Syllabus

In this language arts course, we will study the literary and artistic story of this country in which we live—the United States of America. The essential questions that will guide our exploration are the following:

• What is the “American Dream,” and is it reality or mythology?
• What does it mean to be an American or to live an American life? Is it something unique in the world?
• What characterizes American literature, and what does it tell us about our culture?

By the end of the course, you must propose informed and reasoned answers to these challenging questions. Your primary tool for this task is your ability to think critically. Above all, this is a course on critical thinking, in which you will develop and hone the higher order thinking skills necessary for successful college work. Specifically, that means you will be able to:

• form questions to guide inquiry
• search for and identify relevant evidence
• test (and retest) hypotheses
• weigh (often conflicting) evidence
• consider multiple perspectives and recognize their underlying assumptions
• notice patterns, make connections, and find meaning beyond an author’s intent
• form reasoned judgments
• communicate and defend your judgments

Academic Skills Goals

By the end of the course, you must demonstrate the ability to:

• Write organized, economical, and polished prose that follows the conventions of academic English and meets the expectations of your audience
• Write a literary/textual analysis, drawing valid connections between two or more texts in order to support a larger claim
• Interpret literary texts through the lens of their historical context
• Write a large-scale, college-ready research paper, supporting a thesis with multiple sources
• Recognize and interpret figurative language and metaphorical ideas
• Contribute valuable questions and commentary in seminar discussion
• Orally defend a thesis

Knowledge Goals

By the end of the course, you must demonstrate your knowledge or understanding of:

• the development of American literature from the colonial period to the twentieth century
• important American writers, their key works, and their influence on and reflection of American culture

Assessment

According to the Envision-wide assessment rubric, your course grade is based on your performance across five areas: Mastery of Knowledge, Application of Knowledge, Metacognition, Leadership Skills, and College Work Habits.

Mastery of Knowledge

While language arts focuses more on application of skills than mastery of content knowledge, you are assessed on literary content knowledge at regular intervals, mostly within the context of midterm and semester exams. It is important that you keep up with reading assignments.

Application of Knowledge

This category, which assesses your reading, thinking and writing skills, is the most important for your language arts grade and is based on the quality of your essay writing, specifically:

• Graduation portfolio submissions—literary analyses and research papers
  Writing literary analyses and will be a routine throughout the year. In addition you will write a research paper each semester: one for history and one for science. Your performance on these papers will play a the biggest role in your language arts grade. At the end of the year, you will choose your best example from each category for submission to your graduation portfolio.
• American author paper
  In the first semester, you will choose one American author on which to specialize. Independently, you will read at least three major works by the author and at least one biography on the author. Your final paper, due at the end of the year, will combine your biographical research with literary analysis.
• Moving Voices narrative
  One of the major writing assignments of the first semester is an imaginative first-person narrative based on historical research of your family’s history.

Important Note: Major writing assignments are numbered sequentially through the year. Any assignment that has such a number attached to it is mandatory for passing the course; if any one is missing or incomplete at the end of a term, your course grade will stand as an NC (No Credit) until the work is submitted.

Metacognition

Improvement over time and thoughtful reflection on the learning progress is rewarded within this part of your grade. Throughout the year, you will be maintaining various learning journals, both written and electronic, whose consistency and quality will indicate your performance in this area.

Leadership Skills

During the year, you will practice and be assessed on all six of the MSAT leadership skills, but two in particular will be an ongoing focus in this course: Thinking Critically, and Communicating Effectively and Persuasively.

Rubrics will specify how you can demonstrate development of these skills. You will be accountable for tracking your own performance in these areas, and you will self-assess at the end of each marking period.

Work Skills

This course does not deliver content; this course provides the space for you to create and exchange ideas. The level of critical thinking required for success in this course is only possible if you embrace a routine of reading, writing, and thinking deeply on a daily basis, both in and out of class. Discipline of mind depends upon discipline of work habits.

Come to class prepared, having completed the reading and writing asked of you, and ready to exchange ideas. You will earn a work skills grade based on your preparedness, your participation, your attendance, your punctuality, and your observance of due dates. As with leadership skills, you will be accountable for tracking your own performance in these areas, and you will self-assess at the end of each marking period.

Literature

You will read novels, poems, short stories, and essays that explore the themes and illuminate the historical contexts as we study them. The following reading list is not definitive, but may include the following:

• The Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
• In Country by Bobbie Ann Mason
• Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin
• Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
• Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Passing by Nella Larsen
• Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie

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Posted by Justin Wells : 09/09/2007