Syllabus - Richmond County School System



American Literature Syllabus 2019-2020 School YearMrs. Mills Room 233Contact email: millsap@boe.richmond.k12.ga.usREMIND: to sign up for my remind text @mills233 to 81010Materials provided by the school: Text book: Pearson Common Core Literature Georgia: The American Experience. 2015. Assigned Novels the school will provide, but are not limited to, the following (may be subject to change):Hawthorn, The Scarlet LetterFitzgerald, The Great Gatsby Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnAssigned Dramas the school will provide, but are not limited to, the following:Miller, The CrucibleHansberry, A Raisin in the SunMicrosoft 360 software to include Microsoft Word. Just login to the Launchpad platform.Materials provided by the student:A hard-cover, three-ring binder with 4 dividers (sections: graded papers, vocabulary, grammar, and writing)Loose-leaf paperPens (All assignments must be done in pen unless I give you permission to use pencil)composition notebook/flash drive/ Ear buds.Course DescriptionThe purpose of this course is to provide a strong academic background for 10th grade students who are reading and writing on or above grade level. The course centers on a chronological study of American Literature and student response to this literature. Literary selections include: folk tales, poetry, drama, nonfiction, the short story, and the novel, with emphasis on analysis and comparison. Vocabulary study is mandatory. This course provides 10th grade students a preview of the rigor expected in next year’s AP course.Writing assignments will focus on the rhetorical strategies of tone, diction, syntax, analysis, narration, compare and contrast, argument, and persuasion. All typed assignments are required to follow MLA format. Students will write in-class essays throughout the year. Students will also write a short story and a five-page research paper. Grammar exercises on advanced grammatical skills will be practiced on most Fridays. Cell Phone PolicyCell phones have become a major distraction for students in the classroom, and because of this, I will collect phones and smart watches everyday at the beginning of class. This will also be the policy for the AP ELA classes your junior and senior year. When you come in, you will silence your phone and place it in the holder on the wall at the beginning of class every day. I will remind you to do this for the first couple of weeks. This will also be the process for smart watches. This is a non-negotiable. If you do not adhere to this policy, appropriate disciplinary actions will be enforced. If you do need technology for class, it will say to keep your phone under the daily agenda on the board, or I will provide it to you.Makeup WorkMaking arrangements for completing make-up work is the responsibility of the student. Arrangements to complete make-up work must be made by the student within five days of an absence. Students are expected to take missed quizzes and tests when they come back from an absence. If the assignment is not turned into the teacher, the student will receive a zero.Late WorkPenalties for late work are as follows:1 day late-112 days late-223 days late-334 days late-44 5 days late -55 and so on…Weekend-20HomeworkLate homework is not accepted unless you are absent. Each week’s homework will total a 100 for one homework grade for that week. Each week will vary. Homework will be posted daily on the board and on my teacher class page on the school’s website. The following is an example of how homework is graded.2 HW assignments a week = 50 pts each/100 4 HW assignments a week = 25 pts each/100Discipline PolicyThe discipline policy of the Richmond County School System will be obeyed. The first violation will be recorded, and the student will be advised on how to correct the situation. The second offense will be documented with detention, and a parent or guardian will be contacted. The third violation will be referred to the administration. CheatingPlagiarism and/or cheating on tests, quizzes, essays, or homework will result in a grade of zero for each person involved (the person receiving the information and the person giving it). Cheating is copying answers or ideas that are not originally your own. Cheating not only gets you a zero, but damages your reputation as a good, hard-working student. It jeopardizes any future recommendations and trust I have for you not to lie. My advice is don’t cheat! Take the grade you will get and do better next time. Earn the grade yourself, and do not cheat yourself out of a good reputation with your peers, teachers, counselors, and administrators. Methods of Evaluation/Distribution of GradesStudents will have numerous opportunities to demonstrate the skills necessary to successfully master the objectives of the course. Assignments may include the following: daily classwork and homework, quizzes, tests, writing assignments, class discussions, independent work, projects (individual and group), oral presentations, and reports (oral and written). Maintaining a neat, well-organized notebook is a must. Remember to always keep your graded papers. Homework10%Poetry Responses (Due Every Wednesday)15%Quiz/Reading Assessments15%Tests/Projects30%Writing – Essays, Journal, SCR, Major Narratives30%WritingYou will be doing more writing this year in preparation for the two ELA AP courses you are required to take your junior and senior year. Your writing will be graded using a 9-point rubric. In addition, you will be assigned 4-7 poetry responses every nine weeks. These are an important part of your practice for analysis and writing. We will frequently use and Revision Assistant.End of Course TestCourse OutlineVocabulary Development: Words are selected from the readings. There are at least two vocabulary assessments every nine weeks.Poetry responses due every Wednesday. Journal Prompts are every Tuesday & Thursday in your composition book.There will be at least one Revision Assistant Essay every grading period.(For the first two weeks, students will discuss and be assessed on the summer reading)Literature: Early America, Folk Tales & the Oral Tradition Historical Introduction/OverviewShort texts - Native American Literature – “The Osage Creation Account”/ “The Navajo Creation Myth”/ “Coyote and the Earth Monster” The Iroquois Constitution Cabeza de Vaca “A Journey Through Texas” (Informative essay on Native American Literature/Culture) Excerpts from The General History of Virginia and from Plymouth Plantation Jonathan Edwards – Excerpts from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (Short Constructed Response)Play - Arthur Miller – The Crucible (Research & Creative Project) (2 Analysis Essays)Poetry Responses - Anne Bradstreet – “To My Dear and Loving Husband”/ “Upon the Burning of Our House”/ Edward Taylor – “Huswifery”/ 3 other poems TBAGrammar Friday – quotation marks, prepositions, appositives, clauses, antecedentsMajor Original Narrative - An original Myth or Trickster taleLiterature: Reason and Revolution Historical Introduction/OverviewShort texts - Benjamin Franklin – Excerpts from Poor Richard's Almanack & The Autobiography Sandra Cisneros – Excerpts from Straw into Gold (Compare & Contrast Essay) Patrick Henry -- Speech in the Virginia Convention (Short Constructed Response) Thomas Jefferson -- Declaration of Independence Abraham Lincoln – “The Gettysburg Address” Thomas Paine – Common Sense & The Crisis, No.1 Franklin Roosevelt – “A Date Which Will Live in Infamy” Arnold Schwarzenegger – 2004 Republican National Convention Address Barack Obama – “A More Perfect Union” (Rhetorical Analysis Essay) Susan B. Anthony – “Woman’s Right to Suffrage” Sojourner Truth – “Keeping the Thing Going While Things Are Stirring” & “Ain’t I a Woman?”; Elizabeth Cady Stanton – “The Destructive Male”Poetry Response - Phillis Wheatley – “On Being Brought from Africa to America”/ “To S.M. a Young Painter on Seeing His Works” / “To His Excellency, General Washington” James Russell Lowell “Stanzas on Freedom” Francis Scott Key “The Star-Spangled Banner” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow “A Psalm of Life” / “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” Oliver Wendell Holmes “Old Ironsides” Ralph Waldo Emerson “Concord Hymn”Grammar Friday – run-on sentences, subject/verb agreement, sentence combining, active & passive voiceOriginal Composition/Rhetoric – 2 speechesLiterature: American Romanticism, Gothic Literature & TranscendentalismHistorical Introduction/OverviewShort texts - Washington Irving – “Rip Van Winkle” & “The Devil and Tom Walker” Edgar Allan Poe “The Masque of the Red Death”/ “The Fall of the House of Usher”/ “The Cask of Amontillado” Ralph Waldo Emerson – “Nature”/“Self-Reliance”/ “The Rhodora” Henry David Thoreau – “Walden”/ “Civil Disobedience”Novel - Nathanial Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter (2 Analysis Essays)Poetry Response - Poetry Out Loud poem / Edgar Allan Poe “The Bells”/ “Annabel Lee”/ “Alone”/ “The Raven” Several selections from Walt Whitman & Emily DickinsonGrammar Friday – Pronouns – indefinite, etc. Major Original Narrative - An original Gothic or Romantic tale.Literature: The Rise of RealismShort texts - Robert E. Lee – Letter to His Son Mary Chestnut -- Excerpts from A Wartime Journal Ambrose Bierce – “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” Jack London – from “To Build a Fire” Charlotte Perkins Gilman “The Yellow Wallpaper” Kate Chopin – “The Story of an Hour”/“A Pair of Silk Stockings”Novel - Mark Twain –The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (2 Analysis Essays)Poetry Response - Edward Arlington Robinson – “Luke Havergal” / “ Richard Cory” and other selectionsGrammar Friday – MLA Format5 Page Research PaperLiterature: Modernism, Harlem Renaissance, Southern RenaissanceHistorical Introduction/OverviewShort texts - Ernest Hemingway – “In Another Country” John Steinbeck – “The Chrysanthemums” James Hurst – “The Scarlet Ibis” Willa Cather – “A Wagner Matinee” Katherine Anne Porter – “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”Novel - F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great GatsbyPoetry Response - T.S. Eliot – “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” / Selections from Robert Frost & Langston HughesGrammar Friday – End of Course Test ReviewLiterature: PostModern/Contemporary Historical IntroductionShort texts - Randall Jarrell – “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” Gabriel Garcia Marquez – “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” Martin Luther King Jr. – “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Gish Jen – “An Ethnic Trump” Elizabeth Bishop – “The Fish” Maxine Hong Kingston -- Excerpt from The Woman Warrior Alice Walker – Excerpt from In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens Amy Tan – “Mother Tongue” Sylvia Plath – “Mirror”Play - Lorraine Hansberry – A Raisin In The SunPoetry Response from various poets –Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dudley Randall, Alice Walker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Simon Ortiz, Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Diana ChangGrammar Friday – Who/Whom, Hyphens, Parenthesis, Ellipses; Other PunctuationAmerican Literature – Mrs. MillsStudent Name: ______________________________________________I have read this syllabus and I understand the content and requirements for the year. I understand that this syllabus is to be kept in the front of my notebook after it is signed by my parent/guardian. I understand that course expectations may change due to time constraints or other unavoidable circumstances. ______________________________________________ Signature of Parent or Guardian ___________________________ Date ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download