Course Description

Textbook: The Language of Literature, 10^th Grade Edition (Blue Textbook)

The purpose of this course is to develop each student’s English Language Arts skills to the point that they gain proficiency or mastery of the Common Core State Standards.  The skills and materials covered in this class will address common academic deficiencies or weaknesses and improve each student’s performance in future English classes and on assessments such as the SBAC.  Academic writing skills will be the primary focus of this class.  The goals of this course are to recover credits and to instill each student with the necessary thinking, writing, and communicating skills that are needed to succeed in all academic and professional environments.

Instructional activities will vary and will be tailored to the needs of each student.  We will begin each session with a composition entry that is designed to get students to think about and respond to famous quotations that deal with the subjects and themes that we will be examining in this class.  We will read the standard materials from the English curriculum and students will do various writing activities that are designed to help them become better writers and thinkers.  Some of the assignments students will do are vocabulary boxes, figurative language boxes, class discussions, group projects, individual projects, role-playing, short responses, essays, and creative writing.

Classroom instruction will be a mixture of lectures, reading, discussion, independent work, and group work.  The goal is for all students enrolled in my class to reach proficiency or mastery in the subject matter.  We will be using Schoology in the classroom.

Homework will be assigned at least two (2) nights a week.  All homework is designed to reinforce the classroom lesson.  Students will always be prepared to do the homework assignments.  They will always know exactly what is expected of them in order to complete each assignment independently. 

Quizzes will be given periodically to monitor progress.  Quizzes will be of the open-notes variety.  Only materials covered this summer will be on quizzes and tests.

All assignments will be evaluated, corrected, and returned in a timely manner.  Students are expected to apply all recommendations and corrections to future assignments.  Careless errors that are repeated are unacceptable.  Most assignments are worth 4 points each.  All coursework must be completed in a thoughtful and precise way, while demonstrating an understanding and mastery of the skills and concepts that we are working on in class.  All work must be submitted on-time and must be completed with the utmost effort and consideration in order to receive the highest grade.  Assignments that do not meet the minimum standards can be reattempted for a higher grade (reattempting assignments does not automatically guarantee a higher grade).   

It is mandatory that students bring their textbook to class everyday.  Students that do not comply with this mandate will have their parents called and a parent meeting will be scheduled.  Do not take this class for granted.  Summer school is a privilege and should be treated as such.