11th+Grade+English+Syllabus


 * COURSE TITLE: 11 Applied Communications 2009-2010

COURSE LENGTH: One School Year 5 Periods Per Week

COURSE DESCRIPTION/OVERVIEW:** This course is designed to equip students with the reading, writing, analytical, and communication skills that will help them successfully enter the job market, military, business school, or a junior or technical college. The grammar and writing exercises duplicate “on the job” writing and examine sentence mechanics, word choice, tone, point-of-view, detail, organization, and job writing formats. The course incorporates the study of vocabulary, modern literature, and speech.

Writing & Speaking at Work: A Practical Guide for Business Communication, 3rd Edition by Edward P. Bailey, Copyright 2005 by Pearson Education, Inc.
 * RESOURCES/INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS/TEXT:**

Prentice Hall Writing and Grammar: Communication in Action, Ruby Level, Grammar Exercise Workbook, and Copyright 2001 by Pearson Education, Inc.

PSSA Instructional Materials in Reading and Writing from the Pennsylvania State Department of Education

PSSA Ladders for Success

1. Night by Elei Wiesel 2. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque
 * Novels/Drama:**

1. "Piano" by D.H. Lawrence 2. " Stopping by Woods" by Robert Frost 3. "Count That Day Lost" by George Eliot 4. "Gradatim" by Josiah Gilbert Hollan 5. "Village Blacksmith" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 6. "Holocaust" by Barbara Sonek 7. "The Victim" by Francis Duggan 8. "Battlefield" by August Stramm 9. "The Dug-Out" by Siegfried Sassoon 10. "Vigil (1915)" by Giuseppe Ungaretti
 * Poetry:**

1. "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe 2. "The Necklace" by Guy Maupassant 3. "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell 4. "Araby" by James Joyce
 * Short Stories:**


 * NOTE: Copies of all novels and works of drama will be provided by the school. Students are supplied with copies of all poems and essays to be covered during the course.

11 Applied Communications covers four marking periods of nine weeks each.

WRITING AND READING INSTRUCTION:** Since writing and reading are reciprocal skills, these are taught in concert with each other. In reading, students are taught the techniques of inferential reading, elements of plot and structure, and literary techniques and devices. By reading pieces of literary quality, students learn how to emulate literary quality within their own work. During writing instruction, modeling is utilized to teach various formats and modalities of writing. The teacher instructs students in the steps of the writing process: brainstorm, outline, rough draft, and editing and revising into final copy. Teacher editing and peer editing are used during the writing process for various assignments so that individual expertise in these areas is strengthened. As we progress through the school year, less emphasis is given to teacher and peer editing, and more emphasis is placed on individual creation. The goal of this course, after all, is to produce strong independent writers and readers. Students keep all graded writing assignments within their English binders, so they can examine their personal academic growth throughout the two semesters.

Writing assignments are graded via a rubric that incorporates the five domains in the Pennsylvania State Standards for Effective Writing: Focus, Content, Organization, Style, and Conventions. Each of these areas is graded as: Advanced (A), Proficient (B), and Basic (C-D), or Below Basic (F), per the state standards. By reading the attached rubric and the notes made by the teacher on the essay itself, students will be able to evaluate their own individual writing strengths and to improve in their own individual challenge areas. All writing assignments include the following steps: brainstorm, outline, rough draft, editing and revising into final copy. The steps of brainstorm, outline, and rough draft are graded as class work or as homework and are used by the teacher as an assessment tool to evaluate student research, organization, synthesis, editing, and proofreading skills. The final copy is assessed via the writing rubric and is graded as a writing assignment.
 * ASSESSMENT OF WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:**

Assessment of a student’s understanding of reading assignments is achieved in a variety of ways that includes but is not limited to: class discussion, written reading response questions, quizzes, tests, and analytical essays. In 11 Applied Communications, reading assessment goes far beyond rote knowledge. Assessment of reading includes the student’s ability to infer, extrapolate, deduce, predict, evaluate, analyze, synthesize, and to clarify cause and effect, among other things.
 * ASSESSMENT OF READING ASSIGNMENTS:**


 * GRADING SCALE:** All assignments are graded on the basis of total points. Points are assigned based on the complexity of the particular assignment.

93-100 A 85-92 B 75-94 C 70-74 D 0-69 F
 * Numerical Average Letter Grade**
 * No work submitted O

MATERIAL REQUIREMENTS: (to be purchased by student)** • 2- inch loose- leaf binder • 4 dividers • 1 highlighter – any color . 1 red pen

• English binder to store all class handouts and graded assignments • Relevant homework and class-work • Reading of pertinent novels, short stories, essays, poems, expository prose; handouts. • Quizzes • Essays • Daily Grades
 * ACADEMIC REQUIREMENTS:**


 * DUE DATES FOR CLASSWORK/HOMEWORK:** Work is absolutely due on the date assigned or the student will receive a grade of a zero. If a student is tardy, leaving early, or absent from class due to a field trip or extracurricular activities or other school activities the day that an assignment is due, he or she must submit that assignment to me by 3:10 of that day by placing it in my mailbox.


 * MAKEUP WORK: I**t is the student’s responsibility to keep track of any work owed due to absence. To do this, check Power Grade on a daily basis. It a student has an excused absence the day that an assignment is due, it is the student’s responsibility to make up any missed work within one week from the due date. If this is not done, then a grade of a zero will be issued. You may reach me personally by leaving a telephone message in the school office, and I will return your call as soon as possible. You may also reach me at my teacher e-mail: **tmiller@jtasd.org

Summer Reading:** Summer reading of a novel is required for 11 Applied Communications, as listed on the following schedule. Students are allowed to make their own selection of novel. The book review form and summary are due on the first day of school. This will be part of the first marking period grade. Students who do not fulfill the summer reading requirements will receive a zero.


 * New Reading Program:** Students are required to read one short story of their own selection each marking period and to prepare a story analysis on the same in addition to the required English Curriculum.