British+Literature

English Literature and Corrective Expression – Grade 12 Syllabus Instructor: Ms. Kerry Jones Location: Room 116 Questions?: jonesk@panthervalley.org Welcome to your Senior year! There is much information you need to accomplish this year in order to be conscientious learners as well as successful high school graduates! Our goal this year is deciphering texts such that you can take away important ideas, support them and be able to be comfortable enough to discuss and write about them! These are skills that are imperative in college as well as in a job field, so let’s do our best to become self aware and life long learners. Through the year, we will strive to develop an appreciation for major works of eras and authors in the realm of English Literature. **The following periods of history will be represented:** Anglo-Saxon //Beowulf// Medieval //Canterbury// //Tales// and King Arthur Renaissance Shakespeare’s //Macbeth// and Sonnets Age of Reason Diaries and Writings Romantic Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats and Byron Victorian Tennyson, Bronte and Browning 19th, 20th and 21st Centuries //Harry Potter// and study of a Variety of Authors In order to fully understand the authors and writings to the best of our ability, we will be immersing ourselves in the culture of the time periods as well! It is important to understand the political and historical backgrounds to which the studied works pertain. In the beginning of class, we will start with a modern British Text to help us get acclimated to some of the language, and to be our modern jumping off point before we head into the study of Old English and Anglo-Saxon literature.

**Be forewarned: This class is intensive! You will be required to do outside reading, studying, vocabulary, written creative responses, close reading, notes, critical essays, a research paper and other creative projects as well!** This class is intended to prepare you for a college type course, so you must be willing to put in the time! If it makes you feel any better, this is my first year teaching this course, so we will be learning and relearning many things together. I am a proponent of open forum discussion of texts as well as applications to our lives today to help us understand works more fully, so do not be intimidated by what may seem hard. Challenges are what make us better learners and people in general, so do not cave! Instead, beat the odds! To give you the “quick and dirty downlow”… YOU MUST READ AND DO WORK OUTSIDE OF CLASS IN ORDER TO SUCCEED!** Nightly Reading Assignments (including outside of class texts) Vocabulary Assignments Creative Group Projects Quizzes Creative Individual Projects Presentations Book reviews on Outside Readings Literary Analysis Essays Library Research Techniques Unit tests/ Vocabulary tests Research Paper You will be expected to __read__ the literature, keep an up to date __notebook__ including out of class and in class __notes__ and __assignments__, participate in __discussions__, purchase and utilize __index__ __cards__ for vocabulary. Also you must work in cooperative __groups__ (self assigned and teacher assigned) when asked. You will have to participate in groups with people who may not be your “friends” however a portion of groupwork grades are including all in a group and mastering interpersonal skills as well as class assignments. So be open minded! Also, many of our notes are “self centered” meaning I provide you with what I want you to know (and should know) in a format I am comfortable with, however, if you know a way that works for you, do it! This is a college prep course, and self guided education is imperative! This year, we will also be completing reading groups with several texts. Each quarter, a class will receive a text to read outside of class and on scheduled reading days, complete an analytical paper and move to the next text. This requires self discipline, as the majority of the texts are not written in modern day English and are read outside of the classroom. Be prepared! Remember plagiarism is the use of another’s words or ideas (quoted or paraphrased) without acknowledgement of the author. If work is plagiarized, penalties will occur such as an automatic failure, a call home to parents and referral to an academic advisory committee. We will be discussing this in class, so if any further questions occur, feel free to contact me. (Refer to Miss J’s Rules to Live By handout and the ABC’s posted in the classroom). 40% Essays/Oral Reports/Group Projects 20% Creative Assignments, Tests/Multimedia Projects 20% Homework/Vocabulary Index Cards/Notebook and Notes 20% Classwork/Participation/Oral Questions and Answers
 * The breakdown of work in this class is as follows: **
 * Student Requirements **
 * Plagiarism **
 * Rules **
 * Grading Criteria **