Mrs. Powell’s Honors English I

General Course Information

Grade Level Offered: 9th

School # 474-7702, ext. 3358

Web Access: Lemon Bay Home Page- Staff- Bonnie Powell- Honors English I

Course Description:

Honors English I is a rigorous course designed to prepare students for success in their future honors and dual credit courses. Our focus this year will be on close reading; identifying, articulating, analyzing, and supporting claims in a variety of genres; rhetorical terminology;argumentative and informational writing; and ACT preparation. Work hard; always do your best. Most of all- have fun.

Materials: Please come prepared with these materials and the applicable texts EACH day. I will not provide you with the forgotten class materials.

1) A three-ring binder filled with LOTS of loose leaf for English ONLY divided into six (6) sections:

a) Course Materials (general miscellany and study skills)

b) Collection 2- “The Struggle for Freedom”

c) Collection 6- “Heroes and Quests”

d) Collection 3- “A Matter of Life or Death”

e) Collection 4- “Sweet Sorrow”

f) Indie Reads

2) A supply of blue or black pens

3) Pencils

4) Highlighters

5) Sticky notes

6) Index cards

7) A flash drive

8) An agenda book

9) Know your google account

Texts:

  • Florida Collections 9
  • Advantage SAT: Critical Reading and Writing

Recommended Resources:

  • A Pocket Style Manual, (Fifth (+) Edition), Diana Hacker (We recommend that each 9th grade honors student purchase this book, for it will be useful for the remainder of high school and into college.)
  • An ACT prep book
  • LBHS Media Center site, especially the Noodle Tools, Symbaloo,Online Research Resources, Writing and Citation Help, The Manta Writing Handbook, and the Lemon Bay Study Skills Appendix.
  • The appendix in theCollections 9 text, starting with page R1 at the back of the book and the Digital Overview in the ebook version between pages i- xviii.

Skills Foci

STUDY SKILLS

  • Time Management
  • Note Taking and Annotating
  • Test-Taking Strategies
  • Discussions and Presentations

LITERARY and RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

  • Point of view/Perspective
  • Characterization
  • Setting
  • Structure/ Craft/ Organization
  • Symbol/ Allusion
  • Tone
  • Theme
  • Literary devices
  • Diction
  • Syntax
  • Introductory Rhetorical Devices

WRITING

  • Annotating and writing from close readings
  • MLA Formatting
  • Literary analysis
  • Argumentative essays—formulating and defending claims
  • Informative essays and compare/contrast
  • Creative writings
  • Researched assignments

GRAMMAR

  • General Introduction Language Questions on ACT and SAT
  • Punctuation as needed
  • Misplaced modifiers
  • Pronoun–antecedent agreement
  • Objective or subjective pronoun
  • Tense agreement
  • Subject-verb agreement
  • Coordination and subordination
  • Avoiding colloquial/ informal language
  • Achieving clarity and avoiding redundancy
  • Parallelism

VOCABULARY

  • Navigating context clues
  • Greek and Latin roots

Assignment Sampler

  • Student-centered class participation through work-shopping, group work, peer teaching, and Socratic seminars. Students will be expected to participate fully by attending these sessions with the appropriate notes, outlines, rough drafts, questions, comments, visuals as the assignment requires.
  • Creative individual and group presentations
  • Organized notebook including journals used to connect with the literature and to spark class discussion
  • Essays- Essays will include in-class timed tests (50 points) and take-home essays (100 points). An FSA Evaluation Sheet or Rubric will accompany each writing assignment and will be returned with the evaluated assignment. In some cases, the student will be asked to score his or her essay after it has been marked up, and in some cases students will evaluate one another.
  • Objective tests and quizzes
  • Preparation for the Florida Standards Assessment test. See for an example.
  • Introduction to the MLA format and researched assignments
  • Independent readings- 1 per semester: I will provide you with a list of authors and playwrights from which to choose. Assignment details to follow.

Assignment Expectations

  • Agenda: I will have a tentative agenda for the week on the board. It is imperative that you keep organized. There will be daily, weekly, monthly, and long-term assignments occurring simultaneously. You will be YOUR responsibility to stay informed and to be prepared. Please make arrangements for assistance or make-up before or after school. Not during class.
  • Submitting assignments: All assignments even handwritten homework should be labeled in MLA format, skipping a line between notes or questions. Any work that requires stapling should be single-sided (front only). No name = no grade. Work that is sloppily done or in the incorrect format will receive an automatic letter grade off. This includes not writing in MLA format, not typing when a requirement, or writing in pen that is not blue or black.
  • Take-home papers: All take-home papers, unless noted otherwise, should be typed in MLA format single-sided only. Do not wait until the due date to test your printer, for tech-breakdown will not be an excuse for an extension. If all else fails, save on your flash drive and print in the media center. If those computers are down, please write neatly in blue or black pen, skipping lines. Students are expected to turn in the entire process of their writing - draft to final. You may rewrite one paper per quarter only after conferencing with me. I will document the better of the two grades. You must complete a revision before the last two weeks of the quarter.
  • Late work: No. No late work will be accepted; late work is a zero. Assignments are due at the moment I ask for them in class. Work sent after class or turned in when you walk in late will not be accepted. I will print out work from a flash drive if you give it to me before school. If I have a meeting which is often the case, you will have to rely on the media center. Please do NOT bring the flash drive to me during class and ask me to print it out. It will be considered late and will not be accepted. Please do not leave assignments in my box unless requested to do so.
  • Absences: If you are too ill to attend class or there is an emergency, the papers and projects which are due should still be turned in on the due date via friend or through email. You are expected to meet your responsibilities to your group and to the class. Work that I assign on the day you are absent must be addressed and submitted within 2 days.
  • Make-up work: Make-up work is available for absences which occur within your 9 absence window. Please refer to the Student Success Handbook. You will have 2 days upon your return to make up the work. It is YOUR responsibility to see me before or after school—not during class.
  • Organization: Please keep your binder organized. Please do not throw away any graded work and keep all returned work in its appropriate binder section.

How Will I Be Graded?

  • Your grade will be based on total points accumulated per grading period. Point values will vary according to the complexity of the assignment. For example, class work may be worth 5 points while an essay may be worth 100 points.
  • Sometimes assignments are purely for practice and for learning’s sake; not all assignments will be graded. You will not know ahead of time, so please do not ask if this is “for a grade.” These assignments are still vital and the expectation is that that you complete ALL work.
  • Grades are earned, not given. If you earn an 89, you will receive an 89. Please do not ask for a higher grade. If you want to earn a better grade, you must work harder, and we can accomplish this together. Keeping your goal in mind throughout the quarter, not just the last week, will help.
  • FOCUS portal is your go-to source for grades. Please do not ask me for your grade. In turn, I will try my best to keep up with grades on a timely basis. Papers and projects will need more score time, so be patient with me.
  • You may redo one paper per quarter (you have to have written the original paper for this to apply); however, you must make an appointment to work with me on the revisions either before or after school. Essay revisions must be arranged and completed at least two weeks before the end of the quarter.
  • If you earn a D or F for any of the quarters 1-3, I will ask that you write a reflection and goal statement which will be shared with your parents and counselor and kept safely on file with you me.
  • Students must maintain a 2.0 cumulative GPA on a 4.0 scale to participate in interscholastic extracurricular activities.

Grading Scale

100 – 90 = A= excellent, above and beyond

89 -80 = B= above average

79 – 70 = C= average

69 – 60 = D

Below 60 = F

A Word about Cheating

Plagiarism will not be tolerated under any circumstances. We will study appropriate citations and research techniques, but here are a few incidents with which you all are already familiar with and which will result in a zero and disciplinary action according to the LBHS Plagiarism Initiative and Contract.

  • Copying and pasting or using others’ information without appropriate attribution, citations, and Works Cited page.
  • Copying homework—all involved parties will receive a zero.
  • Turing in a paper which you have already used for another class.
  • Cheating on a test by copying, talking to a classmate, or using a device.

PROCEDURES

1) For the beginning of class…

a) Please be in your seat when the tardy bell rings, write down homework from the front board and check the front of the room for the agenda, and get started on the assignment. If you are going to take a picture of the homework board, you must do so BEFORE the tardy bell rings,

b) Make sure all electronic devices are turned off and put away. I will let you know when we will use them for class.

c) Store all book bags and purses off the desk. You may put them on the side tables if you are too crowded.

2) If you are tardy:

If you must be late for any reason, you must have a pass with the date, time and teacher’s or administrator’s signature. Three tardies is considered excessive; a referral will be written. Please refer to the tardy policy in the Code of Conduct for additional information. Please do not set your bag down before class and take the pass to avoid a tardy. You are still tardy. Please do not ask to leave the room if you come to class unexcused tardy.

3) For leaving the classroom:

You will be permitted to leave the classroom for emergency reasons only after the first 20 minutes or before the last 10 minutes of class. Each student starts the quarter with 3 incentive points. Each time you leave the classroom for the restroom 1 point will be deducted. If you do not use them, you keep the points. You will still need to sign out on the clipboard and put a check next to your name on the roster. You MUST take the hall pass with you, please. After you use the three, they are finished for the quarter. I trust you when you leave the room, so if you abuse an exit or do not sign out at any time, you will forfeit your exits. During midterm and final exams, no one is permitted to leave the room until the exam session is over.

4) For dismissal:

Please refrain from “packing up” early and remain in your seat until I dismiss you.

EXPECTATIONS= RESPECT (AKA Manta Pride) :

  • Our class rules fall under ONE category: RESPECT …for yourselves,your classmates,the instructor, school property.
  • RESPECT includes but is not limited to refraining from sleeping, interrupting, eating and drinking (except water), using foul language and insults, damaging school property, and having out or using your phone or other device without permission during class.
  • RESPECT in this classroom also means being ON TIME and PREPARED for class with notebook, texts, writing materials and assignments.
  • A Word about Dress Code: Charlotte County has a dress code policy. If you show up to class out of dress code you will be sent to the admin office. You will not be permitted to make up the missed work or test time while you are dealing with the clothing.

Minor discipline issues will be dealt with in the following order: 1) a warning, 2) phone call home, 3) a referral. I don’t foresee any reason to have to implement any of these consequences since RESPECT is something WE have total control over. Who says we don’t have choices in high school!

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This class is meant to be challenging, and your best will be expected. That said, if you ever need extra assistance or have concerns, let me know so I can help. I want this experience to be a positive one. Let’s have a great year! I am looking forward to working with you.

B. Powell

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