Tri 2/2022-23_ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS 11-A

Welcome to English 11A! I am so honored to be your teacher and to guide you through this wonderful class that combines world literature, novels of your choosing, and a lot of opportunities to write, reflect, and build connections with the world around you. I am so excited about the community we are going to create together and about your opportunities to grow as professional writers and readers. I cannot wait to get to know you.

I want you to know that your words and your writing are your power, your voice, and your legacy. What you say matters to me and how you say it is important. Let's grow as readers, writers, and thinkers together. Let's make a difference in this world we live in.

A little about me: I have been teaching for 26 years. I grew up in Toledo Ohio, home of the Jeep Wrangler and possibly, one of the best art museums on the planet. I speak with an NW Ohio/ SE Michigan accent. I have been married for 22 years to my husband who grew up in my same hometown. I have two dogs (one just months old and one 13 years). I love animals (especially dogs), football, fitness, and all things artsy and creative. I taught yoga and fitness classes for over 20 years (stopping when the pandemic closed some of my favorite studios closed). I am very close to my family and extended family and travel "home" to Ohio as often as I can. I have been a vegetarian for 32 years and love vegetarian food. I love to be outside and I love to go on adventures. I also teach photography, journalism, yearbook, film studies and poetry/creative writing.

Course Syllabus

This class is more than just a literature and writing class. This class gives you the opportunity to study yourself in relationship to the society you live in. It is a class that challenges you to think critically about society and your roles and responsibilities in it. It is a class that encourages you to develop your voice and to use it.

We will read and analyze challenging, provocative, and sometimes controversial material that is intended to make you consider multiple perspectives and develop your personal beliefs and identity. You will be expected to come to class prepared and ready to challenge yourself and others with interesting discussion points. We will consider the historical context of the texts we study, and will make comparisons among a variety of American literary voices to gain a detailed and multi-faceted understanding of American society and its culture, values and norms. We will use essential questions about American culture to deepen our critical thinking, analysis and synthesis. This class is not a chronological study of American literature or history, but a thematic examination of American culture itself from the perspective of American writers.

In this course, we will study and engage with American literature through diverse American authors and voices. This class aligns with 11th grade language arts common core standards., and will focus on building college-level reading, writing, speaking and critical thinking skills. We will study texts and works that span American history in a variety of genres, and show our learning through literacy journals, essays, discussions, and presentations.

Essential Questions

Who are we?
What do we value?
What are we interested in and what do we need to feel valued?
What is American culture?
What does it mean to be an American?
What are American values? How do these values affect our perceptions of ourselves and the world around us?
What is the American dream vs. the American reality?How do differences in these two for many of us affect our concept of the power of the individual in American society?
How do American values affect our behaviors? What impact do our behaviors have on our society and the world at large?
What does it mean to have a civilized society? What is moral and upright behavior? What responsibility do we have to the people around us?
What are the values and dangers of modernization, industrialization, and capitalism?
How do I use my voice to impact the world around me?

HOMEWORK AND PREPARATION

I update Canvas every before the week begins. Check there for you assignments and materials for the week. If you or I are absent, I expect you to be using Canvas. Other than our class journals, in-class projects and tests, I expect you to turn your assignments into Canvas. Assignments will close ten days after they open. Late work beyond ten days will not be accepted unless there are extenuating circumstances that we can discuss individually on a case by case basis.

In order to be successful in this class, you will come to every class on time everyday prepared to work with the text(s) we are studying. It will be a daily practice to discuss various aspects of literature, including style and structure, along with making connections to the larger purpose of the works. In preparations for these discussions, you will often be asked to complete written homework to accompany your reading. This is not a hybrid class so if you do not come to class, you will not get all of the work and assignments. You cannot expect to have the work all on Canvas and pass the class. What we do in class during class time is important and your voice is an important component of this study.

No work is intended to be busy work; it has a larger purpose in guiding you to deeper understanding and for preparing you for the next step. Students are expected to always come to class with evidence of having tried to do the work independently. If you do not understand a question or a piece of an assignment, do it in the way it makes sense to you. Perhaps your way may better.

WRITING

In this class you will write A LOT. You will write to think and help you figure things out, you will write for a purpose, and you will write to practice. Not all writing will be graded, but you need to do it all to become a more efficient and more practiced writer. The bottom line is when you write on a regular basis with an intent or purpose, your writing gets better and you get more comfortable writing.

In class writing and essays: often timed with the purpose of exploration and practice. The expectations for these will vary.
Formal essays: These are more polished pieces, with drafts and steps. You will be expected to write about several works in a unit and to use the details in those works to support a larger hypothesis about the American dream, the American reality, or the American spirit. You will be using knowledge of rhetorical and literary devices to help you make critical arguments/ points. Many of these will be written with critical theories for literary analysis in mind.

DAILY PARTICIPATION:

In order to be successful in this class, you are expected to come to class on time prepared and ready to learn and participate. We will read and write in class each day, and participate in small and large group discussions. We will analyze texts using rhetorical strategies, literary devices, and by making connections to other texts, current events, and personal experiences. Your daily work will mainly be recorded in a literacy journal that will live in our classroom. There will be times when I will ask you to post photos of journal entries to Canvas for assessment. Otherwise, the literacy journal is a place for you to take notes, free-write, pre-write, sketch out ideas, reflect, and be creative.

Why is it called a literacy journal? Literacy is the ability to read, write, speak and listen in a way that lets us communicate effectively and make sense of the world. The purpose of your journal is to assist you in engaging with our essential questions, texts, discussions and writing assignments in a more effective and meaningful way. It also serves to collect your thoughts and ideas in one place, for you to reference and build upon over the course of the trimester.

TEXTS

In Language Arts 11A we will read and engage with the following texts:

Independent Reading book (student choice)

Selected short stories and poems by American authors

The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Book Club books:

Internment (Samira Ahmed)

The Only Good Indians (Stephen Graham Jones)

The Book of Lost Saints (Daniel Jose Older)

Crazy Rich Asians (Kevin Kwan)

Riot Baby (Tochi Onyebuchi)

Juliet Takes a Breath (Gabby Rivera)

CLASS MATERIALS:

single composition notebook to use for your literacy journal (it will stay in the classroom)
writing implement (ballpoint pen preferred) at the ready every day
Chromebook (please charge each night)
Current readings/book

ASSESSMENTS:

Students will be assessed for this class through a variety of assignments, to include (but not limited to):

Final essays for The Great Gatsbycand Book Club books
Independent Reading Project
Literacy Journal assignments (e.g. reading annotations, responses, literary analysis, summaries, reflections)
Structured Discussions (e.g. Socratic Seminars, Fish Bowls, Debates)

Grading

This course is aligned with Hazen’s grade structure:

A: 94-100

A-: 90-93.99

B+:87-89.99

B: 84-86.99

B-: 80-83.99

C+: 77-79.99

C: 74-76.99

C-: 70-73.99

D+: 64-69.99

D: 60-63.99

F: 0-59.99

Grades of P (pass) or NC (no credit) will be reserved for special cases/extenuating circumstances.

My grading practice is standards based, meaning, each major assignment will have a rubric including the standards/skills being assessed, and sometimes a checklist of what needs to be included for completion. Rubrics will be made available with the assignment so that students know what is expected of them, and how they will be graded.

TYPICAL BREAKDOWN OF GRADES*

Writing, Presentations, and Classwork (essays, projects, Socratic seminars, small assignments) = 60%
Assessments = 30%
Journal = 10%

Students and parents can check Skyward for progress on grades. Please keep in mind that quality grading takes time and that larger essays and projects will not appear in the grade book overnight. Sometimes a turn-around for an essay or project could take over two weeks. Also note that an asterisk (*) in the grade book means an assignment has not been entered, a zero (0) means it is missing or not turned in. Please check the symbol before emailing me about missing work.

* The grades are broken down this way to ensure that there is a fair balance between the kind of work that is done and the grades that are received. Therefore, I reserve the right to adjust points/percentages if workloads shift at any point in the trimester.

ATTENDANCE:
Please also note that attendance in this class is very important. The in-class work, discussions, and projects are designed to build deeper connections between the reading and the larger concepts. Excessive absences will severely impact the opportunity to build deeper understanding and will often affect grades earned. We are no longer in a hybrid or at home learning structure. You have to be in class to get all of the material. Please be on time to class and mindful of the time in which we are in class.

Class Agreement/Behavior Expectations

As young adults, only two years away from graduation and the “real” world, I believe that you know what appropriate behavior, including respect, diligence, and cooperation, should look like in a classroom. During the first week of school, we will create our classroom norms and expectations together, and sign a “Class Agreement” by class period. We will hold each other accountable to these agreements throughout the trimester.

SMARTPHONE/ CELLPHONE USAGE / CHROMEBOOKS

Unless, I ask you specifically to look something up on your smartphone or cellphone, please keep them out of sight and off/ silent. Though these devices can be great tools for spontaneous questions that arise and for looking up vocabulary, they are designed to be so alluring and attractive that many best-intentioned people can’t resist them and they become hindrances to attention and authentic learning. Sometimes, you will be allowed to take pictures of assignments and materials that I post on the smart board, but you may not use cellphones in the place of note taking. You also may not listen to music during class discussions and during full class time. Parents should also know that the phones can interrupt learning and should avoid calling or texting during class periods.

I expect students to use Chromebooks to further learning. When I ask for Chromebooks to be closed, I expect them to be closed. We need to make smart decisions around our devices so they do not hinder our opportunities to learn.

ACADEMIC HONESTY

I know that there is a plethora of online resources for the books and texts we will read, and the essential questions we will grapple with. Sometimes these resources can help supplement your learning and understanding, but they can also stunt your learning and growth. Tools like SparkNotes tend to force you into one interpretation that may or may not fit your own natural responses to the literature. If you use these tools, you are accepting another person’s ideas as yours without even knowing if they are correct, and you run the risk of feeling “lost” when it is time to apply the text to unique tasks such as discussions and essays.

Similarly, I know that there are many resources available online for essays. Plagiarism of any kind will not be tolerated. If plagiarism is found to have occurred, the offending student will receive a zero for the assignment, and be asked to resubmit the assignment with a total possible score of 80%.

School Information

Weekly AnnouncementsLinks to an external site.

Student HandbookLinks to an external site.

Bell Schedule

If you are experiencing stress, anxiety, or thoughts of self-harm call Teen Link at 866-TEENLINK (866-833-6546) and ask to talk to a peer. The phone line is open 6 p.m.– 10 p.m. and chat is available 6 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. daily. https://www.teenlink.org/