Syllabus
Course Description:
English 4 provides 12th grade students the opportunity to master college-level reading and writing skills. Students will analyze non-fiction’s rhetorical modes to improve their critical reading and thinking skills. By covering various subjects, students will increase their facility to read for a variety of purposes, focusing on both fiction and non-fiction works. Students will prepare for college-level reading tests and the ACT. After careful analysis of the literature, students will use literary strategies to produce their own stylistically mature prose. Students will write a variety of essays similar to the rhetorical modes being studied: narrative, descriptive, expository, analytical, investigative, and persuasive. Students are also prepared for many aspects of the AP English Literature & Composition and AP English Language & Composition exams, usually administered in early May, and may register for those tests, even though they are not registered in the corresponding Advanced Placement courses.
Course Overview:
Semester 1—Composition Focus: Memoirs; Personal Writing; Writing Styles (expository/informative writing); Argument & Rhetoric; Nonfiction Book Study; Research/Synthesis Paper
Semester 2—Literature Focus: Each class period will choose one from a list of literature electives for their focus for Semester 2. Each elective will include at least one common novel/play and a choice full-length text, will include analysis and writing about both prose and verse, and will culminate in a student-generated Capstone Project to be presented near the end of 4th quarter.
Textbook: We will be using one primary text to be supplied by LHS throughout first semester:
Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide by Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen
Mandell. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2015.
Fines will be issued for missing or damaged textbooks at the end of the year before graduation.
$70.00 replacement cost for missing or severely damaged books.
Supplementary Texts: Students will have to acquire the following texts—new, used, e-text, or borrowed--for use during the school year. Your teacher may have some copies available for checkout.
1st semester—Choice Nonfiction Text Options TBD
2nd semester texts will be determined by the literature elective focus students choose.
GRADING
NOTE: SIS 360 is being adapted for Standards-Based Grading. A new grading policy will be distributed to and reviewed with students when this is ready, sometime in the first two weeks.
Standards-Based Grading (SBG)
Lindbergh’s ELA department has implemented SBG throughout the core classes. This means that students’ grades are almost entirely determined from summative assessments at the end of instructional units, and not from homework, classwork, effort, or behavior. A small portion of students’ grades will be determined from their Habits of Learning—learning targets on basic skills such as meeting deadlines, responding to feedback through revision, reflecting on learning, time management. ALL assessments have to be submitted for a student to receive a passing grade for semester.
Semester Grade Formula:
Quarter 1: 42.5% Quarter 3: 42.5%
Quarter 2: 42.5% Quarter 4: 42.5%
Final Exam: 15% Final Exam: 15%
Standard Based Grading Scale:
EE=Exceeds Expectations 100%-90%
ME=Meets Expectations 89%-80%
SD=Still Developing 79%-70%
AC=Area of Concern 69%-60%
NE=No or Not Enough Evidence 59%-50%
Homework/Revision Guidelines:
- Homework and classwork is tracked and feedback provided.
- I expect due dates to be met, however students are responsible for communicating their needs. Please
notify me of special circumstances or overall struggles to determine if extended time is necessary.
Contact should be made with me before the due date.
3. Students can revise for full credit! To revise an assessment, student must have completed all the
homework/practice leading up to that assessment and any other agreed upon practice.
4. For ALL MAJOR PAPERS, you must turn in every draft, every time. You will be writing multiple drafts for these papers, and these drafts must show significant improvement from draft to draft. I will not read any paper that does not have the previous drafts attached to it. Writing is a process and without the evidentiary trail to follow, I cannot adequately or accurately assess your progress. That being said, comments made on drafts are not meant to be comprehensive, but to highlight the most significant or glaring issues that must be dealt with. While you reserve the right to stick with your original idea, you must show that you have read, considered, and made a conscious decision to keep the original as is. Handwritten notes are appropriate for this, or a parenthetical expression (later deleted) within the body of the essay is acceptable as well.
A final draft should look nothing like a first draft. In reality, a first draft should not even be seen by me at all. A first draft should be a for-your-eyes-only format which you polish as best you can before submission. I will not read any paper that has not made significant improvements over the previous drafts. I will hand it back to you, expecting another revised draft. We will talk more in depth at a later date about how drafts and final papers will be handled, revised, and graded.
Interventions Available for Struggling Students:
Tutoring Support (during conference hours, ASI tutoring Tues/Thurs. room 54, after school by appt.)
Before School Conferences/Tutoring
Parent Contact will be initiated for any concern about any student’s performance
Academic Integrity:
Academic misconduct is cheating or plagiarizing (intentionally and unintentionally). Each student will review what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it within the first week of school. All students committing academic misconduct will receive a referral and their parents will be notified. For major assignments (papers, tests, projects), students will also have to resubmit the assignment in order to pass for the semester. In these cases, students will receive an Incomplete or zero for the assignment until the assignment is redone.
Supplies and Wish List
Paper, pencils, and regular accouterments of any English class
One subject notebook for AP Lit Question 3 Essays
