Honors English IV Syllabus (Fall 2012)

AFFTON HIGH SCHOOL Honors English IV Syllabus (Fall 2012)

This class has been approved as a St. Louis University 1818 program English 230: Introduction to the Novel and an AP English Literature and Composition course. As such, Honors English IV is constructed as a college course expected to challenge and hone the literary analytic, evaluative and writing skills of seniors who have followed a rigorous program in their high school studies.

OVERVIEW: This course will focus on the question “What is a novel?” In order to answer this question, we will need to ask  What is unique about the novel?  How is the novel different than other literary forms?  How has the novel as a literary form evolved?  What are the major critical theories about the novel?  How are definitions of the novel constructed by historical and cultural contexts?  What are the major types of novels?  What is your personal critical definition of the novel?

STUDENT EXPECTATIONS: This course is NOT designed to get you ready for college. This course assumes you already have the skills and the desire to engage in intellectual inquiry at the collegiate level.

GRADES: Grades will consist approximately of: Cold Reading Quizzes: 5% Assigned Reading Quizzes: 5% Presentations: 5% Class Participation 10% Journals: 10% Final Exam: 20% Mid-Term Exam: 15% Essays: 30%

Letter grades will be assigned following the system defined in the Affton High School handbook.

READING ASSIGNMENTS: Reading assignments will be given in advance and all students will be expected to have completed the day’s reading. You should expect typical daily assignments for prose to be @ 15-20 pages. It will be impossible to engage in learning activities on days reading is due if you have not read, so it is essential that you are up to date with the readings. This class should be extremely relaxed and enjoyable if you have read. If you haven’t, well… let’s not go there.

Texts: Excerpts from Shikibu’s Tale of the Genji, Cervantes’ Don Quixote and Wu Ch’eng-en’s Monkey Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five Albert Camus’ The Stranger ESSAYS: You will write 2 major essays this semester. Each of these assignments will challenge you to engage in a thoughtful writing process to analyze and evaluate one or more of the texts you read in class. This year, you will be introduced to and explore a variety of the most prevalent critical approaches to literary analysis. Your first essay will be a reader response essay. Your second essay must use one of the other critical approaches or a combination of the approaches listed below:

Psychoanalytical Marxist Deconstruction Structuralist Feminist Postcolonial Historical New Historical Archetypal Comparative Formalism/ New Criticism

If this list of terms seems daunting, don’t let it. Every literary analysis you have ever written can most likely be categorized as one of these types of criticism. The goal in introducing these methods is to let you explore each and determine which type of criticism best suits your approach as a reader and thinker. In addition, we will continue to increase the number of outside sources and scope of each essay by the following guidelines: MINIMAL NUMBER ESSAY # MINIMAL PAGE # OF ADDITIONAL SOURCES 1—Reader Response 3 0 2—Cultural Criticism 6 4

JOURNALS: You will need to keep a dialogue journal for responding to the texts we read. You will be given suggested journal prompts for each reading and each journal entry must reveal an in-depth engagement with the text (no points will be given for journals that do not reveal this engagement). We will review several methods of journaling at the beginning of the semester. Journals are called dialogue journals because they will be a space outside of class for us to communicate back and forth about your responses and reactions to your reading. Journals may be written by hand and turned in at the beginning of class on the due date or posted to the appropriate page on the wiki by the due date.

CLASS PARTICIPATION: Is what it says. You will be evaluated on how well you are prepared for class and on how well you engage in class discussion and class projects. Presentations and leading class discussion will be incorporated into your participation grade. Be engaged.

PRESENTATIONS: You will plan and deliver a number of presentations to the class and lead discussion for the day of your presentation. The subject of your presentation will be given in class. Your presentation will deliver important information and engage the class to apply the information to the day’s reading.

MID-TERM AND FINAL EXAM: Exams will consist of multiple choice, textual identification and analysis, and essay questions over the reading, terms and processes we have covered up to the point of the exam. You WILL need to reread to do well on these exams. The mid-term exam will cover texts read up to the point of the exam. The final exam will be comprehensive.

ASSIGNED READING QUIZZES: Once a week you will take a quiz on the assigned reading. You will NOT be told which day the quiz is on but will be expected to have read the required reading in order to do well.

COLD READING QUIZZES: Once a week you will take a quiz on a text you have not been assigned or previously read. The goal of the quiz is to reward those who have practiced close reading skills and encourage those who have not. Quizzes may include multiple choice questions and/or questions requiring a written response. ACADEMIC HONESTY: Students are expected to abide by the academic honesty policy of the Affton School District. Any practice which involves a student receiving credit for work that is not his or her own is considered a violation of this policy. This includes, but is not limited to cheating and plagiarism (presenting part or all of a work as if it were your own when it is not). Intentional academic dishonesty will result in disciplinary action including removal from the class with a failing grade. In addition, as a 1818 course, students are expected to abide by the policy on academic honesty established by St.Louis University. This policy may be found at http://www.slu.edu/x16363.xml.

INSTRUCTOR CONTACT INFORMATION: Teacher: Mr. Jennings Room: 50 Email Address: [email protected] Work Phone: 314-638-6330x11050 Home Phone: (only in case of emergencies please) 314-963-0177

WIKI HOMEPAGE: AHSLIBRARYOFBABEL.PBWORKS.COM