English IV Syllabus

Course Description:
Welcome. This course is designed to enrich your writing, reading, speaking and thinking skills and to develop your abilities to analyze, appreciate, understand and enjoy good literature. Throughout the semester, we will encounter texts about warriors (Beowulf), legends (the Arthurian legend), travelers (Canterbury Tales) and kings (Macbeth). By taking an in-depth look into these texts, we will be able to see the world in which we live through a different lens.

Writing

Students will improve their skills in appropriate diction, imagery, detail, manipulation of point of view, and sentence structures. Revision is the key to this writing program. Thus student writers will re-work their pieces through multiple drafts in order to produce maximum clarity, to achieve full the writer’s purpose, and to develop the writer’s skill in using language effectively.

Close Reading

Our class will focus on reading for more than plot, detail, incidents or characters. Student readers will learn to look for motifs, archetypes, tone and tone shifts, symbolism and meaning in literature, film, and music. This reading will enable young readers to not only analyze literature but will grant them the ability “read”, analyze, and interpret experiences outside the literary world.


Seminar Participation

Your participation and active listening during class discussion is essential. Not only will you personally glean new insights and ideas about the texts we explore during seminar days, but you will sharpen your speaking and listening skills. I ask that you come to class each day with your book, your insights, and a questioning, receptive mind.

Each of these activities will play a part in my evaluation of your academic progress.


Grading Policy:

Your six weeks grade will be determined by the following grading system:

Class work/ Homework 40%
Assessments/ Essays 25%
Projects/ Products 20%
Six Week Test 15%

Academic Honesty:

Our academic honesty policy is simple: the work you submit must be your own. We want to know what you know and understand. We want to hear your thoughts and your ideas. When work is submitted that is not yours it impedes our ability to teach and your ability to learn. By submitting or claiming someone else’s work you are taking credit away from them and taking the opportunity to learn from yourself.

Failure to follow our academic honesty policy will not be taken lightly.


Supplies Needed:

3 ring binder – 1.5 inch
w/ 5 dividers
Spiral Notebook, no college rule
Pocket Folder with Brads
Blue or Black Pen, NO PENCILS
Hand Sanitizer
Box of Kleenex