College Prep English IV Mr. Hayward

THE ART OF LIFE or Why Literature, Art, Music, and Film?

“If we would have new knowledge, we must get a whole world of new questions.” —Susanne K. Langer

The time is out of joint. O cursèd spite That ever I was born to set it right! —from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Welcome to College Prep. English IV class of [fill in blank, why don’t you]! This course is designed to build on everything you’ve learned during three long and arduous (difficult and tiring, like learning vocabulary) years as students in the college prep sequence. Do you remember The Odyssey and how Odysseus outwitted the Cyclopes? What about that poor kid named Piggy and the conch? Did you find out what happens to a raisin when it gets left out in the sun? Maybe you remember something about two households, both alike in dignity, if fair Verona, where we lay our scene. Then there was the prep school teenager who thought all adults were phony. Richard Wright used words as weapons against racism in the Jim Crow south. Winston Smith ended up in Room 101 and loving Big Brother. Tim O’Brien went to Vietnam with Alpha Company…as a character named Tim O’Brien. Then you were on a raft in the Mississippi and learned about the very short word Transcendentalism. A little Poe, yes? A little Whitman, a little Emily Dickinson? You read Song of Solomon. The Great Gatsby. That’s a lot of enduring literature! Then you survived thirty writing conferences. That’s a lot, too. Maybe you had an English teacher, like me, who said, “avoid using weak language like ‘a lot.’” Learn all the rules, and then perhaps, you’ll know when to break them.

Keeping in mind that you’ve read and analyzed so much literature, and you have written so many papers in different modes from narrative to persuasive to analytical to creative, how can you now read in a deeper way with greater insight, and how can your writing continue to improve in terms of clarity and power? Don’t worry. That’s my job. Working together, it will happen.

READING: Together we will read and analyze William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. We will do the same for Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale. But you will also be asked to choose books that you want to read, discuss, and respond to in writing. You will explore diverse themes and essential questions centered on: shared meaning, building community, authorial voice (tone and mood), the complexity of text, how techniques of literary analysis help us as readers of visual media, and how technology (the rise of the internet) challenges the traditional boundaries of literature.

CPEIV 2

WRITING: You will be writing journals, reflections, thought papers, essays, and creative pieces. We will start with your college personal statement. You will have a chance to draft writing that may become poetry, a short story, a chapter of a memoir or novel, a creative nonfiction piece, and writing that might find a home in a newspaper or magazine. As always at CHS, you will get feedback in conferences and revise. You will have opportunities to use the writing process (I’ll refresh your memories about this) to analyze in a literary way, to research and synthesize, to be creative, reflective, and persuasive.

LISTENING: We will be thinking about the importance of music (and radio, podcasts, etc…) in our lives as a way to reflect in writing and to understand how music contributes to our well-being as individuals—and how it helps bring us together.

VIEWING: We will be encountering visual art and film, again as a way to reflect in writing, but also as a way to reflect on how painting and film help us to know more about ourselves, different people, cultures, and identity writ large in terms of: race, place, sexual orientation, and gender.

VOCABULARY ACQUISITION: Each student will be required to create and develop a personal dictionary. Research has shown that learning vocabulary in context is certainly one of the best ways to augment our lexicons so that new words become part of our long-term memories. I will explain how you will create your personal dictionary (notebook or digital).

CAPSTONE PROJECT: From early on you will be thinking about a project to develop during your senior year. Think about what you would like to pursue in college and beyond. Maybe you want to be one of the following: film maker, writer, artist, dancer, stand-up comic, politician, CEO, entrepreneur, musician, doctor, lawyer, newscaster, social media influencer, social worker, professional athlete, chef, podcaster, uh…teacher…you name it! But you will pick your major interest (I’ll help), and then you can begin to research, read, think, intern, dream, journal, prepare. At year’s end, you will make a presentation to our class. This may involve video, performance, audio, or something of that nature. There will be a written component to this project to help you organize and think more about your capstone project in terms of how it will develop a social justice and/or equity component.

MATERIALS/START OF CLASS: You will need a Chromebook and a notebook (three-ring binder, please), something with which to write, and an open, inquisitive mind. You will need discipline. The way our class starts is extremely important. I require quiet and focus when you walk in, and the moment you do, you will have a seat and copy the daily quote up on the board. You will do a quick analysis of the quote: function, structure, language (figurative or literal), and then you will write a brief explication. I’ll teach you how to do this during our first few days together. You will have a chance to wrestle intellectually with the likes of Shakespeare, Gandhi, Mozart, Hurston, Dickinson, Malcolm X, MLK, Socrates, Einstein, and Alice Walker. We will also look at proverbs from around the world. The daily quote will lead us thematically to our main topic of study for the day.

EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT: In terms of grades, we will be using a grading contract. Let’s dislodge grades and PowerSchool from the center of your student universe to allow real learning to happen. Learning should be a natural (you are programmed by mother nature to do it from birth) and joyful activity. Grades knock us off nature’s plan. So you will determine the grade you will earn for the quarter at the start of the quarter, and then concentrate on learning. If you complete all elements of the grading contract, you will earn the grade you wanted on day one. No muss, no fuss. The Grading Scale will still be this: A+ (98 and above); A (97-94); A- (93-90)— and so on down the alphabet. If you earn anything below a C, we will be working very hard CPEIV 3 together (with your parents/guardians) to help you do better. Let’s make it As and Bs. Plusses and minuses will depend on efforts that go “above and beyond” and those that don’t quite make the mark. *You are responsible for keeping ALL of your work—your three-ring notebook and Chrombook files will be known collectively as your portfolio for our grading contract discussions. It’s hard to make a case for an A+ when you don’t have any evidence to put on the table, you know? I will, of course, be keeping track of what you have completed to make sure you are hitting goals.

CLASSROOM NORMS: I guarantee you know all the rules and regulations for a class that operates at the highest level. If you have any questions/concerns regarding the two-way street of respect, we will discuss those together. Our classroom must be a place where everyone feels comfortable and respected in terms of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and political thought. We will not tolerate bigotry, bullying, racism, misogyny, or heterosexism in any form. We are in class to support and care for each other and learn. Together, we will create an environment that is challenging, honest, and inclusive, where we push each other to do our best each day. *Mental health day—I’ll explain in class. If you have any questions or concerns, contact me any time. I am best reached by email at [email protected]. My office, 3C, is in the English Department.

NOVELS AND PLAYS: Hamlet, William Shakespeare (CORE) The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (CORE)

DIVERSE VOICES AND STUDENT CHOICE BOOKS: The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt Love Medicine, The Roundhouse, Tracks, Louise Erdrich War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Chris Hedges Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets, Alexievich Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde Americanah, We Should All Be Feminists, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Bel Canto, Ann Patchett Middle Passage, Charles Johnson Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin Gang Leader for a Day, Sudhir Venkatesh Citizen: An American Lyric, Claudia Rankine Columbine, David McCullough Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance The Martian, Andy Weir I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban, Malala Yousafzai Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, Barack Obama Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, William Finnegan

POETRY: Sections from Sound and Sense, an Introduction to Poetry, Laurence Perrine, Thomas R. Arp

LITERARY TERMINOLOGY AND DEFINITIONS: The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, Ross Murfin, Supryia M. Ray

CPEIV 4

FILMS: Oscar Nominated Short Films for 2019 Excerpts for Simon Schama’s Power of Art TBA.

MUSIC: J.S. Bach’s The Goldberg Variations TBA.

PODCASTS: TBA.

OTHER LITERARY CHOICES BY AUTHOR; *Mr. Hayward has read and recommends—this list is by no means exhaustive; you may choose your own author to read as well. PS: rereading ONE major core book from is a great idea! Sherman Alexie. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven; *The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Julia Alvarez. *How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Margaret Atwood. The Blind Assassin Russell Banks. Rule of the Bone; *Continental Drift Italo Calvino. Invisible Cities or *If on a Winter's Night a Traveler; or *Difficult Loves Truman Capote. *In Cold Blood Willa Cather. My Antonia Michael Chabon. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay; *Wonder Boys Raymond Chandler. The Big Sleep or The Long Goodbye Bruce Chatwin. *In Patagonia; *The Songlines J. M. Coetzee. The Life and Times of Michael K Douglas Coupland. Generation X Phillip K. Dick. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? E. L. Doctorow. *Ragtime; *The Book of Daniel Daphne DuMaurier. *Rebecca . Light in August; *The Sound and the Fury E. M. Forster. *A Passage to India Ford Maddox Ford. *The Good Soldier Gunter Grass. *The Tin Drum Michael Herr. *Dispatches Jonathan Safran Foer. *Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close or Everything is Illuminated; Eating Animals Ernest Gaines. A Gathering of Old Men Gabriel Garcia-Marquez. One Hundred Years of Solitude; *Love in the Time of Cholera Graham Greene. The Heart of the Matter; *The End of the Affair Dashiell Hammett. The Maltese Falcon Thomas Hardy. *Jude the Obscure Robert Heinlein. Stranger in a Strange Land Chester Himes. Cotton Comes to Harlem or A Rage in Harlem Henrik Ibsen. A Doll's House . *The Remains of the Day or An Artist of the Floating World Gish Jen. Typical American; *Who’s Irish (short story collection) Charles Johnson. Middle Passage Ken Kesey *One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Karl Ove Knausgaard *My Struggle CPEIV 5

Milan Kundera. *The Unbearable Lightness of Being; *The Joke; *Immortality Chang-Rae Lee. *Native Speaker Malcolm Lowry. Under the Volcano Colum McCann. Zoli or Let the Great World Spin Rick Moody. *The Ice Storm . *Song of Solomon; *Sula; *Jazz; *Beloved V. S. Naipaul. Miguel Street; *A Bend in the River Gloria Naylor. *The Women of Brewster Place Tim O'Brien. *In the Lake of the Woods;* If I Die in a Combat Zone Kenzaburo Oe. The Silent Cry George Orwell, *1984, *Burmese Days, *Keep the Aspidistra Flying Annie Proulx. *The Shipping News Thomas Pynchon. *The Crying of Lot 49 Erich Maria Remarque. *All Quiet on the Western Front Richard Rodriguez. Hunger of Memory George Saunders. Tenth of December Zadie Smith. *On Beauty; *Swing Time; *White Teeth . *Cannery Row; *East of Eden; *Grapes of Wrath Tom Stoppard. *Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Amy Tan. *The Joy Luck Club Jean Toomer. Cane Kurt Vonnegut. *Slaughterhouse Five; *Cat’s Cradle; *Breakfast of Champions David Foster Wallace. *Brief Interviews with Hideous Men; *Consider the Lobster (essays); Infinite Jest Virginia Woolf. *Mrs. Dalloway ; *To the Lighthouse Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart James Agee. *A Death in the Family Nicholson Baker. *The Mezzanine James Baldwin. *Go Tell It on the Mountain Russell Banks. The Sweet Hereafter Paul Bowles. *The Sheltering Sky T. C. Boyle. The Tortilla Curtain Charlotte Bronte. *Jane Eyre James M. Cain. Double Indemnity Italo Calvino. The Baron in the Trees or Invisible Cities . *The Stranger or *The Plague J. M. Coetzee. Disgrace Joseph Conrad. *The Secret Agent; *Heart of Darkness Don DeLillo. *White Noise Charles Dickens. *Great Expectations; *Hard Times; *David Copperfield . The Brothers Karamazov; *Crime and Punishment; *Notes from Underground Roddy Doyle. A Star Called Henry; *Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha John Gregory Dunne. True Confessions Theodore Dreiser. Sister Carrie; An American Tragedy Dave Eggers. *A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Gustave Flaubert. *Madame Bovary . The Inheritors; *Lord of the Flies Graham Greene. The Quiet American or The Power and the Glory Thomas Hardy. *Tess of the D'Urbervilles or *Jude the Obscure Patricia Highsmith. The Talented Mr. Ripley CPEIV 6

Aldous Huxley. *Brave New World Victor Hugo. The Last Day of a Condemned Man John Irving. A Prayer for Owen Meany or The Cider House Rules; *The World According to Garp Ha Jin. War Trash Mary Karr. *The Liar's Club Jack Kerouac. *On the Road Phil Klay. Redeployment . *The Joke or Life is Elsewhere Bernard Malamud. The Fixer; *A New Life W. Somerset Maugham. The Painted Veil Cormac McCarthy. *All the Pretty Horses Jay McInerney. *Bright Lights, Big City Kenzaburo Oe. Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids Suzan-Lori Parks. Topdog/Underdog Sylvia Plath. *The Bell Jar Annie Proulx. *The Shipping News Thomas Pynchon. V. or *Gravity’s Rainbow Tom Robbins. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues Jose Saramago. Blindness Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. *Frankenstein Upton Sinclair. The Jungle Jonathon Swift. *Gulliver's Travels Nathaniel West. The Day of the Locust Oscar Wilde. *The Picture of Dorian Gray Richard Wright. *Native Son, *Black Boy Ralph Ellison. *Invisible Man

CPEIV 7

GRADING CONTRACT FOR CPEIV:

Our class is based on the philosophy that all students can learn and that we all learn differently. Some students memorize well, some students are visual learners, kinesthetic learners, some students learn in idiosyncratic ways—they may be doodling and doodling may help them comprehend the lesson. Grade anxiety, however, has become a common stumbling block to real learning and achievement. The Grading Contract decenters grading so that your focus is on pushing yourself to learn the most the way you like to learn without the worry of the grade. In other words, you are the author of your grade, not the teacher. My job is to inspire you by presenting new and interesting ideas for you to learn and make suggestions (where and how to revise, for example) that will increase your learning to your highest level, whatever that may be. You will demonstrate the level of your learning through discussion in class, papers, and periodic check-ins with how you are doing.

In our class, you will learn to improve your communication abilities. If you actively participate in class, you will grow as a reader, writer, thinker, speaker, and finally, as a citizen who will make a meaningful contribution to our class and to our society now, as students, and in the future.

Our class requires work and commitment from you. You will be asked to do some writing nearly every day. You will read and share your work with me (conferences) and with your peers at times. You will help your peers to learn about new books, new films, new music, new art, and you will help them to improve their writing and thinking.

All students are expected to earn an “A” or a “B.” Of course, some may not quite make it there, but “A”s and “B”s should be the norm. Your job will be to complete all assignments on time to the best of your abilities. If you make a sincere effort to improve as a student and as an active participant, you will have success. Again: plusses and minuses will depend on efforts that go “above and beyond” and those that don’t quite make the mark.

To earn an “A,” the student does the following:

_____ Completes all assigned writing and revisions.

_____ Writes FOUR journal entries per week.

_____ Participates actively in both large and small groups (e.g., choice book discussions).

_____ Turns in all assignments, journals, and revisions on or before the due date.

_____ Never has a cell phone out; arrives to class on-time (no tardies) and quietly opens notebook to copy the daily quotation; demonstrates care for his/her peers.

_____ Demonstrates/models elements of leadership; takes chances by raising hand and jumping in even if his/her idea isn’t fully formed; uses bathroom before or after class.

_____ Self-starter—often doesn’t need teacher or peers to get going with work.

_____ Challenges self to be enthusiastic and to stay focused—even when tired or having a hard day.

_____ Prepares all work to the best of ability—neat and conscientious. CPEIV 8

_____ Adds FIVE words (in correct format) to Personal Dictionary.

To earn a “B,” the student does the following:

_____ Completes all assigned writing and revisions.

_____ Writes THREE journal entries per week.

_____ Participates actively in both large and small groups (e.g., choice book discussions).

_____ Turns in all assignments, journals, and revisions on due date.

_____ Never has a cell phone out (maybe once by accident); arrives to class usually on-time (1- 3 tardies) and quietly opens notebook to copy the daily quotation; demonstrates some care for his/her peers.

_____ Demonstrates elements of leadership at least once during quarter; takes a chance by raising hand and jumping in even if his/her idea isn’t fully formed; uses bathroom before or after class…usually. May need to leave class to use bathroom once.

_____ Usually a self-starter—sometimes needs teacher or peers to get going with work.

_____ Sometimes challenges self to be enthusiastic and to stay focused—even when tired or having a hard day. May tune-out once in a while.

_____ Prepares most work to the best of ability—relatively neat and conscientious.

_____ Adds FOUR words (in correct format) to Personal Dictionary.

To earn a “C,” the student does the following:

_____ Completes all assigned writing and revisions.

_____ Writes TWO journal entries per week.

_____ Participates only occasionally in large and small groups (e.g., choice book discussions).

_____ Turns in all assignments, journals, and revisions but sometimes late.

_____ Has cell phone out to the point of confiscation; arrives to class often late (too many tardies!) and distracts others at the start of class.

_____ Does not volunteer or raise hand, but still pays some attention and takes notes; chronic asking to use bathroom.

_____ Student will not get to work without prompting from teacher.

CPEIV 9

_____ Often distracted and has trouble staying focused.

_____ Prepares work in a basic way.

_____ Adds THREE words (in correct format) to Personal Dictionary.

To earn a “D,” the student does the following:

_____ Completes all assigned writing and revisions.

_____ Writes ONE journal entry per week.

_____ Seldom participates in large and small groups (e.g., choice book discussions).

_____ Turns in most or all assignments, journals, and revisions late.

_____ Has cell phone out to the point of confiscation; arrives to class often late (too many tardies!) and distracts others at the start of class; administrator involvement.

_____ Does not volunteer or raise hand, but still pays some attention and takes notes; chronic asking to use bathroom.

_____ Student will not get to work without prompting from teacher.

_____ Actively distracts other student and rarely, if ever, gets to classwork.

_____ Presents work in a sloppy and uncaring manner.

_____ Adds TWO or fewer words (in correct format…or not) to Personal Dictionary.

CPEIV 10

GRADING CONTRACT FOR CPEIV

I, ______, understand that in order to contract for the grade of ______I must and will do the following:

DATE______

SIGNATURE______