10th grade Honors English Syllabus
Susquehanna Township High School
Course #1230
Mrs. Ungerer, room 124,
Welcome to 10th grade Honors English!
I hope that we will have a fairly painless and fun year. The climate of this class is up to you. If we stay focused and follow the PBIS rules and system of reward with ARROWS tickets, then we should have a successful year.
Please consider joining Remind Texting (a free and secure communication platform- I will not be able to see your phone number!) You can always view your student's progress and communicate with me in Campus, but I find Remind the easiest way to shoot a group reminder of an upcoming assignment, instructions if I'm absent, or a quick question, etc. I see text on my phone from Remind before any other form of communication. To join, in your text message, click on To: and enter 81010, in the message box, type @cbfga4, then send. You will receive a message back to join.
In the student handbook, you will find the rules and procedures for timeliness to class, bathroom passes, dress code and more. We will follow all school rules.
****A special note about cell phones: bottom line, they are a huge distraction. There will be no cell phone use in this classroom. As the year progresses, if everyone can follow this rule, then we can discuss bringing in cell use for playing music while you work.
Course Description: This course will offer students the opportunity to further develop thinking and writing skills while examining literature. It is aligned to the Common Core Standards, and supports anchor standards in English Language Arts. Using a variety of texts and media will assist students in meeting key standards in Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language. The curriculum reflects traditional college preparatory studies, and includes a strong research component while stressing literary analysis. Units of studies will be both thematic-drawing a common thread through many genres of written and spoken communication, and genre driven- such as poetry and drama. There will be many opportunities for written expression including a major research paper in MLA format.
Some major texts and projects to look forward to:
- Unit on the oppression of women and minorities using many texts written by women and culminating in the play, "The Piano Lesson" by August Wilson.
- Unit on Dante's "Inferno" with an underlying study of epic poetry and sonnets
- Unit on Shakespear's "Julius Ceasar"
- A major unit on poetry with an emphasis on spoken word culminating in a 9th and 10th grade collaborative Poetry Slam performance (parents welcome to attend!)
- An MLA format research paper
- A career unit culminating in a polished resume and interview by local business men and women (school wide for all 10th graders)
- The taking of the PSAT (school wide for all 10th graders)
- The Keystone exam in Literature in May including extensive preparation- currently a score of proficient or advanced is a requirement for graduation from Susquehanna Township HS
Grading: The school grading policy is in place for all classes.
Essays and tests are worth 50 or 100 points depending on length
Quizzes are from 10 to 40 points
Homework, classwork and journal entries are 10 points.
Students earn a grade on essays but are always welcome to improve that grade through revision. Homework, classwork and journals will always receive full credit if completed to the best of the student's ability. If this type of work receives less than full credit, it is due to being off task or incompletion. The work may be made up for partial credit; 10% off for each day up to 3 days, and ½ credit after that. All of the grades mentioned in this paragraph will ensure a passing grade in the class so if a student does not do well on tests and quizzes, they can still pass with a minimum of 59.6%.
One final note: Plagiarism is a major problem in high school and can result in disciplinary measures and expulsion at the collegiate level. Therefore, all major essays will be turned in on turnitin.com. This site matches plagiarism between students in the class and worldwide.