At Last . . .

 English 12:

Here is the course outline I promised you:

English 12 – J. Kosar

 

I am who I am.

A coincidence no less unthinkable

than any other.

            Wislawa Szymborska

 

Welcome to English 12!  We will spend the quarter reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and representing – exploring the six strands of English.  The study of English encompasses an exploration of what makes us people, of life experiences and how to describe them, of expressing ourselves in a variety of ways and also a growing understanding of how we communicate with our language.

 

Texts used:

The Wars – Timothy Findley

“Hamlet” – William Shakespeare

Inside Poetry

Inside Stories III

Elements of Essays: Patterns, Purpose and Perspectives

 

Expectations

Hand your work in ON TIME.  Make sure you read my comments and if you don’t understand them, you must ask!  Otherwise, you won’t learn or make improvements.

Participate in class.  Share what you are thinking.  Answer questions.  Contribute when assigned to a group project or discussion.  We are only together half the time, so you must take advantage of the time we spend together to listen and interact with your classmates and me.

Do the reading.  On off days, you must read AT LEAST 20 minutes a day.  You should also be reading on the days when we have class.  The more reading you do, the more your English will improve.

Since we are working in a hybrid model, you MUST make use of the blog.  Look at the blog every day.  I will post grammar lessons, assignments, due dates, suggestions, and reminders!  It is vital that you keep checking the blog. In the situation in which we find ourselves, you need to demonstrate initiative and self-discipline – good preparation for your life outside of high school!

 

Course components

“The Wars” – novel study – various assignments

We will begin our time together with a class novel.  We will read the novel together and discuss it as we go.  We will be looking at related poetry, current events and articles that relate to the theme of the book.   Short writing projects will be included.

“Hamlet” – group project

Much of our study of “Hamlet” will be group-oriented and will be based on performance, since Hamlet is a play!  This will be a chance to represent our ideas in ways that don’t necessarily depend on the written word.

Poetry project

You will be asked to find five poems that speak to a theme of your choice and explore how the poet addresses the theme.  You will write two poems in different styles that relate to your theme.

Short Story survey

We will read several stories written from a woman’s point of view and then you will be asked to write a short story yourself.

Reading logs and book report

You must read books of your own choosing and respond to them in your reading log.  You will be asked to present an oral book report on a book of your choice.

Class participation and ongoing writing

One way we learn is by listening to others and speaking about our own ideas.  We will also do short assignments throughout the quarter to hone our skills as writers and presenters.

 

The marks will be assigned in this manner:

Reading and writing (including reading logs, discussions of all course material, final tests on The Wars and “Hamlet”, essay writing, grammar lessons) - 30%

Speaking and listening (including question of the day, book report, group work on “Hamlet”, debating, scene study of play and stories) – 30%

Viewing and presenting (including performances of scenes and themes from Hamlet, illustrations of poetry and novels, impressions of filmed content) – 30%

Class participation – 10%

 

Maybe suddenly,

I was frightened, knowing that the classroom

with chalk, globes, books, and blackboard, maps and desks

was floating out to sea, ungraspable;

and I was left, as the man had said,

with life as a war

and the world

            an exploding time bomb

                                                in my hands.

                                                            “Graduation Evening” by Elizabeth Brewster

I hope this helps you all see where we're going in the course.  It is a challenge to do all of this work in such a short time period, but it is also helpful that we are together every other day to touch base (I didn't like online learning as much -- it seemed so clinical to do everything online).  If you do everything to the best of your ability, you will achieve success!