What books do we read this year?
We start the year reviewing summer reading: The Bible and One Hundred Years of Solitude
Then we read Sophocles' Oedipus and Antigone, Shakespeare's Sonnets, Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing, Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Secret Sharer, Achebe's Things for Apart.
What is your goal for the year?
I want students to become stronger readers: to read critically and to develop an affinity for reading serious literature that will open up world for them. I want students to develop their writing skills to help them understand literature and ideas and to help them in other subject areas and life pursuits.
A big question I have for this year is why do we study literature. Education is trending toward utilitarian career preparedness. We can teach writing and critical reading by reading and writing about nonfiction and even technical texts. Thus, I ask myself and my students, why do we study poetry and novels and creative nonfiction. This is a topic we have addressed in looking at the value of education in texts like Aristotle's Allegory of the Cave and the importance of the reader in looking into the Bible. In the spring we will all us, your teacher included, write an essay that addresses the questions: What is value of education? What is the value of studying literature?
What are the major assignments?
See Class Schedule on Handouts page
How are points distributed?
Again see Class Schedule on Handouts page
The biggest part of the grade is essay writing. I also want hold students responsible for the reading, so reading quizzes, while not as significant as essays, could be the difference between letter grades.
The goal is for students to become strong writers. Not everyone reaches that goal at the same time. Therefore students who may struggle in the beginning but work hard to improve will benefit from a scale that more heavily weights work later in the semester. All students may drop their lowest in-class essay score.
What about the grade book?
I will post grades every week or two. I will never post the percentage or letter grade. You can discern this for yourself by doing the math: Points you got divided by points you could have gotten. I think some students and parents obsess about points. Parents add stress to students and students may miss the point of an education, which is to learn.
What should I bring to class?
Paper
Pen
Your journal
The book or other text we are reading
A strong knowledge of the text based on careful, close reading.
Willingness to participate fully, sharing ideas and actively listening to and respectfully responding to classmates
We start the year reviewing summer reading: The Bible and One Hundred Years of Solitude
Then we read Sophocles' Oedipus and Antigone, Shakespeare's Sonnets, Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing, Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Secret Sharer, Achebe's Things for Apart.
What is your goal for the year?
I want students to become stronger readers: to read critically and to develop an affinity for reading serious literature that will open up world for them. I want students to develop their writing skills to help them understand literature and ideas and to help them in other subject areas and life pursuits.
A big question I have for this year is why do we study literature. Education is trending toward utilitarian career preparedness. We can teach writing and critical reading by reading and writing about nonfiction and even technical texts. Thus, I ask myself and my students, why do we study poetry and novels and creative nonfiction. This is a topic we have addressed in looking at the value of education in texts like Aristotle's Allegory of the Cave and the importance of the reader in looking into the Bible. In the spring we will all us, your teacher included, write an essay that addresses the questions: What is value of education? What is the value of studying literature?
What are the major assignments?
See Class Schedule on Handouts page
How are points distributed?
Again see Class Schedule on Handouts page
The biggest part of the grade is essay writing. I also want hold students responsible for the reading, so reading quizzes, while not as significant as essays, could be the difference between letter grades.
The goal is for students to become strong writers. Not everyone reaches that goal at the same time. Therefore students who may struggle in the beginning but work hard to improve will benefit from a scale that more heavily weights work later in the semester. All students may drop their lowest in-class essay score.
What about the grade book?
I will post grades every week or two. I will never post the percentage or letter grade. You can discern this for yourself by doing the math: Points you got divided by points you could have gotten. I think some students and parents obsess about points. Parents add stress to students and students may miss the point of an education, which is to learn.
What should I bring to class?
Paper
Pen
Your journal
The book or other text we are reading
A strong knowledge of the text based on careful, close reading.
Willingness to participate fully, sharing ideas and actively listening to and respectfully responding to classmates