Course Information

Class FOCUS

Our class focus for this year is to create a culture of thinking. With this in mind, we will keep the following principles at the forefront of all we do.

• QUESTIONS drive thinking and learning.

• Learning and thinking are as much a COLLECTIVE enterprise as they are an individual endeavor.

• LEARNING is a consequence of thinking.

• Learning occurs at the point of CHALLENGE.
  
  

ESSENTIAL QUESTION Units

We will organize our study through essential questions - questions that inform our lives. English 10 is designed to align with our 10th grade World History curriculum in our exploration of challenges that inform our world - like rapid technology advancement, economic uncertainty, climate change, and polarization. With each unit of study, we will explore a variety of texts including novels, plays, news articles, scholarly texts, visual artwork, films, and poetry. We will have one anchor text (seen below) that you will obtain for each unit. Other texts will come to you as links on Google Classroom or in the form of handouts. Texts are chosen at CFA through a careful process of research and discussion as is detailed here. All texts we read will be an essential aspect of your study of differing perspectives on the topics for each unit.

• UNIT ONE - To what do we owe our primary allegiance?

  • ANCHOR TEXT : Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  (ISBN 978-1616202415 )

• UNIT TWO - At what point does the pursuit of progress become dangerous?

  • ANCHOR TEXT : Choose from Literature Circle List to be shared later in the semester.

• UNIT THREE : To what extent is a person responsible for themselves?

  • ANCHOR TEXT : Macbeth - William Shakespeare (ISBN 978-0743477109 )

• UNIT FOUR : Who gets power and why?

  • ANCHOR TEXT : Choose from Literature Circle List to be shared second semester.

MATERIALS to have in class 

Every person has their own system of organization that is the most appealing - I encourage you to work to find yours. My expectation is that you can put your hands on the following materials each day in class :

• THINKING PORTFOLIO - Spiral Notebook with folders OR Binder with loose-leaf and folder dividers-- In English class, note taking can look a little different than in other classes. Sometimes our note taking is writing on a prompt to start class and generate thinking. Sometimes you will be taking notes on new vocabulary to add to your cumulative list. Sometimes you will be taking notes on background information for a text or topic. Sometimes I will ask you to look back at your evidence of learning for the week and reflect on where you are in your thinking. Whatever the day may bring, you will be creating documentation of your learning throughout the year. Unless you have individualized learning needs that hinder this, I will ask that you hand write during these times. Choose a notebook that is comfortable for you to write in and stay organized.

• Book/ Handout -- Whatever we are currently reading and discussing - you need it with you at all times. The only way to practice good active reading is to actually have something to read.

• Laptop -- Laptops are one of our primary learning tools. You should have your charged laptop (and your charger for when the laptop becomes uncharged) with you each day.

Cell Phone "PARKING"

Cell phones are one of our most valuable tools in education. We can google information quickly; we can check our calendars; we can take photos and videos to document our learning; we can communicate via talk, text, email. Cell phones are also a constant presence that are impossible to ignore without effort. When we have a second of what we perceive as "down time" - what is the first thing we do? Check our phones. When we are done with a task or assignment - what is the first thing we do? Check our phones. When we are defaulting to phone checking all the time, we choose this over other opportunities - like connecting with the person sitting next to you, like catching up on homework, like drawing or doodling, like reading something, like playing a brain game.  While we are in this classroom, I would like for us all (myself included!) to widen our opportunities for all these things. We will most assuredly use our phones in class as tools for learning, but when we are not using them for a specific task,  your phone should remain "parked." You can park your phone by charging it in the front of the room during class. You may also park your phone in your backpack off the table and out of sight. This remains true for anytime you are in this classroom no matter what we are doing. 

If you struggle with keeping your phone parked, I will do the following to help support you in this...

• Call it to your attention to park your phone out of sight

• Park your phone for you on my desk until after class

• Refer you to Mr. Fee for some reflection on why this expectation is a struggle for you

Expectations

There are truly 5 main things I expect of you in this course. Read them, know them, breathe them.

1. Communicate consistently. English class is as much about communication and collaboration as reading and writing. This means not making appointments during class if at all possible, and proactively contacting me whenever you miss class for any reason.  While sometimes missing class may be out of our control, it is 100% all of our responsibility to communicate about that absence and coordinate missed work.

2. Be engaged and "here" when you are here. This is a very student centered classroom meaning my job is to guide you - not to be the one who imparts all the wisdom. This class is about exploring your own ideas and hearing and learning from the ideas of your classmates. To be successful here, you need to find out how to connect yourself to what we are doing on a daily and weekly basis. While I will always do my best to help in this, it is truly up to you to find and make connections. This is essential to all successful learning (see guiding principles above!).

3. Use AI for Learning, not for Task Completion. AI can be a powerful tool to help increase efficiency and understanding in our lives. It is essential to remember though that the work we do is not in isolation. The skills you build and the content you explore with each assignment will circle back around later in your learning process. As such, aim to understand and develop skills, not just to finish an assignment. It will hurt you in the long run. Read carefully the AI Guidelines  set out here for all CFA English courses in grades 6-12. We will be discussing this document and building our AI usage skills more in the coming weeks. 

4. Be inclusive and respectful. I expect at all times for us to be respectful inside this classroom and any online class space. We each have unique and important ideas and this is the place to show them, debate them, respect them, and learn from them.

5. Be an advocate for your own learning. In choosing to take honors level English, you are taking on a faster pace and more rigorous curriculum. Honors English 10 is a pre-AP level course - meaning my job is to prepare you for AP level English in 11th and 12th grade. You will likely encounter at some point this year something that is hard or confusing to you. Part of being an honors level student is also learning how to use your resources well. Don't ever sit quietly while frustration or confusion builds - ask questions, schedule time to see me outside of class, seek support. Using these resources often and well does not show weakness; it shows initiative and strength.

Assessment

I know that grades are often important to you. Please understand that my goal is to help you reach more complex and independent levels of thinking, speaking, and writing; good grades will be the result of progress in these areas. We will often use the analogy of practice and performance. If you are on a soccer team or part of a theater production - you will spend weeks or months practicing and preparing before the main event. Your coach gives you feedback, you watch film of other players, you do something and then try it again in a different way.  After you perform/ play, you reflect on that performance and consider what you might practice or change for next time. Your work inside this classroom is no different! Your grades are a reflection of your practice and performance on the three primary skills listed below. Each skill will be weighted based on the importance of the skill to our course curriculum. Within each skill category - you will have practice assignments that have a point value of 10 to 50 points. You will then have performance assignments related to each skill that have a point value of 75 to 250 points. 

1. Written Expression - 40%

   • This category is all about how you communicate your thinking in writing. Often, however, writing involves many skills in addition to putting pen to paper or fingers to keys. Your critical reading and thinking abilities also largely come into play. This is why this category is weighted the most heavily in your overall average as it is often a compilation of skills. Assignments that fall into this category might be written reflections, timed writings, research summaries, digital compositions, and longer written pieces (creative pieces, editorials, literary analysis, synthesis essays, etc).

2. Critical Reading - 30%

   • This category is all about how you take in words and text. This includes assignments where language skills are primary such as reading annotation, reading comprehension, passage analysis, vocabulary, the study of grammar, research, and source exploration.

3. Speaking and Listening - 25%

   • This category is all about how you communicate your thinking when speaking and how you respond to others. This might include seminar discussion, debates, dramatic performance, speeches, and individual or group presentations.

4. Engagement - 5%

   • This category reflects your engagement in and out of class. This might include how you perform on in class work, documentation in your thinking portfolio, and completion check of homework. You may self-assess your own engagement at points in time in the year by using evidence from all these areas to explain what score you have earned.

You will generally have work outside of class assigned on a weekly basis which will be posted on our course calendar (at the top of our Google Classroom page) as well as on our daily agendas in class. You will need to balance your time accordingly to get it done. I will assess your homework in a variety of ways - through different types of quick quizzes or reading response in class, through a "deck of cards" discussion, through a graded seminar, or through checked submission on Google Classroom. Often, however, your "homework" is an ongoing project we are working on both in and out of class.  Bottom line - you don't have homework due everyday, so when you do, I expect the work to be done thoroughly.

As per the CFA handbook, "Work will not be accepted after due date unless an exception has been granted by the teacher. Work handed in late, whether electronic or hard copy, will receive a 10% deduction per day. Under special circumstances, such as illness, teachers may grant extensions. Students are required to communicate with their teachers prior to missing class for athletics or other activities to arrange early or late makeup of missed assessment." Note that if work is reviewed directly in class on the day it is due (i.e. a homework assignment or reading assignment) - a student may not earn above 50% if they complete it late. 

We will be talking a lot this year about ourselves as writers and learners; we will be writing and reading often both in class and out in a variety of ways. In the ongoing process of writing, reading, and thinking, there is never really a FINAL of any project you are working on; there is really only a BEST DRAFT or BEST TRY on any particular day. I will assess and assign a grade to your best work that you turn in on assigned deadlines. The process does not stop there though. We will be keeping a PROGRESS PORTFOLIO of our learning throughout the year - considering the feedback we get and how we can take that feedback to inform the future.

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If I could leave you with one piece of advice this year - it would be to find ways to CONNECT and to TAKE RISKS. Your time here at CFA is designed to help you to become more than what you are now. You hold the control to your own learning and success. What will you do to help yourself grow this year? I can't wait to see!