English 11 Honors (IB) / Ms. Tan / Syllabus - Rowland High School

2010-2011English 11 Honors (IB) / Ms. Tan / SyllabusClass Procedures• Required reading will be assigned to you throughout the year. You are expected to complete athorough reading of the text in order to score marks on pop quizzes, participate in thoughtfuldiscussion, and to compose well-analyzed essays.• Composition Notebooks are meant to house informal writing, pre-writing for essays, lecturenotes, discussion notes, thoughts, and questions pertaining to a unit of work. Each “comp book”entry should be dated. Once completed, “official” entries will earn a stamp from me, which arethen totaled up at the end of a unit for Homework/Classwork points. You are encouraged touse this notebook for taking notes for yourself, apart from assigned entries that are worthpoints. This notebook is meant to facilitate your intellectual growth in writing and critical thinking.• Participation points will count for a portion of your grade. It is imperative that you don’t simplyabsorb literature passively, but have an opinion and be able to talk about the text in asophisticated manner. Participation in the classroom will earn you points, and likewise, violationof the Classroom Expectations will lose you points.• Bathroom passes will be issued to every student—four per semester. These must be stamped,initialed, and dated, in order to be activated. You may earn extra credit points for turning inpasses at the end of the semester.Writing Expectations• As an 11th-grade Honors student, you are expected to write at a critical and analytic level. Yourwriting is expected to be sophisticated in thought and vocabulary. In interpretive and analyticessays, writing must be in third person and be free of major grammar, spelling, or conventionerrors. Your essays are expected to be organized, with a clear introduction and thesis statement,as well as structured paragraphs. You are expected to use correct support for your statementsand provide insightful commentary to demonstrate your interpretation or analysis of a work.• Formal essays must be typed and formatted in MLA style.Tardy, Absences, and Late WorkYou must come to class on time, prepared for the day’s lesson. The English Department tardy policy is asfollows:1 st and 2 nd offenses = Participation point deduction3 rd and 4 th offenses = Lunch detention5 th and 6 th offenses = Saturday detention7 + offenses = ReferralIt is your responsibility to make up any work missed due to excused absences (illness, activity, etc.). Youwill have one day to make up an assignment for each excused absence. If you miss a test, it is yourresponsibility to have the test made up within a week of your absence. You need to make yourselfavailable for make-up tests. See me for an appointment. I will not accept late homework or classwork(not even if it’s in your locker or if you left it in your mom’s car). A major assignment (take-home essaysand projects) will receive a 10% deduction each day it is late.PlagiarismYou are expected to demonstrate academic honesty and personal integrity. If you are caught cheating,copying, or plagiarizing the work of others, you will receive a zero on the assignment and a referral to thevice principal. Plagiarism is defined as the undocumented use of three or more words in succession or anoriginal idea without proper citation. You should avoid the use of online sources (such as SparkNotes) toreplace a thorough reading of the text. The goal of this course is to enhance your skills, not to showcasesomeone else’s. You should be aware that plagiarism applies to both writing and oral presentations.I really look forward to being your teacher this year! If you have any questions or concerns about theclass (whether it’s your grade, something we went over in class, or an assignment), please do nothesitate to get in touch with me, either in person or via email. I will try my best to help you besuccessful this year. My philosophy is that any class can be rewarding, as long as you are willing to putin the work.English 11H / Ms. Tan / 2010-2011 / Rowland High School 2