Sophomore Honors English Syllabus: 2004–2005
Westhill High School
M. Handrinos

Course Description: Instruction includes the persuasive essay, literary response, and a variety of other modes of written and oral expression. Special attention is given to interpretation of literature through the short story, novel, and expository articles with a view toward understanding the scope of world literature. Attention is paid to developing interpretative skills and encouraging fluent written responses to literature in preparation for the CAPT. Research skills are emphasized. Instruction includes a focus on the richness of language in all its varieties and its appropriate use in formal and informal situations. Editing skills are addressed.

Course Objectives: Students will know and be able to:

· Organize clear, logical, persuasive, literary, narrative, and other modes of written and oral expression;
· Analyze, interpret, and identify salient literary themes;
· Enhance close reading skills;
· Incorporate and cite text for support and ability to elaborate on a topic;
· Question inconsistencies in logic, separate fact from opinion, demonstrate problem-solving skills, determine realistic, compelling arguments, and substantiate controlling ideas with essential text references;
· Articulate clear, logical, and insightful compositions in a variety of oral and written formats to appropriately distinguish formal from informal conventions;
· Employ literary devices to illuminate larger thematic concerns;
· Strategically apply knowledge of CAPT reflection, interpretation, connection, and evaluation exam techniques in simulated test scenarios;
· Engage actively in classroom discussions as both speaker and listener to create a highly committed, focused, and collaborative community of learners.

Types of Assessment

Tests: Tests are designed to demonstrate significant thematic as well as technical skill mastery. While test formats vary, their consistent aim is to integrate specific content detail with high-level analysis. Test dates will always be communicated in advance.

Essays: Essays are formal written assessments that measure grammatical, structural, organizational, and mechanical proficiency. Essay assignments are always submitted to students in writing. Essay rubrics are carefully patterned to reflect The College Board's as well as the revised Westhill English Department’s core writing standards.

Quizzes: Quizzes are less formal approaches to demonstrating content mastery. To ensure the highest level of reading rigor, quizzes are typically spontaneous and unannounced. While quiz formats vary widely, the best preparation, in every case, is close, concentrated reading.
Classwork: Classwork is critical to ensuring accurate concept application. While classwork assignments rarely take longer than twenty minutes to complete, they enhance learning by reinforcing key points featured in previous teaching presentations. Because classwork is also designed to measure use of designated class time, classwork is always due at the end of the period it is assigned. Informal writing prompts, spontaneous quotation analyses, and thesis statement modifications are some examples of routine classwork assignments. Classwork is assessed in accordance with the following general schedule:

plus (+) 9.5 points; excellent. Thoughts are clear, detailed, articulate, well substantiated, and insightful. These submissions thoroughly and accurately address salient lesson topics.

Check plus(v+) 8.5 points; very good. Ideas are well-developed, substantiated with text references, and neatly explained. Care and thought have clearly been considered. Additional elaboration and deeper analysis are likely to elevate this response rating in future drafts.

Check(v) 7.5 points; adequate. While work submitted reflects some task commitment, actual content shows deficient elaborations with respect to salient lesson directives. Some conceptual inaccuracies prevent this submission from earning a "very good" appointment. Technical clarification is likely to increase achievement on similar future assignments.

Check minus(v-) 6.5 points; deficient. Work submitted is either incomplete, inaccurate, lacks sufficient evidence of concept mastery, or significantly compounds two or more of these problems in another way. In any case, content submitted barely satisfies minimum assignment parameters. Additional teacher feedback should be solicited.

Zero(0) zero points; no credit. Assignment is either not submitted or, in the event of an absence, is not made up within an appropriate time frame. Any possible credit is denied.

Homework: Homework includes any assignment completed outside of the classroom without the direct support of the teacher. The purpose of homework is to review previous learning, prepare for future lessons, and foster independent initiative. Missed homework assignments constitute a one-point deduction off final quarter grades, and all homework assignments are subject to spontaneous quiz assessment. In our course, homework takes the form of reading, essay revision, isolated sentence construction, and CAPT test preparation practice. Homework content always connects to major grade deliverables like tests and essays.

Grading Policy

Grades are determined as follows:

Tests, Essays, and Projects 45%

Quizzes 35%

Classwork 20%

Classroom Culture Participation Opportunities

Though highly recommended, each of these components is optional.

Learning Partners: Supportive environments in which ideas and information are freely exchanged require opportunities for sufficient interpersonal communication. A “Learning Partner” network is one of the devices through which this communication can be realized. Each student will be paired with another classmate with a mutual goal of maintaining an academic rapport throughout the school year that affords both partners a realistic resource in the event of a missed lesson, handout, or assignment explanation. Student partner preferences will be solicited in the first week of school, during which time the decision to decline participation in the Learning Partner network will also be determined.

Classroom Discussion: Total class as well as small group dialogue is essential to drawing conclusions about character motivation, thematic execution, concept reconciliation, and other important issues within a particular work. Nonetheless, meaningful classroom discussions require generosity on behalf of their participants. Diverse experiences—even among seemingly comparable people—influence unique approaches to emergent literary questions. The challenge, then, is to exchange these perspectives and impart how they inform the literary judgments we make. Such dialogue is vital to deeper, more significant understanding of reading that is intended to drive successful writing. All students are encouraged to advocate positions, substantiate claims, refute ideas that undermine their claims, and have fun in the process of doing so.

Notebooks: Students who participate successfully in this participation component maintain two neat, organized three-ring binders, one for chronicling test preparation strategies and another for keeping literature, writing, notes, quiz, test, handout, and all other supplemental material. Random notebook checks will occur at least once each quarter.

Classroom Policies and Procedures

Make-up Work: All missed tests and quizzes need to be made up within five school days of an absence. If, for example, a student is absent on a Tuesday, the last day to make up his or her missed test or quiz is the following Tuesday. Makeup work sessions need to be scheduled through me in person; the initiative for scheduling the makeup appointment rests with the student. Tests and quizzes not made up within five school days of an absence receive an automatic zero.

Classwork assignments completed during a student’s absence must be made up within 48 hours of a student’s return to school. If a student is absent on the day a homework assignment is due, it is the student’s responsibility to submit the completed assignment in the inbox located on the right hand side of the island in front of my desk to receive proper credit. This inbox submission should be made on the first day a student returns to school after an absence. As with tests and quizzes, classwork and homework that is not submitted in accordance with this protocol will receive a zero.

Late Work: Provisions are afforded for students whose extenuating, unforeseen circumstances preclude them from submitting major tests or essays on the day they are due. Such optional provisions, however, are allotted for each student exactly twice per year and need to be applied for no less than twenty-four hours in advance (extension application enclosed). This provision is only offered for take-home tests and formal essay grades. All other late work is not accepted.

Class Commencement: Because class begins when the bell rings, students are asked to be in their seats at the onset of the period.

Absence on the Day an Essay or Take-home Test Is Due: Unless an extension has been arranged in advance, all essays and take-home tests are due on their assigned due dates. Students who are absent from class for any reason continue to remain accountable for timely essay and/or take-home test submissions. Students who are absent from class on the day an essay/major test is due are required to either e-mail me their assignment at englishtenzero@yahoo.com, or to hand-deliver their work in my main office mailbox (located above my name). In any case, all work must be received no later than 12:00 PM. Students who submit essays/take-home tests in my main office mailbox must have the date and time of the submission validated with a secretary’s ink signature. Additionally, students are encouraged to maintain electronic mail records until graded hard copies have been received.

Passes: Passes are not administered in this class.

Blue and Black Pen: All hand-written assignments should be completed with blue or black ink. Type-written assignments should consist of Times New Roman, size-12 font with 1-inch top, bottom, left, and right margins unless otherwise specified.

Hats, Jackets, Drinks, and Food: These items are not permitted.

Candy Sales: Candy sales are strictly prohibited.

Profanity: Students should refrain from using profane language at all times.

Test Conduct: Students are asked to maintain silence during all testing situations. Once tests are distributed, approximately 4-5 minutes will be allotted for total class clarification concerns. After this time, no additional test content will be discussed until after the exam. Students unwilling to maintain silence throughout the entire exam (as well as refrain from any other interpersonal exchange) subject themselves to the suspicion of cheating.

Schedules: All assignments are communicated to students on a written schedule. Many times a schedule is set from week to week with upcoming, longer-term assignment annotations on the bottom; other times the schedule is planned as far as a month in advance.

Additional Notes

Writing: While creative and other personal writing will comprise a small portion of this course’s focus, students should consider illegal activity disclosures inappropriate for me to read.

Plagiarism: In Wesleyan University’s The Blue Book: Documents of Interest to Members of the Wesleyan Community [1999-2000 edition], p. 48-52, Harold C. Martin provides the following preface to his definition of plagiarism: “It is important to recognize that plagiarism is theft, not of ideas, which are in a sense the property of everyone, but of the credit for originating ideas. Plagiarism is also fraud—intentional deception in order to obtain what does not rightfully belong to one—for a student who plagiarizes attempts to get from an instructor an unearned grade and from the [academic institution] an unearned degree. And, of course, the plagiarist also affronts the rest of the student body. Plagiarism, finally, is impersonation, since every piece of written work presents an image of its author. For this reason, plagiarism is particularly damaging to the plagiarist. Just as an impersonator may get lost among assumed roles, a plagiarist will almost certainly have a false understanding of himself/herself, and of the education he/she is getting. ‘Theft,’ ‘fraud,’ and ‘impersonation’ are harsh words but they accurately represent the moral status of plagiarism, and the severe attitude toward it that prevails. Students who use another’s ideas or language without giving credit violate the most basic agreement between themselves and their school; they attack the academic enterprise at its heart.

Nearly as bad as plagiarism would be a total refusal to be influenced by what other people have written or said, i.e., to participate in the educational interchange. Thus it is necessary that all students familiarize themselves with the difference between legitimate and illegitimate borrowings. The scholar who leads his reader to believe that what he is reading is the original work of the writer when it is not is the plagiarist.”

Technically defined, plagiarism entails:

(1) failure to cite quotations and borrowed ideas;
(2) failure to enclose borrowed language in quotation marks; and,
(3) failure to put summaries and paraphrases in one’s own words.

As would be expected, plagiarism subjects students to a range of consequences including automatic credit denial. It is strictly prohibited.

Contact Information

I am happy to meet with you to answer questions, provide extra help, or discuss your progress during lunch, after school, before school, or during my preparation periods throughout the day. The key, though, is communication. Call me at 253-2964 in the event of an emergency, e-mail me at mhandrinos@yahoo.com, or see me in school to schedule an appointment.

Suggested Texts

Grammar and Writing: A Writer’s Reference (Hacker); The Elements of Style (Strunk & White)

Fiction: 1984 (Orwell); Animal Farm (Orwell); Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck); Julius Caesar (Shakespeare); Lord of the Flies (Golding); A Separate Peace (Knowles); Ordinary People (Guest); The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger); The Secret Life of Bees (Kidd); I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Angelou)

Poetry: "Piano" (Lawrence), "A Slumber Did My Spirit Steal" (Wordsworth), "The Collar" (Herbert), "To His Coy Mistress" (Marvell), "Portrait D'une Femme" (Pound)

Films: "Dead Poet's Society"

Special Projects: Current Events Debate, Teach the Class Lessons