Senior English Syllabus & Expectations

“It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”                 --Ursula K. LeGuin

          This is an English class designed to cater to your unique experience, interests, goals, and needs.  You'll challenge yourself as a reader and a writer, developing interpersonal and executive functioning skills through the lenses of research, literature, and career readiness standards.  We’ll be exploring many things about our world this year, especially how to analyze themes and trends while researching and composing several papers, speeches, and presentations using representative forms of discourse.  Students are expected to engage as readers and writers as they analyze and interpret text and other media; establishing connections between academic, professional, and philosophical aspects of life.  So, welcome to the journey!

No matter what experiences and expectations you're bringing to the field of English, this class will challenge you to develop critical thinking, reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.  This year, we’ll be working as a community of readers and writers to expand our definition and understanding of communication.  Our class uses a differentiated approach to instruction, which challenges each student to individually reach their potential.  Many of our assessments are authentic and project-oriented, so you'll be kept very busy and engaged in your learning. 

          In our year-long course, we’re going to focus our reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills on four thematic units this year: Reflection, Inquiry, Resilience, and Transformation.  Each one will contain selections of research, memoir, fiction, nonfiction, speeches, and poetry.  You’ll be making lots of choices about how to expand, explore, and assess your own learning, and you’ll have many opportunities to read and write creatively in every unit.   Additionally, we'll complete our three graduation requirements as part of the course: the Keystone Pathway, Graduation Portfolio Website, and Senior Interview.

In the Senior Capstone course, we'll cover the highlights of each thematic unit while focusing on completing our graduation requirements.   Research writing and the basics of rhetorical thinking will also be a significant part of the capstone experience.

          Learning to use technology is also a major part of this course; you’ll be experimenting with programs in the Google suite, including Sites, Docs, Slides, and Google Classroom.  We’ll also learn how to use the internet and library resources for effective research.   I’m sure that many of you are already comfortable with your technological skills, so this class may be a place to show off what you already know.  Because of the independent nature of the course, you'll need to bring your Chromebook and ear buds or headphones to class each day.  All course materials, assignments, and resources will be accessible in Google Classroom, so be sure to join the classroom for your scheduled period.  Additionally, you may join Remind in order to access another way of staying informed about our English class and relevant senior class information.

          You will be expected to complete all assignments on time.  Turning in late work without having an approved extension may complicate your progress in the course, so be sure to turn in your assignments on the appropriate due dates.  We'll  keep your course work in electronic form as much as possible, using Google Drive. 

In addition to many projects that will be a part of our four thematic units, there will be four major tasks that will be ongoing throughout the year:

 Writers' Journals—Every week, you will write in your journal.  We'll use your journal in class frequently for both predictive and reflective writing as we read, watch, discuss and otherwise engage with text and media. Although entries are not evaluated, it is your responsibility to keep up with your journal.  Journals are meant to be a formative self-assessment and reflection tool.  So, be sure to have them in class every day.

  Independent Reading —In addition to texts that we pursue as a class, you will be making a variety of choices about what to read as we navigate the four thematic units of the course.  You are expected to come to class prepared with something of your choice to read every Monday, and points will be awarded for preparation and participation.   As a part of our independent reading, we’ll be keeping MLA formatted reading logs and developing writing projects that rely on your self-selected texts as primary sources.

         Students enrolled in Honors English will be completing extra reading, writing, and presentation projects.  The level of independent work is dramatically increased, and there will be a number of activities that stretch your advanced communication skills.  Expect to read and write more extensively than you've been expected to do in academic classes, and be sure to approach this course with a positive work ethic.

 Graduation Portfolios, Keystone Pathways, & Senior Interviews—As you prepare for graduation, you will be assessing and developing your electronic graduation portfolio.  Almost every major piece of writing that you create throughout the year will be filed in your electronic portfolio. Portfolios will be stored on your Google Drive so that they may be accessed from home.  At the end of the year, you’ll choose pieces of writing and authentic assessments that will be showcased in your senior interview.  These writing samples will serve as examples of your very best work; and they will include your senior research paper, resume, reflections on job shadows and community service, work samples from other disciplines, and more.  You will choose a publication method for your Graduation Portfolio that will be available for your future academic and professional pursuits. Completing the graduation portfolio and senior interview take the place of a traditional final exam in Senior English.  Students in the in-person English 12 class who need to meet their Keystone Pathway will also have the opportunity to complete their Keystone Service Learning Projects as part of the course work.

Engagement and Professionalism Self-Evaluation:  This course is designed to prepare you for writing as a professional within your chosen field. We'll also spend time learning about how to conduct yourself as a valued team member, employee, and leader in your future endeavors.  Desired traits of professionals include being respectful, accountable, responsible, reliable, positive, etc.  Your professionalism grade will be calculated based on a combination of your self-evaluation and my observations by using the professionalism rubric posted in Google Classroom.

Expectations to Promote Student Success

·       You are expected to arrive for class on time and fully prepared to participate in class discussions.  You should arrive prepared for class with something to write with and on. You are strongly encouraged to present questions and opinions.  In addition, simply being present, attentive, and interested contributes to class atmosphere and dynamics.

·       You are expected to read assigned and self-selected material, note important ideas, and be prepared with ideas and questions about the reading, assignments, and other relevant course material during our class meetings.

·       You are expected to be respectful of the classroom environment, your peers, and your teacher. In addition, you are expected to limit behaviors that are distracting to other students and the instructor. Since there will not much work to complete outside of class, it is essential that you attend class and spend our class time focused on the activities and materials that are assigned for the day.  Class time will not be spent scrolling online, texting during class, or chatting with your neighbor. This is not professional, nor mindful, behavior.

·   This course will be comprised of group discussions, in-class experiential and writing activities, academic research, readings, writing/application assignments, project-based learning, and presentations. Your engagement in all course components is expected.

Academic Integrity

All students should act with personal integrity, respect other students’ dignity, rights and property, and help create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed.  Dishonesty of any kind will not be tolerated in this course. Dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarizing, fabricating information or citations, facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others, having unauthorized possession of examinations, submitting work of another person or work previously used without informing the instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students. The following are example violations:

·   Copying

·       Plagiarism/submitting other’s work

·       Submitting purchased work

·       Submitting work generated by AI, including Chat GPT and similar tools

·       Unauthorized test possession, purchase, or supplying

·       Ghosting (taking or having another person take a test for you)

·       Altering tests for yourself or another student

·       Computer violations (program theft)

·       Fabricating of information or citations

·       Facilitating Academic Dishonesty by others

·       Submitting your own work previously submitted in any class without the teacher’s permission

·       Tampering with work of other students

·       Unauthorized collaboration

•       Unauthorized use of study aids (ex. cheat sheets)

•   Unauthorized use of electronic devices (ex. calculators, cell phones etc.)

Work that is submitted in this course should be your original work prepared for this course; do not submit the same work for more than one course (past or present) even if you have revised it. This is a form of plagiarism.

Classroom Courtesy:

·       Set cell phones to silent and turn off other devices that might make noise during class, and then put them away in the pocket storage area in our classroom. Do not hold them in your hands or place them on the desk. Refrain from text-messaging, tweeting, snapping, searching the Internet, and/or online shopping during class. 

·       Refrain from side conversations, and noisy eating or gum chewing that may distract you or others from the class activities.

·       Ear-buds and any other listening devices should be put away during class, unless we're using them for an in-class activity. 

          Although this course will keep you very busy, we’ll also have a lot of fun.  Don’t worry!  We’ll work together as a community of readers and writers.  I’m certainly open to your ideas and suggestions; I’ll work with you to make the most of our time together.  Again, welcome to the class—I hope that it will be an experience that changes the way that you think about discourse, research, inquiry, reflection, resilience, and transformation as you navigate the capstone of your high school education.