La Conquistadora OReilly
Soquel High School
English 1
2009-2010
dianoreilly@sccs.santacruz.k12.ca.us
dionoreilly@gmail.com
Welcome to Soquel High and the Humanities Academy. Here is the first question I want you to answer: What is a literary theme? Here is the second question: What is an insight? Please come to the next class with a brief answer to those two questions.
Success in my English class is determined more by hard work and diligence than by intelligence. This is a class for academically motivated students, not necessarily for geniuses. Being a genius helps, a lot, but correctly completing and turning in work is of primary importance. Please do not begin this course if you are not interested in working hard and if you are not interested in developing insight. into life and literature.
Primary Literature Texts:
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
Excerpts from The Odyssey, Homer
The Power of One, Bryce Courtnay
The Sound of Waves, Yukio Mishima
Ramayana, Valmiki
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
Selected poems of Rumi
Selected Latin American short stories and poetry from Glencoe Anthology of World Literature, McGraw Hill
Primary Literature Texts:
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
Excerpts from The Odyssey, Homer
The Power of One, Bryce Courtnay
The Sound of Waves, Yukio Mishima
Ramayana, Valmiki
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
Selected poems of Rumi
Selected Latin American short stories and poetry from Glencoe Anthology of World Literature, McGraw Hill
Hopefully you will like all these books. If you do not like the texts or the assignments, whining is prohibited. You are here to experience the unknown. You are here to become a literature gourmet. You cannot be a gourmet if you insist on only eating Mc.Donalds and whining when presented with cuisine. The previous statement is a metaphor. Here is your third question to know by next class: What is a metaphor?
Grading:
Students must maintain a C semester grade in both English and World Geography and Culture to remain in the Academy. Your six-week progress report does not appear on your college transcript, nor does it determine your status in The Academy.
It is the student’s responsibility to track his or her own progress on Infinite Campus, the school Internet system located on the Soquel High School website, which posts grades and absences. To login to Infinite Campus use your student ID as your user ID and your six digit birth date as your password.
Essays/written work: 40%
Homework/reading activities: 20%
Participation/preparedness: 15%
Tests and Quizzes: 25%
Be prepared to work when you enter class:
Look at the daily agenda, write down assigned homework, and/or turn-in homework as necessary. Knowing due dates and turning in work on time is your responsibility. Raise your hand before speaking and listen when the teacher is explaining or lecturing. Before leaving, straighten your desk and clean up any materials you may have dropped. Wait at your desk to be dismissed.
Your journals:
Your journals are notebooks or a separate section in your binder in which you keep your lecture notes in an organized fashion. You must always bring your journal to class. Although you will never turn it in, you will be randomly tested on the material therein. Be sure to bring your journal to the next class session.
Tests and Quizzes:
Tests are planned and scheduled. Quizzes will be at administered with no warning; however, you will be allowed to use your texts or your journal. Some of your tests will be in-class essays or paragraphs that will count under the essay category of your grade.
Late Work:
Late work due to excused absences may be turned-in within the same number of days as the length of the absence. Late work for any other reason may be turned in one day late for a fifty percent penalty. You are responsible for finding out what work you have missed and turning it in. Missed work and assignments are posted and stored in the classroom for your convenience.
Portfolios:
Santa Cruz City Schools has a writing portfolio graduation requirement—currently four pieces; therefore, you must keep all your essays, including all drafts, archived in the classroom in the hanging files provided for you.
Turning in assignments
You must turn-in the rubric with every assignment. You cannot receive a grade without a rubric, name, and period number. For posters and art projects, rubrics must be lightly taped to the project. Papers must be submitted in the following manner: the rubric must be on top, and then the final draft, preliminary drafts and editing rubrics must be stapled underneath the final draft. Usually a copy of the rubric can be found on my blog at http://ha9english2009.blogspot.com/.
Classroom supplies:
Required supplies include: a dedicated section in your binder for handouts, a journal as described above, highlighters in pink, green, yellow, and blue, and small post-its to bookmark as you read.
Bathroom and Water Breaks:
You get three bathroom passes a semester. If you do not use them, you may turn them in by the deadline posted at the end of the semester to receive 5 points each participation extra credit.
Personal electronic devices are strictly prohibited in the classroom and will be confiscated.
Food, drink, garbage:
Eating of healthy food is allowed in class, unless eating interferes with learning in any way, including noisy, rustling chip bags, or whispered requests for just one bite, etc. If I ever have to clean up anyone’s mess even once in any class, all food will be banned.
Do I really need to mention being polite and socially acceptable?
Rude behavior, name calling, obscene language, politically incorrect slurs, and put-downs are subject to disciplinary action.
Themes and Topics:
In high school, and especially in the Humanities Academy, profound, human themes are discussed and studied. For instance, in Romeo and Juliet, we discuss arranged marriages and teenage love; in The Odyssey, we consider Odysseus’s infidelity to his wife. Students are expected to approach these themes with maturity, dignity, and developing insight. Occasionally, classes may watch an R-rated movie if it is appropriate to the literature being studied. Students are expected to watch such movies with the proper attitude of academic interest. Parents: if you do not wish to allow your child to watch an R-rated movie, such as Slumdog Millionaire or The Kite Runner, please make a not below n the student will be allowed an alternative assignment.
Earning Extra Credit:
Extra credit can be earned by finding SAT vocabulary words in non-assigned reading, seeing certain plays and movies, and writing responses as assigned.
I understand the expectations and responsibilities in Humanities Academy 9 English. I understand I will be tested on the material contained herein at the next class session(students only):
Sign:
___________________________________________ __________________________________________
parent/guardian date student date
Print:
___________________________________________ __________________________________________
parent/guardian date student date
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