Course Objectives:
Sophomore English will give you opportunities to sharpen your critical-thinking skills and develop your ability to approach and respond to literature on a number of levels. We will give the works we study close, analytical attention, and consider them with an eye toward larger cultural, historical, and critical issues. You will develop writing skills you learned in your first two years at Uni High, striving to write coherent and fully developed arguments and paying particular attention to compare/contrast strategies. You will also have the opportunity to explore some creative writing, and to combine creative and argumentative writing styles. In our class discussions and activities, we will attend to the complexity of the literature we read and explore cultural issues that arise from it. Sophomore English will offer you opportunities to collaborate with your peers, to practice intellectual leadership in individual and group presentations, and to try your hand at moderating classroom discussion.
Independent reading is an important component of Sophomore English, and along with the class literature we discuss together, you will pursue your individual reading interests in and outside of class. You are encouraged to read independently for at least 30 minutes per week outside of class, and you will have two 15-30 minute reading periods in class per week (on Tuesdays and Fridays, except during weeks where there are special activities on one or both of those days). Although you choose your own books, you will participate in a community of independent readers by articulating your responses to and evaluations of the books you read in weekly reading-journal entries and by presenting a short book talk each quarter. In these ways, you will participate in a dialog with me and with each other about the books you read.
Policies:
*Grading:
- Daily, informal assignments are graded on a √+, √, √- basis (√+ = good work, √= satisfactory work, and √- = unacceptable work). Reading journals are graded on a 50-point scale.
- Formal writing assignments are graded on a standard A-F scale.
- Quarterly grades break down in roughly the following way:
– Participation (including daily deportment, participation in class discussion, and group work) 20%
– Reading journal 10%
– Presentations (including individual and group presentations, and book talks) 10-15%
– Short writing assignments 10-15%
– Formal writing assignments 25-30%
– Quizzes & Quarterly exam 20%
*Late/missed work:
You are responsible for seeking out and completing assignments missed while absent. Grades for work turned in late will suffer unless you have requested and received an extended due date. Students should request extensions in advance of the due date, and only in compelling cases (illness, emergency, or extreme academic conflicts). Class syllabi and assignments are kept up to date on the class webpage and it is my expectation that you keep up with your reading when you are absent.
*Materials you need right away:
- All seven textbooks (As You Like It, Frankenstein, Pygmalion, Pride and Prejudice, The Importance of Being Earnest, Things Fall Apart, MLA Handbook). Please try to get the specific edition we are using. (Different editions often have different page numbers, and this will make it harder for you to locate your vocabulary words and follow along in class.)
- A single-subject notebook to use as a reading journal.
- A notebook for class notes and writing activities and a sturdy folder or binder to keep handouts and assignments in.
- A recent (post-1990) college dictionary.
Please have all of these by Thursday, August 18. Bring your class notebook and all relevant texts with you to class every day.
*General expectations:
- Independent reading:
- Independent reading in class (and, when possible, outside of class) each week.
- One reading journal entry per week.
- One book talk per quarter.
- Class reading and writing:
- Daily assigned reading and active participation in class discussion and activities; focused participation in two sessions of independent reading each week, and approximately one session of in-class writing each week.
- Several short, informal essays per quarter.
- One multiple-draft, formal essay per quarter.
- Vocabulary: looking up, writing down, and learning all vocabulary words (listed on the syllabus). Keep a running list of definitions in a single, organized place.
- Quarterly exams.
- Presentations (short individual and group presentations on literary, historical, and cultural topics, and performances of scenes from plays).
- Please:
- Arrive on time every day. Our time together is limited, and I often make important announcements in the first few minutes of class. More than two unexcused tardies per quarter will negatively affect your quarter grade.
- Come to class prepared to work. Have all of your materials handy, your work done, your extra-curricular needs taken care of, and your mind ready to focus on reading, writing, and learning.
- Take responsibility for your role in making our class a place where we can all learn and teach. Participating constructively during class will help you learn more and raise your participation grade; participating negatively during class will make it harder for us all to learn, will hurt your participation grade, and may result in disciplinary action.
- Contribute ideas and suggestions; make observations; say witty, insightful, and/or humorous things; make connections between things we study in class and other things you do and know; and have a good time.
Paradife Loft is the web home of English II (Sophomore English) at the University of Illinois Laboratory High School. I believe that teaching and learning are by nature collaborative, so please feel free to use lessons and ideas from this site in your classroom. However, I would love it if you also took a moment to drop me a message in the comments letting me know that you did so and how it went. Thanks!
