Nebraska Wesleyan and Hastings High School Syllabus

Wesleyan University Hastings Senior High Advanced Placement World Literature and Composition/Honors English 12 Including English Comp I w/emphasis on Writing and English Comp II w/emphasis on Literature, Responsive Writing and Discourse Mrs. Deola Thompson English MA, abd PHD-UNL 2017-2018 “Literature can engage with or act upon the world…either by studying within its historicity, or by isolating texts as distinctive aesthetic or linguistic objects” (Bellis 1). Course Description This course is a year-long, college-level seminar adhering to the College Board requirements for AP reading, writing, responding, and interpreting literature from various time periods as well as cultures. Skills taught include close reading and analysis based on understanding of key rhetorical and figurative devices such as repetition, analogy, diction, syntax, structure, style, themes and motifs. The general format of this seminar follows Zwiers’ and Crawford’s Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk That Fosters Critical Thinking and Content Understandings. Verbalizing critical thinking enhances critical writing to be practiced in multiple ways with the emphasis on correct grammar usage and development of rhetorical writing skills. *Note: bi-weekly discussions over assigned readings will be recorded for later scoring. A permission slip from parents is required. This course will examine the place and function of difference in language and writing, along with the ways in which power dynamics can suppress (or produce or expose) difference. A text, we will find, is composed of many voices—but rather than coexisting harmoniously, these different voices often struggle with one another, with some marginalized, or even submerged, and others dominant. Moreover, these power differentials within a text tend to reflect social and cultural practices. To better understand the heterogeneity of language, we will attend throughout this semester to those silenced or otherwise less authoritative voices, as well as to marginalized writers’ strategies of resistance—for example, their creative appropriation and use of dominant discourses for expressive and exploratory ends. In a sense, then, this seminar will involve a great deal of writing about writing, but also about culture, identity, and creativity. Texts for this course are to be purchased by the student complemented by multiple online resources, media, vocabulary and grammar practices provided. In addition to posting assignments on GoogleClassroom, Mrs. Thompson’s Language Arts site will host assigned links: https://deolamorrell.org/ Aims This syllabus aims to encourage you to: • enjoy the experience of reading, responding, and interpreting world literature in such as way as to think critically about commonalities and eccentricities found in literature of world cultures • improve writing skills through different modes of writing, improvement in grammar, usage, and mechanics in longer essays developing a thesis incorporating multiple research techniques • appreciate different modes used by writers to achieve effects • experience literature’s contribution to aesthetic, imaginative and intellectual growth • explore the contribution of literature to an understanding of areas of human concern Course Outcomes By the conclusion of this course, you should be able to: • Practice writing as an act of inquiry and discovery. • See yourself as a writer who can enter and contribute to an academic conversation. • Discover, inhabit, and use the writing of others in ethical and enriching ways. • Plan your writing as an act of communication to an anticipated reading audience. • Reflect on and practice various writing processes (including drafting and revision) and genres. • Demonstrate competency with Information Literacy. Assessments This syllabus follows criteria specified by Advanced Placement College Board Exam and prepares students extensively for the 2017-2018 exam through detailed, guided practice in goal setting, research methods and formatting, analytical writing and discussion complemented by specific lesson outlines and rubrics. Grade descriptions Grade A A Grade A student will have demonstrated the ability to: • sustain a perceptive and convincing response with well-chosen detail of narrative and situation • demonstrate clear critical/analytical understanding of the authors’ intentions and the texts’ deeper implications and the attitudes it displays • make well-selected reference to the texts with proper MLA in-text citations • respond sensitively and in detail to the way language works in the texts • communicate a considered and reflective personal response to the texts. Grade C A Grade C student will have demonstrated the ability to: • make a reasonably sustained/extended response with detail of narrative and situation • show understanding of the authors’ intentions and some of the deeper implications and attitudes displayed in the texts • show some thoroughness in use of text for support • make some response to the way language works in the texts • communicate an informed personal response to the texts. Grade F A Grade F student will have demonstrated the ability to: • make a few straightforward points in terms of narrative and situation • show a few signs of understanding of the authors’ intentions and the surface meanings of the texts • make some reference to the texts • show evidence of a simple personal response to the texts. Required Text and Accompanying Student Website Puchner, Martin. Norton Anthology of World Literature http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nawol3/ Supplemental Texts: AP Lit Exam Prep Chopin, Kate. Ed. Nancy A. Walker. The Awakening. Boston; New York: Bedford St. Martin’s. 2000. McCarthy, Cormac. Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West. Vintage Books. New York. 1992. Melville, Herman. “Bartleby, The Scrivner.” “Benito Cereno.” Moby Dick, Billy Budd, and other writings. New York: Library of American. 2000 Poe, Edgar Allan. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. Gloucester, Mass.: P. Smith. 1965. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Second Edition. Susan J. Wolfson, Editor. Pearson Longman. New York. 2007. General Agenda Unit One: Introduction to Academic Conversations (AC), Close Reading, Annotation, Interpretation, use of literary terms, responses to literature (RR), correct Grammar-Usage-Mechanics(GUM) Assigned Readings Unit Two: Close Reading, Annotation, Interpretation, Textual Analysis Unit Three: Introduction to Academic Writing Portfolio Essays: Comparative-Contrast, Argumentative, Synthesis Unit Four: World Literatures themes, motifs, metaphor, commonalities: music, dance, food representing culture Unit Five: Culmination of cultural understanding First Semester Weeks One-Two Syllabus and Permission Slips due Monday, August 21 Introduction to the Course Procedures Student Study Space deolamorrell.org Introduction to Academic Conversations(AC) Week 3: The Ancient Near East Vocabulary, assigned readings, Introduction to Academic Writing 1~Expository, RR1 Enuma Elish *Notes and close reading questions as preparation for next week AC *Reader Response Rubric Week 4: GUM: Common Errors in grammar, usage, mechanics practice Vocabulary, assigned reading, RR 2 The Epic of Gilgamesh *see video Mrs. Thompson’s Language Arts site(deolamorrell.org) AC 1: Babylonian lit, Gilgamesh *7 minute discussion over Babylonian lit, and Gilgamesh reading questions recorded for later scoring Weeks 5-6: The Hebrew Bible Genesis Vocabulary, assigned reading, Paper #1 due end of week 7, September 29 AC 2: Genesis Week 7: Introduction to Academic Writing 2~Argumentation, Rhetorical Devices, Figurative Language, Textual Evidence, MLA citations Paper #1: 5-7 pages choosing one aspect of readings weeks 3-6 and prepare academic argument *rubric Week 8: AP Lit Exam Prep Test 1 Week 9: Introduction to Greek Literature Semester 2 Week 10: Novel Study I: Homer The Illiad The Odyssey