Sophomore English A - The American Individual 2nd Trimester December 3 - March 14 Contact Information Mr. Ross Burdette Rm.

32 rburdett@mason.k12.mi.us (517) 676-9055 ext. 232 Welcome to the American Individual! The study of American Literature is closely tied to the study of how the individual contributes to society in America. Throughout our study of American Literature, we will focus on how the individual has had an impact in shaping our view of ourselves, nature, and our relation to both. We will briefly look at the major literary movements throughout American history, such as transcendentalism, realism, romanticism, and modernism. Our goal, as a class, is to become better at analyzing images, texts, and videos and using our analyses to help compose a trimester essay. What will class be like? The goal of Sophomore English A is to help build analytical and compositional skills. Therefore, we will spend a lot of time analyzing images as a class and discussing what we see. It is important that students participate and are active learners within the classroom. Also, because this class will be heavily based within the classroom, attendance is important to your success. Expect to spend about an hour a week reading and answering guided reading questions for this class. Communication You may e-mail at rburdett@mason.k12.mi.us or call me at (517) 676-9055 ext. 232. Please allow me 24-hours to respond to e-mails or phone messages. When leaving a phone message please leave your name and the best number for reaching you at 2:45 P.M. - 4:30 P.M. I am available to students before school on most days from 7:00 A.M. to 7:45 A.M. Also, I will be available after school from 2:45 P.M. to around 4:30 P.M. Parents, you are welcome to schedule an appointment for after school hours, please give me a week of notice prior to coming in. Parents, I will be sending out a class e-mail this trimester. The e-mail will contain a basic outline of class activities and assignments. It will also have notices of when Skyward grades are updated so you may check the up-to-date grade book. Necessary Materials

TEXTBOOK A three ring binder with loose-leaf paper A pen or pencil (essays must be in pen)
Grading policies

Grading Procedures Our class will be following the school-wide grading scale. A AB+ B BC+ 93-100 90-92 87-89 83-86 80-82 77-79 C CD+ D DE 73-76 70-72 67-69 63-66 60-62 Below 60

*Trimester grades will be weighted as follows: 30% - Homework, Notebook Checks, Quizzes, Preparedness 30% - In-class discussions, simulations, and simulation write-ups 40% - Tests and Essays

Assignments graded in class cannot be turned in late Assignments missed due to unexcused absences cannot be made up Students with excused absences have the equal number of days missed to make up assignments Students should log into Skyward weekly to check assignments and grades

Late Work While late work is accepted throughout the whole semester students are required to complete all assignments and attend a Missing Assignment Detention period or face disciplinary action. Most assignments will be considered late if not turned in by 3:30pm the date it is due. The exception to this rule is any assignment being graded in class or being required for a simulation as you could not participate fully in the simulation. You are responsible for completing all assignments in a trimester. Any assignment turned in after 3:30pm on the date due will receive an automatic deduction of fifteen percent. Incomplete work is not accepted, finish the assignment and turn it in late. ALL paper due dates are set in stone. If you are absent, you still need to turn in your paper if the due date was set in advance, or it will be considered late. You may always e-mail me your paper at rburdett@mason.k12.mi.us Missing Assignment Detention To avoid a massive amount of late work coming to me at the last minute in the semester and to avoid delaying grades due to processing grades for assignments, students will be given a Missing Assignment Detention if all work is not completed by the dates listed below. In the left hand column are the dates which work is assigned. The right hand column is the date of the Missing Assignment Detention if any of the work is not completed. The detentions are held from 2:50 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. This should be plenty of time to complete all missing work.

Dates of assigned homework, quizzes, tests, etc. December 3 - January 25 January 28 - March 1

Missing Assignment Detention dates 2:50 P.M. 4:30 P.M. January 30 (2:50 P.M. - 4:30 P.M.) March 6 (2:50 P.M. - 4:30 P.M.)

*If you participate in sports, extracurricular activities or have difficulty finding a ride home after a Missing Assignment Detention, I would recommend turning in your work on time or before the detention date to avoid having to attend a "Missing Assignment Detention." Notebook Checks Students are required to complete a notebook check form for every unit and attach it to their work from that unit. Students will be informed ahead of time what should be included in their notebook checks. The goal is to help students stay organized and prepared for unit tests. *Not all information assessed on the unit tests will come directly from material in the notebook checks. Therefore it is in your best interest to hold on to all materials until the trimester ends. Class Rules If a student is tardy three times in a trimester, that student will receive an office referral for a detention. Every subsequent tardy will result in another office referral for a detention. Please note that after being tardy eight times, a student must receive a C+ on the final exam to pass the class, as per the student handbook. No food or drink is to be brought into the classroom except water. Students may purchase food and drink items from the CBI cart. Each student begins the trimester with 10 points for coming to class prepared. Each time you choose to come to class without your notebook or textbook, or a pen or pencil, you will lose a point. If a student loses all ten points, they will receive an office referral for a detention. All rules outlined in the student handbook will be followed inside the classroom.

Classroom Discipline Policy

First Offense - Verbal Warning Second Offense - Written warning along with a phone call home Third Offense - Office Referral for a detention

*If behavior persists beyond the third offense, administration, the student and I will need to meet for a conference to decide on further discipline and to develop a plan of action. Absent Work Absent students are responsible for picking up and completing all assignments in the weekly absent folders located in the Absent? crates Students who are absent have an equal number of days to complete the missed assignments (i.e. students who miss three consecutive days of school have three days upon returning to complete the assignments before they are considered late. Students who have missed a test or quiz are responsible for establishing a time to stay after school and make up the test. Students have one week from the missed test or quiz to come in and make up the assessment before it will be considered late. Test Corrections Students have the opportunity to earn back 10% of their test grade if they complete test corrections. Extra Credit Students will have multiple opportunities to complete extra credit assignments throughout the trimester. Passes Students receive three hall passes per trimester Students who do not use all three passes will earn extra credit per unused hall pass If a student chooses to use a hall pass, students must sign the in/out log located at the front of the room. Failure to do so will lead to an automatic detention.

Students must also fill out a hall pass slip for me. Failure to hand me this slip prior to leaving the classroom, will lead to an automatic detention.
Reminder: Students gone for more than 10 minutes of total class time will be marked as absent from class for that day.

Course Outline Week One: Introduction to Class - Research Authors - Pillars of the American Dream Author Research Due Friday September 7 Week Two: Outlining Author Bio (Pies Paragraphs) - Early American Lit (Thomas Paine, Declaration of Independence and Patrick Henry) - Introduction to Texts Week Three: Romanticism, Typed Author Bios due Week Four: Mid-Way Book Quiz, Transcendentalism, Emerson and Thoreau, PIE Exam Week Five: Realism, Whole Book Quiz, Introduction and Conclusion Outlines Week Six: Full Outline Due Introduction and Conclusion Drafting, Naturalism Week Seven: Naturalism, Poetry, Rough Draft Due Week Eight: Modernism, Final Draft Due (Oct 26) Week Nine: Final Project Introductions Week Ten-Twelve: Compose, Refine and Present Final Projects

*Note: This is a ROUGH outline of our course structure. I, as the teacher, reserve the right to deviate from this general outline, through this whole thing out, or follow it strictly. Be flexible. As I want to shape my class around your needs, I will continually be tweaking this schedule.

Sophomore English A - Please keep the attached class information at home for your reference, and just return this page to Mr. Burdette by December 7 (Friday).

*Students, returning this signed syllabus counts as your first "homework" grade for the semester. It is worth ten points. Start the trimester off right, get the signature and return this sheet.

Student Name (Please print clearly, first and last):

_________________________________________________________________

Parent e-mail address for receiving group e-mails on upcoming tests, information, etc. optional, but highly recommended (Please print clearly.):

_________________________________________________________________

If the student would also like to receive these group e-mails please provide e-mail address (Please print clearly.):

_________________________________________________________________

You will receive your first e-mail by Thursday of next week. If you do not receive an e-mail, please e-mail or call me and let me know. rburdett@mason.k12.mi.us Parent signature, indicating you received all the information attached to this page:

______________________________________________________________ Date: ________________

Thank you!