Course Syllabus

English 2024-2025

 

Stephen Bresnahan

 

  Office Hours

 

I am available to meet during most A Blocks, Orange Blocks, Yellow Blocks, and Blue Blocks.  Beyond that, my office hours will be on Fridays from 2:30-3. 

 

 

            Course Overview

 

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, our class.  Know that everything you do that relates to our class—from the way you enter the room, to the way you answer a question, to the way you address your classmates, to the way, even a home, you do your work—affects everyone 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, write, and speak.

 

As readers, using those levels of thinking, you will notice how writers create meaning, and you will consider how that meaning resonates within and beyond the text.  You will also learn how to read as writers, examining how writers construct their sentences and paragraphs and identifying and imitating the techniques, the “moves,” they use. 

 

As Writers, you will practice writing clearly, directly, specifically (also known as concretely), and cohesively.  As you do, you will practice writing stylistically, using a deepening and broadening knowledge of grammar and punctuation as you try out the techniques you notice in the reading we’ll do this year; in that way, the writers we read will also be our teachers.

 

From the start of the year, we will follow these class practices; they all require you to think beyond yourself and your own needs to consider the needs of others:

 

• Greet people by name when you enter class, or, if you are here before others, greet them by name as they enter.

 

• After you greet people, ask them if there is anything you can do to help them.

 

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

 

• Listen to each other. Once class has started, hold no side conversations (verbal or non-verbal) including ones that involve a cell phone, which must be turned off and put away, zipped out of sight, in your bag.  We can count an earbud lingering in one ear as a conversation, too; please remove them without being reminded and keep them in your bag as well.

 

• 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, radiating the respect you have for others and for yourself.

 

 

      Grading

 

This year, through the work you’ll do, you have the chance to show evidence of your commitment and growth.  That commitment and growth have to translated into grades, and so your grades will be in 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 including notes, quizzes, and discussions.

 

Writing: Your ability, not matter the length or type of assignment, to write clearly, directly, specifically, and stylistically.

 

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

 

Dependability: Your ability to be counted on to do your work (paying attention to all directions) on time and with care and without cheating; your commitment to following the class practices and, as a result, to showing concern for others.

 

Each of the categories counts, with equal weight, toward your grade.  Individual terms may be more focused on certain categories than others, but please remember that you are always, through all you say and do and don’t say and don’t do, showing evidence of your commitment and growth in these four areas.  You will receive rubrics for these categories in the opening weeks of school. 

 

                                                                        Texts

 

For 12H: The Namesake, A Poetry Handbook, A Room of One’s Own, Sula, Hamlet, The Things They Carried, Othello, American Moor.  In addition, we will read various essays, short stories, and poems.

 

For AP: Many of our readings will come from the textbook The Language of Composition, and from the collection of essays called 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology.  We will also, however, read supplemental works from newspapers and magazines.  No matter what we read, we’ll always be considering the rhetorical approaches a writer takes and how those approaches become effective.

 

Throughout the year, we will, of course, be preparing for the AP Test on May 14, 2025.  We will work on the skills needed to complete the multiple-choice section of the test, and those needed to write the three essays required on the test: the rhetorical analysis essay (we’ll focus on that term one), the argument essay (term two), and the synthesis essay (term three).  All of those essays, and the multiple-choice section, will require skills mentioned above in the “As Readers…As Writers…As Thinkers” sections of this course overview. 

 

For 9ACP: Romeo and Juliet, The House on Mango Street, The Book Thief, When the Emperor Was Divine, Frankenstein, and various essays and poems and short stories.