Ms. Villa
5
11th Grade English Program
Instructor: Ms. Villa
Course: 11th grade American Literature & Composition
Contact:
Literature Program
What literature offers to all people, young and old alike, is an imaginative
understanding of human nature, that is, of the possibilities of human character and experience. If read carefully and reflectively, good literature can enlarge our understanding of human nature and help us become better judges of character. Fostering this enlargement is the goal of the 11th grade literature program.
The texts you will read this year have been organized around the theme of Our Perceived Reality. More specifically, we will explore the ways in which we interpret our unique life experiences and that perspective to create what we mistakenly believe to be an objective reality. Specific attention will be paid to the American Dream and the way it shapes our perspective within the context of different cultural experiences. The course will commence with a close reading of the Declaration of Independence as a platform for understanding what America’s forefathers envisioned for America, and how we have translated it into the American Dream.
Writing Program
From the outset you will be encouraged to develop opinions and defend them both in class discussions and in well-constructed paragraphs. Your goal will be to write, with reasonable consistency, 500-750 word compositions that adequately support your opinions about what is really going on in a given crisis scene, and to do so in a readable style that is free of mechanical error.
Mechanics Program
This program will be taught through “Correction Lessons” that will routinely follow the return of every composition you have written. You must recognize that no teacher (or eventual employer) can help noting any offense against the conventions of punctuation, sentence construction, and spelling without red-marking or circling that offense right then and there. You must also appreciate that when a paper of yours provokes this response more than a few times, an interest in spotting and marking the next offense soon compromises your reader’s attention on what your are saying. This weakened attention, in turn, eventually leaves your evaluator with a more superficial and therefore less appreciative understanding of whatever sound points you are trying to make in your composition. Every correction lesson, therefore, is a serious matter.
The mechanics program will focus on teaching you the “real rules” of conventional writing, meaning those rules whose violation stigmatizes a person as either a thoughtless writer or else a writer who is at best barely literate.
Course Goals
1. Through the study of literature, students develop a greater understanding of the human
experience.
2. Students learn critical thinking strategies and are able to apply them in a variety of
situations.
3. Students use the Toulmin Model to write extended arguments.
4. Students apply critical reading strategies at a college level.
ICEF 11th Grade ELA Pacing Guide
Dates / Instructional Activities / DurationSeptember 8, 2009-September 11, 2010 / Class Introduction
Policies and Procedures / 1 week
September 14, 2009 –September 25, 2009 / Non-fiction Reading and Rhetoric I / 2 weeks
September 28, 2009-
November 13, 2009 / The Great Gatsby / 6 weeks
The Great Gatsby Writing Benchmark Due: November 20, 2009
Bring graded copy to Benchmark results meeting on November 25, 2009.
November 30, 2009-
December 18, 2009 / Non-Fiction Reading and Rhetoric II / 3 weeks
WINTER BREAK
January 4, 2010-February 12, 2010 / Overview of Genres of American Lit (Part I)
Nathaniel Hawthorne stories / 5 weeks
Young Goodman Brown Common Final Exam Due: January 29, 2009
Grading Policy
The English Department has implemented the following grading breakdown. Class work, participation, and homework will be worth no more than 50% of the final grade. Assessments will be worth no less than 50% of the final grade. At the end of a quarter, your total points earned will be divided by the total points possible. If you end up with a “borderline” score of, say, 89.6%, that score with be rounded up to 90%, which translates into an A- grade. An 89.5% score, however, will translate into a B+ grade.
Assignments
Assignments will be worth the following amount of points
Homework: 10 pts. Final Essay: 70 pts.
Essays: 35 pts.
Late/Missing Assignments
The English Department mandates that ABSOLUTELY NO late work will be turned in after the completion of a unit.
Materials
The following materials are required for class. Students must bring them EVERYDAY.
1. Blue or Black ink PENS (more than one!)
2. One red pen
3. Highlighters
4. Loose leaf college ruled paper (start with 40 pages)
5. A pocket dictionary
6. Post-It Tabs (essential for annotating texts)
7. One pack of Index Cards
8. One 1” three ring binder
9. Los Angeles Public Library Card (sign up at your local library, visit: www.lapl.org)
English Notebook Requirement
All students must have an English notebook (1” three ring binder) that contains the following sections: 1) Warm-Ups 2) Notes 3) Vocabulary
Absences
To best succeed in school, you ought to be in class everyday. But if an absence is unavoidable, then you are responsible for making up all class work and homework within forty-eight hours of your return. Students will find all assignments posted on Powerschool and/or the school website. Remember, taking the initiative to do this make-up work is solely your responsibility.
Hall Passes
Time spent to focus on literature and writing is essential for class. Therefore, the English Department has decided that students will be granted three hall passes per semester.
Discipline
In order to get the most out of your classroom experience, you must behave. Acceptable behavior is clearly spelled out in the View Park Prep Student Handbook.
Technology
Technology is integrated in the course throughout the year. Students and teachers utilize Microsoft Office, including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, for assignments, presentations, activities and projects. Students will also utilize the internet for interactive blogs, project research, and the school website for download of assignments and homework.The English Departments requires that students interact with technology as a part of each unit. Students will be required to participate in a discussion via their grade level blog.
Cut Here------Return Portion Below to Teacher------
By signing my name to this syllabus, I agree to the following:
1) I have read and reviewed this syllabus with my student;
2) My student has agreed to put forth his or her best effort in complying with the requirements
as articulated in the course syllabus;
3) As the parent, I will do my best to make sure that my student adheres to the requirements
as articulated in the course syllabus and;
4) At the English department’s discretion, failure to adhere to the requirements articulated
in the syllabus may negatively affect my student’s final semester grade.
______
Parent Signature Date
Student Signature Date