Challenge
ENGLISH 11 SYLLABUS 2005-2006
MS. GINA BAILIFF
The
writers listed below will be read and studied this year. Due to time
constraints, it is possible that some writers may not be covered.
Poetry:
Maya Angelou
W.H. Auden
Amiri Baraka
Anne Bradstreet
Gwendolyn Brooks
William Cullen Bryant
Lorna Dee Cervantes
E.E. Cummings
Emily Dickinson
John Dos Passos
Rita Dove
T.S. Eliot
Robert Frost
Allen Ginsberg
Nikki Giovanni
Woody Guthrie
Joy Harjo
Robert Hayden
Li-Young Lee
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Amy Lowell
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Native American selections
Simon Ortiz
Dorothy Parker
Sylvia Plath
Edgar Allan Poe
poetry of the Harlem Renaissance
poetry written by students
Katherine Anne Porter
Ezra Pound
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Theodore Roethke
Carl Sandburg
Wallace Stevens
war poetry
Phillis Wheatley
Walt Whitman
William Carlos Wiilliams
Fictional short
stories and/or excerpts:
Sherman Alexie
Sherwood Anderson
James Baldwin
Toni Cade Bambara
Ambrose Bierce
Willa Cather
Kate Chopin
Ralph Ellison
William Faulkner
F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Alex Haley
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Dashiell Hammett
Ernest Hemingway
John Hersey
Zora Neal Hurston
Washington Irving
Garrison Keillor
Maxine Hong Kingston
Ursula LeGuin
Jack London
Carson McCullers
Herman Melville
Toni Morrison
Tim O’Brien
Flannery O’Conner
Edgar Allan Poe
Katherine Anne Porter
Thomas Pynchon
Upton Sinclair
John Steinbeck
Amy Tan
Jean Toomer
Mark Twain
John Updike
Kurt Vonnegut
Alice Walker
Robert Penn Warren
Eudora Welty
Edith Wharton
Tennessee Williams
Non-fiction
essays and/or excerpts:
John and Abigail
Adams
William Bradford
Dee Brown
Christopher Columbus
John de Crevecoeur
Frederick Douglass
Jonathan Edwards
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Olaudah Equiano
Benjamin Franklin
Betty Friedan
Margaret Fuller
Benjamin Franklin
Betty Friedan
Patrick Henry
Aldous Huxley
Harriet Jacobs
Thomas Jefferson
Chief Joseph
Jack Kerouac
Lewis and Clark
David McCullough
N. Scott Momaday
Thomas Paine
Robert M. Persig
Richard Rodriguez
John Smith
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Amy Tan
Henry David Thoreau
Noah Webster
Native American Selections
Possible Novels
or Drama:
John Knowles’ A
Separate Peace
Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon
Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun
Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western
Front
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible or Death of a
Salesman
Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five
**There will also be music and art representative
of the various time periods. In addition, films and educational
videos may be used if appropriate and relevant for the lesson.
TEXTS:
The Lively Art of Writing (Lucile Vauguan
Payne)
Looking Beyond the Ivy League (Loren Pope)
MLA Handbook
The Norton Anthologies of American Literature
Selections from The Portable Sixties Reader
Prentice Hall Literature: Timeless Voices,
Timeless Themes
Prentice Hall Writer’s Solution
Prentice Hall Writer’s Companion
Prentice Hall Authors in Depth: The American
Experience
American Literature 1 and 2
(The Center for Learning)
Honors American Literature 1 and 2
(The Center for Learning)
WRITING:
Writing assignments will include research
paper(s), formal essays, creative writing pieces, poetry, and
journal topics. In essays and research, the emphasis will be on
developing specific examples from the text to support one’s point of
view, creating a strong thesis statement and topic sentences that
will shape the direction and organization of the paper, and
recognizing and assuming responsibility for writing errors in
individual writing and improving those in future writing.
For any research assignments, students are
required to spend time outside of class in Sherrod Library or
another local library to obtain the necessary sources. Written
assignments that require the MLA format be used must be typed;
students should plan ahead to avoid any last minute computer
glitches. Any work turned in late due to computer malfunctions will
receive a grade deduction since students are expected to plan ahead
to avoid such problems.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
homework research paper(s)
class work (both individual and group) tests
essays quizzes
oral presentations journal topics
projects semester exam(s)
GRADING POLICY:
The final average consists of daily grades
(30% of overall average) and major grades (70% of overall average).
Late work policy: Please see attachment on the
Policy for High School English Department. This is extremely
important to your child’s success.
MATERIALS:
* Three-ring notebook
* Writing Portfolio
* Textbook or classroom handouts
* Students are expected to bring a notebook, pen
or pencil, and the appropriate text to class every day. This is
crucial to classroom participation. If unprepared, this will affect
the student’s daily average.
CLASSROOM RULES:
* Come on time to class and find a seat before the
bell rings.
* Be fully present in class. Reading materials
unrelated to class, doing homework for another class, napping,
talking to your friends, passing notes, playing on the calculator,
etc. will cost you participation points.
* You are responsible for and expected to give
your very best work.
* Listen.
* Respect the dignity and worth of every person in
the classroom. This includes
your peers, your teacher, and the perspectives of
those individuals studied
in class. Use “I” statements in class discussion.
CHALLENGE ENGLISH 11:
In Challenge English 11, students will be required
to spend a substantial amount of time outside of class reading and
conducting research for various assignments. The Challenge class
should expect that the amount of study, reading, analysis, research,
and preparation which they will be expected to do will be on a more
advanced level than that of the General English classes. The
Advanced Placement program expects that anyone earning college
credit as a result of having successfully made the appropriate score
on the AP test in the senior year will have done college-level work
in reading, writing, research, analysis, and class discussion in
preparation for that test. Although there will be other work
required throughout the academic year, I have briefly outlined four
components that will be a major part of the learning experience in
Challenge English this year.
A. Shared Readings
Time permitting, shared class reading will be
selected from the novels listed below; students may be required to
purchase one or more of the titles if necessary. The novels on this
list may not be used as an outside class reading unless permission
is given by the instructor.
Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolpho Anaya
The Awakening, Kate Chopin
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Scarlet Letter and/ or Young Goodman Brown,
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
The Turn of the Screw, Henry James
A Separate Peace, John Knowles
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
Walden, Henry David Thoreau
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
Slaugherhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
B. Advanced Placement Terminology
Students will be responsible for studying and
familiarizing themselves with AP literary terms which will be
provided in class. They will be expected to use these terms in the
context of class writing and discussion.
C. Outside Readings
Challenge English students will be given a reading
list of suggested authors and titles provided by the Advanced
Placement program. Students will use this resource to select two
titles each nine week grading period to read outside of class.
Students are not required to purchase these books; most of them can
be found in any public library. Both written work and oral
presentations related to the readings will be required. Students
will be required to complete three outside readings over the fall,
winter, and spring breaks and complete written work that will be due
on the first day we return from that break.
D. Advanced Placement Timed Essay(s)
Students will also be required to write a timed
essay within 40 minutes according to AP guidelines. Timed essay(s)
will be graded according to the AP rubric. Your signature on this
letter will indicate that you have read and understand all of these
attachments, and that you have approved your child’s chosen research
topic. Your support in your child’s academic performance is much
appreciated.
Policy for High School English Department
1. All assignments are due on the date
designated by the teacher. A grade of 75% or less will be assigned
for all unexcused late assignments. An assignment turned in on the
due date but after the class period is also considered late. Only a
hardcopy of the assignment will be accepted. No disks will be
accepted, and students will not be dismissed from class to print out
an assignment. This means that students should make prior
arrangements to avoid computer glitches if a word processing program
is used.
A student with an excused absence has one extra
day for each day absent to turn in missing assignments. Full credit
will be awarded for excused assignments turned in within the time
limit. Missing assignments or assignments turned in past the
deadlines will receive no credit.
2. Due dates for any assignment that encompasses a
week or longer are absolute. For sequential assignments, all parts
must be completed in order to receive any credit.
3. Tests, quizzes, and any other make-up work may
only be completed on the day the teacher announces. Unless other
arrangements are made and agreed upon by your teacher, any work not
made up will receive a grade of zero.
4. It is your responsibility to turn in late work
and make arrangements
to make up any tests or quizzes. Your teacher will
not interrupt class to ask for late assignments or to schedule a
time for you to make up a test.
5. Students may not go to lockers to get
paper, writing utensils, texts, assignments or other materials
needed for class.
6. If an assignment is illegible due to
handwriting or color of ink, the paper will be
returned to the student ungraded and he or she
will have one day from the day the paper is returned to rewrite or
type the assignment and turn it in for full credit.
7. Each assignment completed must have the
student’s name, date that the work was turned in to the teacher, and
class period in the upper right-hand corner of the paper. Ten points
will be deducted from the assignment if any information is missing.
8. It is English Departmental policy to refer to
Intersession only those students who have exhibited consistent
effort throughout the nine weeks. Intersession will not be used to
remediate poor grades due to lack of effort or unexcused absences.
