Junior English, 2011-2012
Course Description
Taking up where the sophomore class left off, Literature of the English Language II traces the development of modern literary forms from the late 19th century to the present day, with emphasis on the 20th-century novel. Additional emphasis is placed on women authors, authors of color, and authors from outside the United States and Great Britain. Works studied include The Great Gatsby, the poetry of Whitman, Dickinson, and Frost, and Ellison's Invisible Man. Although the course reviews usage, mechanics, sentence structure, and organization, the most significant progress takes place individually, as students revise and edit their own work through teacher's comments on papers or after individual conferences. |
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Texts and Materials
At the Bookstore:
Ferguson, Margaret, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. The Norton Anthology of Poetry. 5th ed. NY: Norton, 2005.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Great Gatsby
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. NY: Modern Language Association of America, 2009.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Vintage.
Dictionary
We may add additional texts, if time permits. Please feel free to purchase used books, or less expensive versions, if available, but please be sure that the text is the same we will be using in class. You need to have a good dictionary immediately available to you where you do your homework. If you do not already have one, American Heritage Dictionary is an excellent choice. I also recommend dictionary.com if you read at your desk. Know, however, that the dictionary is important to reading and that you need always have access to a dictionary. You will also always need to have your dictionary with you in class.
You will also need a notebook for taking notes and writing in class, pens and a pencil for writing in the course texts, a binder for keeping class materials organized, and some loose, college-ruled paper.
Reading Journal
I would like you to keep a reading journal for additional credit. I will ask you to write in these in class and for homework. For this purpose, find a notebook that you would like to write in—it can have pictures of pretty flowers or Spiderman—but choose something separate from your five-subject notebook so that you can actually submit it to me. I won’t accept anything huge, that contains materials from other classes, or that is unbound. You will find journal assignments and recommendations on the class website. The Bookstore has some lovely moleskine journals that might appeal to you (or not--it's entirely up to you).
Classroom Conduct and Honor Code
Please be kind and respectful to all in the class. All of the policies outlined in the Student Handbook will be applicable to our classroom.
Assignments
You will be writing approximately 2-3 pages (500-750 words) per week. Your writing will be evaluated for its grammatical correctness, its style, and its intellectual rigor. Exams, tests, quizzes, short response papers, journals, presentations, and class participation will comprise the course grade.
All papers submitted must be formatted according to the instructions provided in the handout (also on the class website) “General Format for All Written Work” or they will not be accepted. All papers are due at the beginning of class on the assigned date. I will not accept papers via e-mail unless the circumstance is exceptional.
Grading
The following scale will apply to your trimester grade:
50-60% Writing Assignments
30-40% Quizzes / Tests
10-20% Preparation and Participation
Exams
We will have two exams in this class, one in January and one in June. Each exam will count for 10-15% of your final grade for the academic year.
Late Assignments
Late assignments for which you have not officially requested an extension will lose 2/3 of a letter grade for each day beyond the due date, including drop days. You must make up quizzes, tests, and all required written work within two days of an absence. Assignments for which you had more than a day’s notice will be due on the day you return to school, including drop days.
On Proofreading
Always proofread your papers.
Learning to edit one's own writing is the most important skill in learning to write. There is also great value in the corrections that a teacher makes to a student's papers. You should use your teacher's corrections to learn how to edit yourself. In other words, all the red marks and corrected mistakes that you see on your paper when you get it back indicate editorial changes that you should have made before you submitted your paper. Ideally, your paper would be technically perfect on submission, and you would be graded only on its content and presentation of ideas. That is an ideal for which to strive, but it is very rarely attained by a student writer.
You may ask your teacher to look at a rough draft of your paper before you hand it in, but your teacher is not responsible for giving you an estimated grade for the paper as it stands or for making all the necessary corrections to your draft. If your teacher does suggest corrections to your draft, this does not mean that you will automatically get an A if you make the suggested changes before submitting the paper.
You are encouraged to approach your English teacher for help with your papers, but it is best to go to your teacher with specific questions about writing or content. “Can you help me with my paper?” is not a specific question. Ultimately, you are responsible for your own writing.
Tentative List of Readings
You will find most of these readings in The Norton Anthology of English Literature.
Note: This reading list is subject to change. Please consult the website and listen for announcements in class.
Cristina Rosetti, “Goblin Market”
Tennyson
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
Mrs. Gaskell, “The Old Nurse’s Story”
Mathew Arnold
Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden”
Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Chinua Achebe, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Heart of Darkness” and Things Fall Apart
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, from The Thing Around Your Neck, “The Headstrong Historian,” “Jumping Monkey Hill”
Christopher Abani,
Selection from White Teeth (for extra credit, entire novel)
WB Yeats, selected poems
Hardy, selected poems
James Joyce, “Araby,” “Eveline,” and “The Dead” from Dubliners
Virginia Woolf, “The Unwritten Novel,”
DH Lawrence, “Odour of Chrysanthemums,” and “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter”
TS Eliot, “Prufrock”
Derek Walcott, selected poems
Seamus Heaney, selected poems
Format for the Class Schedule:
You will find a periodically updated course schedule on our class website. You are required to check this site frequently.
Assigned readings should be completed and prepared for discussion by the date specified on the reading schedule. We will discuss and share the writing prepared for class sessions. You are responsible for consulting the class website, and you are expected to be fully prepared for the next class session. Your participation grade will reflect the quality and thoughtfulness of your contributions to the class, respect shown to class members, your attitude and role in group exercises, and evidence given of completion of reading assignments.
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