each week, students will also complete worksheets about writing elegantly with color and style and they will practice forming strong and mature sentence structures. In addition, students will learn about uncultured informal English, such as clichés, slang, and other poor styles and constructions. Using the Dimwit’s Dictionary, students will identify these barbarisms, malapropisms, and improprieties, and revise them using more mature wording and better modifier structure to advance their writing.
Students will also learn the revision process when writing by peer editing and instructor conferences. The instructor will keep all work in students’ portfolios in the classroom.
Course objectives
During this course, students will:
- Read, assess, and evaluate current event news at NCHS school and online.
- Draw proper inferences after gathering facts and information.
- Write articles about their findings in proper reporting format
- Construct sentences elegantly using free modifiers, antithesis, and parallelism.
- Construct lively active sentences instead of torpid passive construction.
- Think clearly and reflectively when reviewing their work.
- Engage in cooperative peer editing by offering positive criticism to articles.
- Identify cliché’s, slang, and other informal writing practices and eliminate them.
- Appraise all types of writing, weighing its’ strengths and weaknesses.
- Develop mature writing skills for other educational and career writing.
Course evaluation
Articles—major grade
Worksheets—daily grade
Special daily work—daily grade
Target students
Grades 9-12
Students can enroll in the class each year earning new credit