Web view2014-2015 English III Honors. ... that all students have the skills necessary to succeed in...
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2014-2015 English III Honors British Literature Mr. Oakley, Room 113 Warren Hills Regional High School [email protected]; 908-689-3050, ext. 3575 Educational Goals Graduation is fast approaching! Most students participating in Warren Hills’ English III Honors course will be receiving their high-school diplomas in about 21 months from the start of the current school year. Thus, a central goal of this course is to ensure that all students have the skills necessary to succeed in college and in their future careers. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are a necessary component for reaching this goal. The New Jersey State Board of Education and the New Jersey Department of Education have adopted the CCSS to ensure that students master expectations in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language. The standards were developed in collaboration with teachers, school administrators, and education experts from across the United States to provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare students for college and the workforce. The CCSS are designed to create literate individuals who can: demonstrate independence by constructing effective arguments and conveying intricate or multifaceted information. build strong content knowledge across a wide range of subject matter by engaging with works of quality and substance. respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline. comprehend as well as critique: Students work diligently to understand precisely what an author or speaker is saying, but they also question an author’s or speaker’s assumptions and premises and assess the veracity of claims and the soundness of reasoning.
Transcript of Web view2014-2015 English III Honors. ... that all students have the skills necessary to succeed in...
2014-2015 English III HonorsBritish LiteratureMr. Oakley, Room 113Warren Hills Regional High [email protected]; 908-689-3050, ext. 3575
Educational GoalsGraduation is fast approaching! Most students participating in Warren Hills’ English III Honors course will be receiving their high-school diplomas in about 21 months from the start of the current school year. Thus, a central goal of this course is to ensure that all students have the skills necessary to succeed in college and in their future careers. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are a necessary component for reaching this goal. The New Jersey State Board of Education and the New Jersey Department of Education have adopted the CCSS to ensure that students master expectations in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language. The standards were developed in collaboration with teachers, school administrators, and education experts from across the United States to provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare students for college and the workforce. The CCSS are designed to create literate individuals who can:
demonstrate independence by constructing effective arguments and conveying intricate or multifaceted information.
build strong content knowledge across a wide range of subject matter by engaging with works of quality and substance.
respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline. comprehend as well as critique: Students work diligently to understand precisely what an
author or speaker is saying, but they also question an author’s or speaker’s assumptions and premises and assess the veracity of claims and the soundness of reasoning.
cite specific evidence when offering an oral or written interpretation of a text. use technology and digital media strategically and capably. appreciate that the 21st century classroom and workplace are settings in which people
from often widely divergent cultures, and who represent diverse experiences and perspectives, must learn and work together.
Course Textbooks Prentice Hall Literature: The British Tradition. Boston: Pearson Education Inc., 2007.
Print. Shostak, Jerome. Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary Workshop. New York: William H. Sadlier
Inc., 2002. Print. Various supplemental texts – particularly dictionaries and complete novels – will be
provided to students during specific units of study.
(over)Types of Themes
Individual and Social Responsibility: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus delves into a man’s obsession with expanding the reach of modern science while risking his own humanity. This gothic-romantic work, often considered the first true science-fiction novel, serves as afollow-up to the gothic-oriented summer reading assignment, Dracula and Wuthering Heights.
Heroism: Beowulf, the tale of an epic hero; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Morte de Arthur, two medieval tales from King Arthur; and Macbeth, William Shakespeare’s spellbinding play of bewitching betrayal.
Identity: establishing identity in excerpts from The Canterbury Tales and what happens when identity is threatened or lost as in 1984, a classic novel of science fiction.
Expressions of Life and Love in Verse: early ballads as short stories for the illiterate masses, plus the emotionally penetrating love sonnets of Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, William Shakespeare, and others.
Turbulence and Conflict: Jonathan Swift makes fun of religious warfare in an excerpt from Gulliver’s Travels; Alexander Pope examines morals and human nature in An Essay on Man and creates a mock epic in the poem The Rape of the Lock.
The Power of Dreams and the Imagination: The Romantic poets William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Lord Byron changed poetry forever.
A Closer Look at Life through Short Stories: The stories of James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Joseph Conrad remain relevant today by connecting themes to current issues.
Self-Selected Texts: Students will choose their own readings, and share their knowledge of authors and themes both past and present, through a “Pick-a-Brit” project.
CCSS English Language Arts Standards for Vocabulary, Grades 11-12Vocabulary acquisition plays an important role in the CCSS for language. In this course, vocabulary studies will go beyond lessons from the orange Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary Workshop to cover analysis and critical thinking associated with the interpretation of text. Students should be familiar with the following CCSS standards that will be addressed:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.11-12.4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 11–12 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.11-12.4a Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence, paragraph, or text; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.11-12.4b Identify and correctly use patterns of word changes that indicate different meanings or parts of speech (e.g., conceive, conception,
(more)conceivable).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.11-12.4c Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning, its part of speech, its etymology, or its standard usage.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.11-12.4d Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.11-12.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.11-12.5b Analyze nuances in the meaning of words with similar denotations.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.11-12.6 Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level;
demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
HSPA and PARCC Testing The High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA, pronounced “HESS-puh”) is an annual statewide test usually administered to juniors in March. State law requires that students pass the HSPA to qualify for high-school graduation. State officials are in the process of determining whether the HSPA will be scrapped in favor of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC, pronounced park). Schools are awaiting the state government’s decision, but students should expect to take a standardized test sometime in early 2015.
ExpectationsOur goal each year is to create an environment that supports a community of readers and writers. We expect each of us to write, read, listen, respond, engage, and react. We anticipate that we will engage in these activities not as solitary learners but as co-participants who respect each other’s needs and knowledge. We hope that each student will experience this class as a chance to deepen his/her understanding of the writing process and of a variety of genres, authors, styles, and voices of texts, and to develop writing and reading practices that continue well after the course has concluded. Finally, we hope that through shared engagement with all texts encountered in this class that our students leave with a greater understanding and respect of not only self, but of other.
(over)MaterialsSuggested ideas to help your year in English Language Arts run smoothly:
Maintain a folder or binder to store your returned assignments. We will be going over those assignments at the end of the school year as part of a 100-point portfolio project. Keep all of your returned assignments so that you do not fail the project!
Carry with you a supply of unused, lined notebook paper whenever you enter the classroom. This is an English Language Arts course, so expect to be writing (as well as reading) in class.
Handwritten assignments should be completed in blue or black ink; pencil, pink ink, secret disappearing ink, etc. are usually too difficult – or impossible – to read.
Bring to the classroom any book (vocabulary workbook, textbook, novel, non-fiction book, etc.) related to whatever subject we happen to be studying at the time.
Assignment DeadlinesTo earn full credit for an assignment, you must be prepared to hand it in upon entering the classroom on the day it is due. Late assignments will lose 10 percent of their total points for each day they are late for up to three school days, after which they will not be accepted. Deadlines are extremely important in college and in the workforce. One missed deadline sometimes is enough to get an employee fired from a job or to leave a student with a grade of “F” in a college course. Now is the time to get used to meeting deadlines!
Evaluation of Student WorkGrades are calculated on a total-points system. You will be told the point value for each graded assignment. Our goal is to accumulate around 800 points per marking period. Even if work is not graded, it still counts!
MOST IMPORTANTLY, HAVE AN AWE-INSPIRING YEAR!COLLEGE AND CAREER ARE ALMOST HERE!
