Start Date: 08/27/2009
Instructor: Donna Herrold
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11th Grade English SVL Syllabus Course
Objectives: |
The purpose of this course is to help students write effectively and confidently, read critically, think analytically, and communicate clearly. Because our students live in a highly visual world, we also will study the rhetoric of visual media such as photographs, films, advertisements, comic strips, and music videos. Students will experience narrative, expository, and persuasive writing modes; additionally, all students will be expected to become conversant in the Modern Language Association's research citation standards. Grading System:* Grades are as follows: 100-90%=A, 89-80=B, 79-70=C, 69-60=D, 59 and below=FA--Students working at this level engage fully in every assignment and demonstrate a willingness to examine their own thinking and assumptions. All work reflects a level of thinking far beyond the obvious and the superficial. Students clearly understand assigned readings and participate actively in all phases of the course. All assignments are submitted within the given time frame and all pre-scheduled make-up work is managed in a timely fashion. Obviously, all work is the student's own. B--Students working at this level competently engage every assignment and consistently attempt to examine their own thinking and assumptions. The majority of the student's work reflects a level of thinking beyond the obvious and the superficial. Students are fully prepared to work with assigned readings and to participate actively in all phases of the course. Most assignments are submitted on time and most pre-scheduled make-up work is managed in a timely fashion. All work is the student's own. C--Students
working at this level do
not yet engage every assignment
and inconsistently demonstrate
a willingness to examine
their own thinking and assumptions.
Only a minor portion of
the student's work reflects
a level of thinking beyond
the obvious and the superficial.
Students are reluctant to
challenge themselves beyond
what they have already accomplished
in reading and writing and,
thus, show little or no
growth in those areas. Students
are minimally prepared to
work with assigned readings
and to participate actively
in all phases of the course.
A majority of assignments
are submitted on time and
most pre-scheduled make-up
work is managed in a timely
fashion. Obviously, all
work is the student's own. D--Students working at this level seldom engage any assignment and consistently demonstrate an unwillingness to examine their own thinking and assumptions. The student's work reflects a level of thinking that is obvious and superficial. Students are ill-prepared to work with assigned readings and to participate actively in the course. Several assignments are submitted late; some assignments may be missing completely. Pre-scheduled make-up work may be missing or seriously late. Obviously, all work is the student's own. F--This level of work is unacceptable. Frequently, work is not submitted, the student may completely ignore the requirements of the assignment, or the student is in violation of
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Course
Organization:
This
11th grade English
course includes 10 thematic
units and their corresponding
enduring understandings and
essential questions. The
questions provide students
with a personal connection
and a rich foundation for
reading and writing in narrative,
expository, and persuasive
modes. Enduring
Understandings guiding
our reading and writing
choices are as follows: Power
of language: A controlled
and powerful writer or speaker
can stir others to action
with the right combination
of words. Responsibility of the scholar: Controlled and clear reading and writing happens by design, not chance. Writing and Reading expectations: Students will be expected to develop the following in their writing:* · a wide-ranging vocabulary used appropriately and effectively; · a variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordination and coordination; · logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques to increase coherence, such as repetition, transitions, and emphasis; · a balance of generalization and specific illustrative detail; and · effective use of rhetoric including controlling tone, establishing and maintaining voice, and achieving appropriate emphasis through diction and sentence structure. Reading
selections from both non-fiction
and fiction genres provide
variety, challenge, and rigor. Our
analysis of the rhetorical
choices made by the writer
will guide class consideration
of all fiction and non-fiction. For
each reading assignment students
must identify most or all
the following (varies by piece):
* · Thesis or Claim · Tone or Attitude · Purpose · Audience and Occasion · Evidence or Data · Appeals: Logos, Ethos, Pathos · Assumptions or Warrants · Style (how the author communicates his message: rhetorical mode, rhetorical devices always including diction and syntax) *Grading, reading, and writing requirements modeled on and modified from the College Board's sample syllabi. |
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Course Motif: Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. All artists, whether journalists, essayists, fiction writers, photographers, etc., examine life through their art, posing and exploring questions about the nature of a worth-while life, the individual's role within society, and the importance of idealism and dreams.
Essential questions guiding our investigation of the author's craft are as follows: The Worthy Life--What is a worthy life as defined by the artist? As defined by the protagonist? The reader? Individual vs. Society--How can the individual (artist, protagonist, or reader) define and live a worthy life despite conflicts with society? Enduring American Values --How do American values impede or enable the individual's pursuit of a worthy life? Instructional Materials: Online readings and activities Web Quests United Streaming Online Video Library Interactivities and other materials: www.sasinschool.com Major Components:
Lessons ? Online multimedia lessons Journal entries Expository, persuasive, and narrative summative writing assignments Variety of assessments to gauge student understanding and focus study Interactivities accessed through the www.sasinschool.com portal Research skills/MLA style Discussions for each unit to occur online/student participation required Vocabulary and grammar mini-lessons within each unit Course Syllabus: Semester One-- Documenting our beginnings: 1. Origination
of
Essential Questions: The enduring American dream: What is the American dream? What was it for the Puritans? Does the Puritan conception of the dream have any impact on American society/your life today?
http://etext.virginia.edu/users/deetz/Plymouth/bradford.html To My Dear and Loving Husband http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Bradstreet/bradhyp.htm Upon
the Burning of Our House http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/218.html http://www.learner.org/amerpass/unit03/authors-3.html Upon a wasp chilled with cold http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/upon-a-wasp-chilled-with-cold/ Annenberg
Foundation for others
Prompt: Do the Puritan values have any impact on American society/your life today? Students will research primary source documents, historic information, etc., and write an argument which develops a stance on the topic above. Revolution and Rationalism: 2. The rhetoric of the 1700s Essential Questions: A worthy life: What moral values are dearest to you? What values or ideals would you stand up, or even die, for? Society vs. the individual: Is it possible for the individual to control and manipulate society? What is the responsibility of the individual to exercise this power responsibly? To what extent can the powerful expression of ideals lead people to forgo their safety, liberty, and even their lives for the perpetuation of those ideals? The enduring American dream: How are moral integrity, human dignity, and spiritual freedom connected to the American dream, both at the time of the Revolution and now?
Ben Franklin Autobiography http://books.eserver.org/nonfiction/franklin/ Thomas Paine The Crisis http://www.ushistory.org/paine/crisis/index.htm Thomas Jefferson http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm Patrick Henry http://www.law.ou.edu/ushistory/henry.shtml
Romanticism and the 1800s: Nature of man: Bright or Dark? 3.
Guilt, Revenge, Judgment,
and Truth: Hawthorne and Poe Essential
Questions: Choice, consequence, and a worthy life: To what extent do emotions such as guilt play a role in the choices you make about your life? Do you believe your choices define who you become? Do others have a right to judge your choices? Society vs. the individual: When is it important to stand up for your own truths and beliefs, even if it disrupts society? Can an individual survive in isolation, or must he or she maintain a societal connection? Society vs. the individual: Is it possible for the individual to control and manipulate society? What is the responsibility of the individual to resist becoming a victim of societal evils?
Selected
Rappaccini's Daughter http://www.shsu.edu/~eng_wpf/authors/Hawthorne/Rappaccini.htm Dr. Heiddegger Fall of the House of Usher http://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/usherf.htm The Masque of the Red Death http://www.poestories.com/text.php?file=masque Cask of Amontillado http://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/usherf.htm
4. To Live Deliberately: Thoreau, Emerson, and Transcendentalism Essential Questions: A worthy life: Why should we march to the beat of our own drummer, listening "to the music which [we] hear, however measured or far away'? To what extent do you believe the statement: "Whosoever would be a man, must be a non-conformist"? What is the "un-hatched abundance" and the wing'd life not visible" in you? Society vs. the individual: When is it important to obey society's laws? When is it important to "let your life be counter-friction to stop the machine"? American values: Simplicity: What does it mean to "fritter [your] life away by detail"? Why should we "simplify, simplify, simplify"? Romanticism/nature: Why is it that "in the woods, we return to reason and faith"? Does "nature always wear the colors of the spirit"?
Walden excerpts--Thoreau http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/ Nature and Self Reliance--Emerson http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/
Oppression and Emancipation: 5. Primary sources and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Essential Questions: The
Worthy Life: What makes up
your identity? Individual vs. Society: Should we always do what society says? When is it important to stand up for our own beliefs, even if they are counter to society's beliefs? The American Dream: How are moral integrity, human dignity, and spiritual freedom connected to the American dream? What has been the cause of departure from these values during the darkest times of our history?
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/DouNarr.html
Semester two-- Realism and Naturalism: 6. Short Stories of Twain, Harte, and Crane Essential Questions: A worthy life: Do we control our life, or does environment dictate our future? Society vs. the individual: To what extent can an individual who exposes societal flaws incite change? How do you define racism? To what extent does racism still exist in our democratic society? The
American dream: What
makes
Stephen Crane http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/crane/works.htm Bret Harte http://www.bartleby.com/310/4/ Mark Twain "A true story, repeated word for word as I heard it" http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/writings.html Seventieth Birthday speech http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/writings.html http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/
Poetry of circumference and self: 7. Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson Essential Questions: The
Worthy Life--What is a worthy
life as defined by
Individual
vs. Society--How can the individual
(Whitman,
Enduring American Values --How do American values impede or enable the individual's pursuit of a worthy life?
http://www.classroomelectric.org/volume3/belasco-price/
The Lost Generation, American Values, and the Death of the Dream 8. Hemingway shorts and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby Essential Questions: The Worthy Life: What makes up your identity? How can a false vision of that identity drive you to make destructive decisions? How do our choices both affect and reflect our character? Individual vs. Society: What does society value that you also value? How do your values differ from society's values? At what point are you willing to stand up for your values if they are counter to society's? American Dream: What was the American Dream of the 20s? What is it now? Are they different? Why? How can chasing a dream to the exclusion of everything else be harmful?
The Great Gatsby http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/f/fitzgerald/f_scott/gatsby/ The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber http://www.geocities.com/cyber_explorer99/hemingwaymacomber.html A Clean, Well-Lighted Place http://www.cis.vt.edu/modernworld/d/hemingway.html#4
The
9. Countee Cullen/Langston Hughes/Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God Essential questions: Identity and the worthy life: To what extent is it important to challenge yourself and have new experiences in life? Janie, the protagonist of Their Eyes Were Watching God said of her experiences that she has "touched the horizon." What does 'touching the horizon' mean to you? Individual vs. Society: Why is it vital to stand up for what you believe in rather than doing what others want you to do? To what extent is being true to your own wishes, needs, and dreams in conflict with society's expectations? Men and Women: In what sense are the dreams and needs of men and women the same? How are men and women different? What experiences lead you to this belief? Identity and the worthy life: How do you feel connected to nature? To what extent do you feel this connection is important to leading a full and good life?
Views on Social Responsibility--"One big soul ever'body's a part of" (24) 10. Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (movie) and modern media Essential Questions: Worthy
Life: To
what extent can man create
a worthy life alone? How
is an individual's best life
dependent on others? Individual vs. Society: Casy tells Tom about a prisoner whose view of history is that "ever' time they's a little step fo'ward, she [mankind] may slip back a little, but she never slips clear back [. . .]" Does society wish to 'step forward'? Why, then, does it more often 'slip back'?
Course Policies Academic Integrity : District Computer/Network
Usage: Online, reference, or student-provided texts: Douglass,
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Self Reliance. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Franklin, Benjamin. Autobiography. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Rappiccini's Daughter, Dr. Heiddegger's Experiment. Henry, Patrick. Speech to the Virginia Convention. Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Jefferson,
Thomas. The
Declaration of
Paine, Thomas. The Crisis, Number One. Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. Twain, Mark. Various short stories and essays. |