Class Syllabus

 

Brief Course Description:

In this yearlong course, students read an overview of British literature from the Anglo-Saxon period through the 20^th century. Students will familiarize themselves with the historical, social, and political atmospheres within a variety of classic British texts. All types of literature will be included: poetry, drama, the novel, short stories, and the essay. Students participate in literary discussions and write formal analysis of the works studied. The course also integrates the complete senior writing seminar curriculum.

Senior Writing Seminar, an advanced course in the writing of non-fiction, helps students develop their unique voices as writers.  Students prepare for college and future professional work by writing to the different essay forms: reflection, argumentation, narrative, informational, analysis, and research.  Students are expected to complete weekly writing; engage in the writing process of drafting and revising; work in small groups on peer editing; read and respond to non-fiction writing; and refine grammar, usage, and language skills. 

Course Objectives:

• Students will complete writing pieces which will display their ability to think critically regarding one or multiple texts.
• Students will also read and complete literary analysis assignments on a number of British fictional works along with nonfiction pieces that correlate with these novels, poems, and plays.
• Students will be able to properly merge nonfiction sources with their own ideas to produce research essays.
• Students will be able to engage confidently and respectfully in class discussions and debates.

Supplies

• Filing system: 3 Ring binder with at least two sections (Reflective Write Ups and Notes). Lined Notebook paper in the binder. No spiral bound notebooks!!
• Writing utensils. Avoid blue pens.
• The English Tradition textbook.
• Bring the literature we are working on every day during that unit.

Class Grading

• The gradebook for this course will reflect a student’s mastery of the standards, according the various assessments completed.  These will include homework, classwork, discussions, quizzes, and essays.  All work is weighted the same, but all essays are worth 100 points with in class work and quizzes worth between 5-40 points. You can check the progress of your grade on School Loop.
• This class will use a standard grading scale: 90-100=A, 80-89=B, 70-79=C, 60-69=D, 59 and below=F.
• Tardiness: Unless it is an excused tardy, you will not be allowed to make up any work missed after class begins, this includes tests and quizzes.
• Late homework: I will not accept late homework unless it is excused.
• Late papers: Projects and essays may be turned in late for a penalty.  You will lose 10% per day of the original points possible.  After five days the highest possible score you can receive will be a 59%. This will remain for the remainder of the semester. All late essays must be turned in before finals week.
• All absent work is your responsibility.  Find out what you missed and take care of it! If you know you will be absent please speak with me ahead of time so you may plan for any missed in-class work.

Three simple, logical class rules:

1. Respect the class
1. Do not insult or diminish the value of others in the class. Accept that the class will be awkward no matter what, so there is no need to give another student a hard time if that awkwardness is apparent. This may turn into bullying.
2. Respect the space
1. The classroom is a safe environment for learning, please keep it that way. Do not leave trash on the shelves or floor. Make sure the desks remain in place according to the blue tape. Also, keep it clean! If you eat, I will get angry! No sugary drinks.
3. Respect yourself
1. Respect yourself enough to show up on time and put in effort to earn a good grade in the class. If difficulties arise, talk to me about it, don’t let your academic ambitions suffer because of challenges you are facing.

Habit Points:

At the beginning of each semester you will be given 10 Habit Points. These are extra credit points that can be turned in at the end of the semester. If you are tardy, you lose 2 of these points. They cannot be redeemed. Do not expect that an 89.9% will be turned into an “A” if you have no Habit Points. Habit points can also be taken away if I deem one of the three class rules has been broken.

Cell Phones:

I do not want to see your cell phone out in class. In fact I strongly dislike cell phones. If I see your phone out in class, it will be confiscated and taken to the office where your parent or guardian can pick it up after school. It does not matter if you are using your phone or not; if it is on your desk, on your lap, or just hanging out in the palm of your hand, it will be taken. This process will remain until I decide that your cell phone use is impacting your learning, which will result in me calling home and possibly convincing your parents that you are not ready to own a cell phone.

Tardiness:

If you are tardy and it is unexcused, you must sign the sign-in sheet at the front of the room. You lose 2 of your Habit Points for each tardy. Each tardy following the fifth one will result in another line of memorization being added to your verbal final at the end of the semester. Unexcused absences are equivalent to a tardy. Don’t be that person memorizing 30 lines of poetry during finals week!

Academic Conduct Policy:

Academic dishonesty in any form will not be tolerated. Cheating and plagiarism is viewed as a level 3 Discipline offense under the Guidelines for Responsive Discipline in Secondary School set forth by the district. It carries a potential for suspension. If your essay is flagged, you will receive a zero on the assignment with no chance to make it up.

Course Outline:

Unit One: From Romans to Renaissance (Dream of the Rood, The Battle of Maldon, The Wanderer, Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare)/ Reflection Writing (College Essay)

Unit Two: Persuasion and Manipulation (Julius Caesar)/ Literature Analysis

Unit Three: 17^th and 18^th Century English Poetry (Paradise Lost, Swift, Jonson, Donne, Dryden, etc…)/ Poet Project

Unit Four: Nineteenth Century and Social Commentary (Pride and Prejudice)/ Literature Analysis

Unit Five: Hamlet and the Interior Journey/ Literature Analysis Essay

Unit Six: Victorian Era (Tale of Two Cities)/ Informal Research Essay

Unit Seven: AWPE Writing

Unit Eight: Poetry from the Romantic to the Modern Period (Wordsworth, Keats, Tennyson, Hopkins, Yeats, etc…) / Formal Research Essay

Unit Nine: 20^th Century and Saying Goodbye (Wolfe, Joyce, Huxley, McCall Smith & The Tempest)/ Creative Writing

British Literature Anticipation: Richard II

Feeling bored? Anxious for Brit Lit to start? Fear not future 12th graders! If you want to get a jump start on our British Literature class, do a little light Shakespeare reading with the following Richard II monologue. At this point in the history play, King Richard II has learned that his rival Bolingbroke has just come back from exile and has practically seized the throne, and Richard II is soon to be deposed. Richard II realizes the predicament he is in and gives this speech about the state of kings in medieval England. What conclusions does Richard II come to? What sticks out to you from this monologue?

Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;

Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes

Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth,

Let's choose executors and talk of wills:

And yet not so, for what can we bequeath

Save our deposed bodies to the ground?

Our lands, our lives and all are Bolingbroke's,

And nothing can we call our own but death

And that small model of the barren earth

Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.

For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground

And tell sad stories of the death of kings;

How some have been deposed; some slain in war,

Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;

Some poison'd by their wives: some sleeping kill'd;

All murder'd: for within the hollow crown

That rounds the mortal temples of a king

Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,

Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,

Allowing him a breath, a little scene,

To monarchize, be fear'd and kill with looks,

Infusing him with self and vain conceit,

As if this flesh which walls about our life,

Were brass impregnable, and humour'd thus

Comes at the last and with a little pin

Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!

Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood

With solemn reverence: throw away respect,

Tradition, form and ceremonious duty,

For you have but mistook me all this while:

I live with bread like you, feel want,

Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus,

How can you say to me, I am a king?