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Syllabus
Overview
The overarching theme of this course is voices. We will examine
the voices of other, in particular the voice of the isolated or
alien as opposed to the voice of the dominant majority. We will
also explore our own voices, those that we have already developed
and others that are still emerging.
This course emphasizes metacognition—the process of reflecting
on how we read, write, think, and make meaning. We will repeatedly
reflect upon how we pull ideas together to create coherent, well-developed,
and thoughtful writings and presentations. One occasion for metacognition
will be journal writing. Frequently in class, students will be
required to write for a brief period of time. Students will also
continue to build their writing portfolios, which will allow them
to see how their writing and thinking progresses over the year.
Most of our time will be devoted to reading and discussing texts.
Our goal is to become more sophisticated readers, more attentive
to voice, style, and language and more skilled at inferring meaning
and making links between texts and our own lives. I expect the
classroom to be a place where we foster critical inquiry and collegially
exchange ideas.
Finally, we will enrich our vocabulary so that we can express
ourselves with greater force and strengthen our performance on
the SAT.
Unit One: Voices of Self (Weeks 1-7)
Essential Questions:
• Who am I? What are the voices I reveal to others?
• How does voice influence language?
• How does language reflect the individual and group
voice of the speaker/author?
• How does culture influence the voice of the speaker/author?
Texts:
• Summer reading: Snow Falling on Cedars
• Selections from autobiographical writings, including
The Autobiography of Malcolm
X, Elie Wiesel’s Night,
and Esmeralda Santiago’s When I Was Puerto Rican
• Selected short stories
Common Tasks
1. Write a poem or interior monologue that reveals who you are
as an individual and
as a member of a group.
2. Write a college application essay that describes and reflects
upon a critical moment
in your life.
3. Write a reflection on your growth as a learner either this
semester or over a longer
period of time.
Unit Two: Voices of Others (Weeks 8-15)
Essential Questions:
• What does it mean to be the “Other”?
• Have you ever been an outsider?
• Have you ever treated someone else as an outsider?
• What writing techniques does an outsider use to
portray his or her situation?
Texts:
• Camus, The Stranger
• Selected readings on existentialism
Common Tasks
1. Write a multi-paragraph composition in which you describe
an incident in which you
or someone you know felt like or was perceived
as a stranger.
2. Write a multi-paragraph essay in which you discuss a
theme in a text from the unit.
Unit Three: Voices in Context (Weeks 16-19)
Essential Questions:
• How do the voices of a culture differ within the
culture?
• How does a writer depict the voices of a culture?
• What role does voice play in the portrayal of a
fictional character?
• What historical, social, economic, and cultural
issues influence voice?
Texts:
• Selected stories, poems, essays, and other works
of art from the Harlem Renaissance
• Research material collected by the student
Common Tasks:
1. Conduct research on one artist from the Harlem Renaissance.
Explore how
cultural context shaped the artist’s
work. Organize your findings into a
PowerPoint presentation and deliver your
presentation to the class.
2. Select a character from a text studied this semester, place
him or her in a
different place and time, and create a
piece that shows how the character
would act, think, and feel in the new
setting.
CLass
Policies
Classroom Conduct
You are expected to:
- Respect the teacher and your fellow classmates
- Come to class on time
- Come to class prepared (with required materials and completed
homework)
- Learn and follow the procedures of the class
- Keep the classroom clean
Required Materials
- A composition book (journal)
- A pencil or pen
- A folder
- Loose-leaf paper
Absences
When absent, you are expected to stay up-to-date with your assignments
by consulting the assignment schedule. When returning to class
after an absence, you are expected to:
- Review a fellow classmate’s journal entry for the day
of absence, recording the warm-up task, vocabulary, and discussion
notes
- Pick up handouts
- Schedule a time to make up missed work
Grading
Your grade for each quarter will be determined based upon the
total number of points earned for all assignments divided by the
total number of available points.
The following B–CC policies are consistent with the new
MCPS Grading and Reporting Policy as outlined in Learning,
Grading and Reporting Guidelines (MCPS, 2004). These will
apply in all courses offered at B–CC.
- Teachers will assign grades to reflect individual achievement
on course objectives.
- Teachers will determine grades based on a variety of assessment
methods.
- Teachers will issue progress reports at the 4½ week
mark in each quarter.
- Teachers will establish clear due dates and deadlines. The
maximum penalty for work submitted after the due date but before
the deadline is one letter grade on an A-E scale or 10% on a
100% scale.
- Teachers will record 50% as the lowest possible grade if
percentages are used except in cases where a student does not
complete a assignment or commits an act of academic dishonesty.
Reassessment
Your grade will be based on an assessment of the work that you
complete inside and outside of class. Certain assignments agreed
upon by the 12th grade team may be re-assessed, and this will
be indicated when the assignment is distributed. If the reassessment
is completed in a timely manner determined by the teacher, the
reassessed grade will replace the 1st grade.
To have an assignment reassessed, you must meet the
following criteria: 1) the assignment must be submitted before
the deadline, 2) you must discuss your intended re-assessment
with me and schedule a due date for it, 3) you must work one-on-one
with me, with one of our composition assistants, or with someone
at TAP to actively discuss your work on the re-assessed assignment,
and 4) you must attach your original work to the reassessed work.
No reassessment of assignments will be allowed unless these criteria
have been met.
Academic Dishonesty
The designation of “academic dishonesty” applies
to both written work and oral presentations. Examples of academic
dishonesty include, but are not limited to, the following: the
willful giving or receiving of an unauthorized text, unfair, dishonest,
or unscrupulous advantage in academic work over other students
using fraud, duress, deception, theft, trickery, talking, signs,
gestures, copying, or any other methodology.
Plagiarism:
- Submitting or presenting another person's work as your own
without proper documentation, including downloaded information
from the Internet and lab data.
- Using another student's material without prior approval.
Cheating:
- Giving or receiving information during a test, quiz, and/or
class work assignment without teacher authorization.
- Using hand signals, gestures, and the like during tests or
quizzes to obtain/give information.
- Using unauthorized materials during a test or quiz.
Electronic Portfolios
At the end of the semester, you will select two pieces of writing
to include in your electronic portfolio. One piece must be from
this English class.
Documenting Sources
For information on how to document sources in your writing, please
consult the green section of your student handbook: “BCC
English Department’s Guide to Writing Effectively.”
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