ENGLISH 11 SYLLABUS

The 11th-grade curriculum is broken up into eight distinct units with 1 major summative assessment each. Click on a unit below to learn more about the content, assessments, and activities for that unit.

Important Note: The following units are subject to change as the year progresses and student needs are assessed. Please be advised that any changes to the units will be updated in the English 11 Syllabus before we enter a new unit.

Reliability and promptness are key, “future ready” objectives in this course. Progress toward this goal will be measured, at least in part, through your attendance. Therefore, your grade in this class may be adversely affected by tardiness or absence. After an absence, you are responsible for checking Google Classroom and then completing any assignments and turning them in. You may not receive credit for assignments missed when an absence is unexcused.  It is your responsibility to make sure absences are excused. 

See the THS Student Handbook for information regarding THS absence and tardy policies. 

If you have an exceptional circumstance that prevents you from turning in your work on time, you must communicate with your teacher in person, via email, or by phone prior to the due date. It is your responsibility to contact your teacher if you need a due date extension.

• Assignments/Daily Work: Late Daily Work assignments will only be accepted until the due date of the corresponding assessment, and then only for up to half credit.  Assessment due dates will be clearly communicated in advance. 

• Assessments: Assessments will only be accepted for one month after the due date.  If you are absent the day an assessment is due, you are required to make arrangements to complete it by the next class period.  Late assessments will not be eligible for revision.

Because the mission of the English Department is to develop students’ reading, writing, and communication skills, we want to allow opportunities to improve those skills in order to meet standard on assessments. To this end, students are encouraged to revise assessments.

• To redeem a low or failing grade on a particular skill assessment, you may elect to redo the assessment once. 

• Assessment edits/revisions will be worth no more than half of the credit lost on the original assessment. (e.g. a score of 6/12 could be revised to earn up to 9/12.)

• Recovery requests must be made within a week of receiving scored assessment.

• Additionally, include a reflection on the learning and revisions you made to the original draft to demonstrate your improvement as a writer.

Power Hour is a valuable time built into our schedule for student academic support. Your English 11 teacher is available at least twice a week during Power Hour to help you with assignments, revisions, or other issues that arise. Additional support opportunities are typically available in the Learning Commons after school on Wednesdays and Thursdays. 

If you have a question about an assignment/assessment, please email your teacher (emails below) to receive the help you need. Questions asked via Google Classroom are an unreliable source of communication as they may or may not be received by your teacher. 

The Tahoma School District and the THS English Department believe strongly that learning is the primary purpose of education, not secondary to grades and credits. As such, students have a responsibility to pursue their learning openly and honestly by submitting work that demonstrates their own original thinking. Academic Dishonesty is defined in the THS Student Handbook as "any action or attended action that may result in creating an unfair academic advantage for oneself or an unfair academic advantage or disadvantage for any other student." This includes plagiarism, cheating, unauthorized collaboration, collusion, academic misconduct, multiple submissions, and technology malpractice. Per the THS sanctions chart, students who turn in work that violates the Academic Integrity policy will receive a discipline referral and a zero for the assignment.  

• Students should be aware that all student writing will be checked with Google’s originality checker. 

• Unless clearly stipulated by the teacher, collaboration on written work is not acceptable. 

• Acts of plagiarism might include, but are not limited to using words or ideas from a published source (i.e. website) without proper documentation, using the work of another student (e.g. copying homework, composition, or project), and using excessive editing suggestions of another student, teacher, parent, or paid editor.

• Students who knowingly provide other students with access to their work are in violation of the plagiarism policy. 

• Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have created another challenge for students and teachers. While chatbots like ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for research and learning, they can also be exploited in ways that compromise academic honesty. Improper uses of AI for class work include submitting AI-generated essays or assignments without proper citation and using AI-powered paraphrasing tools to alter others' work without proper citation, among others. Students are responsible for demonstrating evidence that submitted assignments are their own work, which may include prewrites, drafts, or Google Docs' version history.  If an assignment does not appear to be original and this evidence of the writing process is absent, the teacher will have a conversation with the student. Note that the assignment may be subject to discipline under "Technology Malpractice" as described in the THS Academic Integrity policy.
  If you are considering using AI on an assignment, but you don't know if it's allowed, ask your teacher. For more information on using AI responsibly, consider the steps on this AI Responsibility Checklist.

The Tahoma School District's Board Policy 3245 states that "Electronic devices (including but not limited to: phones, tablets, gaming devices) are to remain off and concealed during all classroom instruction or activity." To this end, students will be required at the beginning of each class to remove earbuds/headphones and place cell phones in the provided box at the center of their table for the duration of the class period. Phones are not to be removed until the end of the class period or until the teacher directs them to do so. Per Board Policy, "Use of the devices which cause a disruption in the educational process (including a safe and orderly environment) will result in confiscation of the device and possible discipline."

THS Classroom Cell Phone Procedures are as follows: 

1. Place Phones in Designated Box

• All students must place their cell phones in the designated box/item at the beginning of class

• Cell phones, headphones/earbuds are not allowed in halls or bathrooms during class time

2. Refusal to Comply

• If a student refuses to place their phone in the box, or takes their phone out of the box without teacher permission a TH Discipline email will be sent for administrative follow-up

3. Multiple Offenses

• • For multiple offenses, progressive discipline will be implemented

In order to make the most of your work with this curriculum, there are a few basic supplies you will need: 

• charged laptop, Chromebook or other device (phones are not an acceptable device for school work)

• a pen and/or pencil

• at least 2 different colors of highlighters

• standard sized post-it notes

• personal journal or composition book (Palmer's class only) 

Recommended:

• post-it flags (1"x2" notes)

• headphones/earbuds