RS Comp Syllabus

Rising Scholar Composition 101

Spearfish High School,

Black Hills State University

BHSU Adjunct Instructor Scott Howard

Rm 121; 1-605-717-1212 

showard@spearfish.k12.sd.us

ENG 101, Composition I, 3 credit hours, Black Hills State University, Fall, 2024, Alternating Days, 90 Minutes, Spearfish High School

Instructor's Contact Information: Scott Howard, RM 121, Spearfish High School, Office Hours: block M4 (2:00-3:15), Office Phone: 717-1212, Email: showard@spearfish.k12.sd.us

Course Description

BHSU English 101 Composition I. Students practice the skills, research, and documentation needed for effective writing. This includes analysis of a variety of academic and non-academic texts, rhetorical structures, and audience. A Senior Research Project that includes an in-depth research essay using MLA and a PowerPoint/presentation is required for graduation.

RS Comp 101 meets 90 minutes every other day on a maroon and white block schedule. Total semester contact hours will be 63.75 hours.

Course Prerequisites

Rising Scholar Composition 101 is offered at Spearfish High School through Black Hills State University and approved by the South Dakota Board of Regents. Students may receive 3 college credits for Composition 101 by paying a reduced tuition. Students entering this class should have a B average in their junior English classes. Appropriate student placement is based on entry-level assessment (ACT or Compass).

Description of Instructional Methods

Composition 101 is focused on developing students as writers and, therefore, strong emphasis is placed on the writing process and fully developing essays through a process of exploration, development, feedback, and revision. This course makes use of various instructional methods including lecture, workshops, discussion, peer review of written work, and the use of electronic resources.

Course Requirements

Attendance: Attendance is required. Students absent for a school sponsored activity should complete work prior to being gone. Anyone who misses more than five class meetings must pass the final exam as per SHS policy and, if not passing the course, may notify the Guidance office and file for a “W” before the BHSU Registrar’s deadline.

Cheating and Plagiarism Policy: Plagiarism consists in using another person's ideas or words without proper acknowledgment (quotation marks, documentation, etc.) or in submitting another person's work as your own or using AI generated ideas, text, writing, or submitting work that you wrote for previous courses. This includes slideshows, essays, speeches, or any other medium. Penalties range from failure on the assignment to expulsion from the university.  See below for specific consequences for this course. All cases of plagiarism will be reported to the SHS Office and the BHSU Provost. All formal essays are to be turned in to www.turnitin.com when due.

Cheating will result in the following consequences:

1) For BHSU college course/credit: Plagiarism, copying, AI generated, etc.,  on drafts, essays, or projects, or any other medium, will result in receiving an F for your BHSU college course grade, which will be the official grade recorded on your college transcript.

2) High School cheating policy: Cheating will result in a zero for that assignment or test and a discipline referral to the principal. Cheating will be recorded as such on Campus, and the consequences listed in the student handbook will be followed.

PROCEDURES for Homework/Make Up Work/Late Assignments, etc

• Procedures and rules in the  SHS Handbook will be followed.

• No late work is accepted, except for excused absences. If you are gone for an activity, you must hand in your work prior to being gone (unless you talk to me and I okay it), and you must be prepared for the next class with your work completed and/or ready to take any tests or do any presentation assigned. 

• Any missing daily work, test, or project must be completed prior to the end of the four week term in which it was assigned/given, unless an assignment, test, or project due date falls right at the end of a 4 week term and the student was absent, in which case the student must complete the assignment/test/project/essay by the end of the following week. 

• Late Essays will result in a 10% deduction PER DAY, not class period. Failure to turn in a final essay when I collect them will result in a 10% deduction. Failure to submit an essay to turnitin.com will result in an F for the essay/assignment as will not turning in all draft materials with your essay. No credit will be given for late daily assignments. 

• Cell phones must be put on "night mode," placed in the phone holder prior to the bell ringing, and left there until students are excused by me at the end of class. Laptops are to remain closed during class unless we are using them for a specific activity.  Apple watches, and/or other internet/phone/texting devices (besides school laptops) must be placed in your backpack.

• Cell phone must be placed on my desk prior to leaving the room to use the bathroom or for any other reason.

• Students must be in their assigned seat when the bell rings.

• All assignments are to be handwritten on paper unless otherwise assigned. Essay drafts and the final draft will be typed unless otherwise specified.

GRADING

-Daily: notes, freewrites, activities, essay drafts, peer review, ACT Vocabulary (20%)

Essays and test grades (80%

-Essay #1: Epistemology-Learning Essay: 1350-1550 words (15%)

-Essay #2: Comparison/Contrast: 1350-1550 words (15%)

-Essay #3: Persuasive or Problem-Solution Essay 1750-2100 (20%)

-Semester Test: multiple choice (50 pts) and essay (50 pts) (15%)

-Senior Presentation/slideshow, 10-12 minutes and 3 minute question/answer (15%). 

SHS Grading Scale:

A   100-95

A-  94-90 

B+  85-89 

B    84-80 

C + 79-75 

C    74-70 

D+ 69-65

D   64-60

F    59 and lower

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Course Goals

Course learning goals:

This course meets the SD Board of Regents General Education Goal Number 1:

“Students will write effectively and responsibly and will understand and interpret the writing of others.”

As a result of taking this class, students will:

1. Write using standard American English, including correct punctuation,

grammar, and sentence structure;

To meet outcome 1, students will

• compose formal essays that demonstrate standard edited American English;

• participate in workshops directed at improving their use of standard edited American English.

• participate in student-teacher conferences that will address each student’s individual strengths and weaknesses in the use of standard edited American English.

2. Write logically;

To meet outcome 2, students will

• compose formal essays that have a defined structure and follow a logical organization;

• participate in workshops directed at revising their own writing on a global level and improving the logical structure of their writing.

• participate in student-teacher conferences that will address each student’s individual strengths and weaknesses in global revision.

3. Write persuasively, with a variety of rhetorical strategies (e.g., expository, argumentative, descriptive);

To meet outcome 3, students will

• compose formal essays that incorporate a variety of rhetorical strategies;

• compose formal essays that display the ability to summarize and synthesize the arguments of others and respond critically to those arguments;

• analyze the needs of their reading audiences and anticipate how best to match audience needs to a writer’s given situation and purpose through employing a variety of rhetorical strategies;

• participate in student-teacher conferences that will address each student’s individual strengths and weaknesses in audience analysis.

4. Incorporate formal research and documentation into their writing,

including research obtained through modern, technology-based

research tools.

To meet learning goals 1-5, students will

• compose a formal research essay that incorporates specific evidence and details to support their claims;

• compose a formal research essay in which the evidence is sufficiently developed;

• compose a formal research essay in which all outside sources are properly documented;

• participate in workshops that assess a variety of information sources available through the library and the Internet;

• participate in workshops on more effectively integrating outside source materials into their own writing.

• participate in student-teacher conferences that will address each student’s individual strengths and weaknesses in research and documentation.

This course also meets SD Board of Regents General Education Goal 7:

“Students will recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, organize, critically evaluate, and effectively use information from a variety of sources with intellectual integrity.”As a result of taking this course, students will:

1. Determine the extent of information needed;

2. Access the needed information effectively and efficiently;

3. Evaluate information and its sources critically;

4. Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose;

5. Use information in an ethical and legal manner.

Student Learning Outcomes

Course Objectives: (In line with South Dakota Language standards of reading, writing, speaking, and listening)

1. Improved writing and communications skills. The primary goal of this course is to help you improve your writing skills, to help prepare you for your academic work, and to improve your overall communications skills to help you in your career later. These skills involve focusing your thoughts, organizing information into a logical presentation of ideas, and polishing the final presentation of those ideas.

2. Improved critical thinking skills. In order to reach the primary goal of this course, we will work on improving your critical thinking skills. You have to know what you want to say before you can say it convincingly (or interestingly), and you have to know how to support your position logically if you want to persuade others to agree with you.

3. Improved critical reading skills. Part of constructing convincing arguments includes being able to thoroughly understand source material--picking important points out from surrounding filler, and being able to recognize strengths and weaknesses in a given argument. Learning to read actively rather than passively is an important part of effective research.

Evaluation Procedures

1) Writing using standard American English, including correct punctuation, grammar and sentence structure;

2) Writing logically;

3) Writing persuasively, with a variety of rhetorical strategies (e.g., expository, argumentative, descriptive).

These criteria are assessed through evaluation of the content and form of students’ formal assignments.

4) Incorporating formal research and documentation into their writing, including research obtained through modern, technology-based research tools

• Evaluation procedures: assessments To demonstrate that they have met SD Board of Regents General Education Goal 4 (stated above), students in this course will

• respond to the reading assignments in the form of short response papers, reading journals, or formal papers (involving all course outcomes above: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

• participate actively in class discussions (both large- and small-group) in which they compare their initial responses to works (expressed in response papers or journal entries) to those of their peers and their professor, and in which they engage in the higher-order analysis of the assigned readings that will prepare them to demonstrate the learning outcomes (above) expected on the final exam coruse essays paper (involving all course outcomes above: 1, 2, 3, 4)

• differentiate among and compare the values, beliefs, and ideas expressed in various works (outcome 3)

Accessibility Statement

Black Hills State University strives to ensure that physical resources, as well as information and communication technologies, are accessible to users in order to provide equal access to all. If you encounter any accessibility issues, you are encouraged to immediately contact the instructor of the course and the Office of Disability Services, (contact Jennifer Lucero, Coordinator, at Jennifer.Lucero@bhsu.edu or by phone at (605) 642-6099), who will work to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. The office is in the E.Y. Berry Library, Second Floor, Room #240.

Additional information can also be found at:

http://www.bhsu.edu/Student-Life/Student-Services/Disability-Services

Please note: If your home institution is not the institution you are enrolled at for a course (host institution), then you should contact your home institution’s Office of Disability services. The disability services at the home and host institution will work together to ensure your request is evaluated and responded.

Freedom in Learning

“Under Board of Regents and University policy student academic performance may be evaluated solely on an academic basis, not on opinions or conduct in matters unrelated to academic standards. Students should be free to take reasoned exception to the data or views offered in any course of study and to reserve judgment about matters of opinion, but they are responsible for learning the content of any course of study for which they are enrolled. Students who believe that an academic evaluation reflects prejudiced or capricious consideration of student opinions or conduct unrelated to academic standards should contact the chair of the department in which the course is being taught to initiate a review of the evaluation.”

Summary:

1. Readings and Responses

2. Epistemology  Essay

3. Comparison Essay

4. Argumentation Essay and Presentation