Course Syllabus

     English 2023-2024

 

This year, we will work on helping you grow as thinkers and readers and writers, and as useful and aware members of a small community.  Even if it never feels like it, know that everything you do that relates to our class, both in school and out of school—from the way you enter the room, to the way you answer a question, to the way you address your classmates, to the way you, even when you are by yourself at home, approach doing your English work—affects everybody else in our class.  Strive to make your effect one that lifts and propels. 

 

As thinkers, you will practice thinking literally, inferentially, and abstractly.  You will learn to identify, employ, and balance those levels of thinking as you read and as you write. 

 

As readers, thinking on those three levels, you will practice noticing how writers create meaning, and you will consider how that meaning resonates both within and beyond the text.  You will also learn to read as writers, examining how writers construct their sentences and paragraphs and identifying the techniques, the “moves,” they use. As you gain and solidify a deeper knowledge of grammar and punctuation, you will imitate those techniques in your own writing until they become your own. 

 

As writers, you will practice writing clearly, directly, specifically (also known as concretely), and cohesively.  All the while, you will practice writing stylistically, using the techniques you identify in the reading we will do throughout the year; in that way, as suggested in the paragraph above, the writers and other artists we encounter this year will be our teachers.

 

From the start of the year, we will follow these practices that require you to think beyond yourself and your own needs: 

 

1) Greet people by name when you enter class, or, if you’re already here when people arrive, greet them by name as they enter. 

 

2) After you greet people, ask them if they need help with anything.

 

3) Say “please” and “thank you” and “I’m sorry” when the situation calls for it.

 

4) Listen to each other; once class has started, hold no side conversations, even non-verbal ones (mouthing words across the room, for example, or smirking), and especially ones that involve using a cell phone, which must be turned off and kept in your bag during class (we can count an earbud lingering in one ear as a conversation too; please keep your earbuds in your bag as well). 

 

5) When you have the chance to be cutting or kind, be kind.  When you have the chance to be sarcastic or genuine, be genuine.  A gentle word in place of a harsh one always speaks well of you and radiates respect for others and for yourself. 

 

 Grading

 

This year, through the work you will do, you will have the chance to show evidence of your commitment and growth.  That commitment and growth, of course, have to be translated into grades.  Your grades will fall under the following categories:

 

Reading: Your ability to read carefully and think about what you have read on the literal, inferential, and abstract levels, and to express your thoughts about what you’ve read in various forms of writing, including notes, discussions, and quizzes. 

 

Writing: Your ability, no matter what the assignment—short or long, personal or analytical, in or beyond class—to write clearly, directly, specifically, cohesively, and stylistically.

 

Speaking and Listening: Your ability to communicate—and your commitment to communicating—clearly, effectively, and with respect for your classmates and teacher. 

 

Dependability: Your ability to do your work completely—paying attention to all directions, even the smallest ones—with care, on time, and without cheating; also, your commitment to following the class practices and, thus, to showing your concern for others. 

 

Each of these categories will count for 25 percent of your term grades.  Individual terms may be more focused on some categories than others, but remember that you are always, through all you do and say and don’t do and don’t say, showing evidence of your commitment and growth in these four areas.

 

Texts (subject to change as the year progresses):

 

For 12^th Grade: The Namesake, A Poetry Handbook, A Room of One’s Own, Sula, Hamlet, Othello, The Things They Carried, The Stranger.  In addition, we will read various essays and poems.

 

For 10^th Grade: Early Autumn, Homegoing, The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, and various essays and poems and short stories. 

 

For Ninth Grade: Romeo and Juliet, The House on Mango Street, The Book Thief, When the Emperor Was Divine, Lord of the Flies, and various essays and poems and short stories.

 

Office Hours:

 

I am available to meet in school during most A blocks, Orange Blocks, Purple Blocks, and Blue Blocks.  My official office hours (really, it’s just a half hour) will be on Fridays from 2:35-3:05.