English 9
Course Overview & Expectations
Overview
English 9, in reality, is two courses that initially run parallel but separate of each other. They eventually dovetail into a course that stresses the development of critical reading, thinking and writing skills.
One aspect of English 9 is the study and proper use of the English language involving a comprehensive study of grammar, vocabulary and the mechanics of essay writing. Grammar is presented with the goal of teaching the boys how to manipulate sentences in order to articulate their thoughts as accurately and concisely as possible. By understanding the structure of English, the students will also develop the self-confidence to revise and edit their own work; therefore, the use of a word processor is essential
Various types of writing will be studied, but emphasis is placed on the expository essay which asks the student to formulate and support a thesis statement.
The reading stresses the presentation of male role models in a overt attempt to help the boys define their role in society. The students will study the concepts of honor and shame and proper and improper behavior as they are helped to understand what society traditionally values in a man. An effort is made to make the actions of Beowulf, Sir Gawain, Prince Hal, Henry Fleming, Roy Hobbs, and Holden Caufield relevant to the personal lives of each of the boys.
Works Studied Other Texts Used
Beowulf
Holt Handbook, Third Course
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Holt Langauge & Sentence Skill WB
The Natural
Henry IV Part I
The Red Badge of Courage
The Catcher in The Rye
1984
Lord of the Flies
General Expectations for Students
Students in Brunswick’s English 9 are expected to be in class on time with all the necessary materials. They are expected to do the assigned homework, which includes the annotation of their texts, in a conscientious and timely manner.
Homework
During any given academic week, homework will consist of reading, grammar, vocabulary and written assignments based upon the literature. Homework assignments will take approximately 40 minutes per night, but how long any particular assignment takes will be largely determined by the individual student. Over weekends students will usually be asked to produce 2-4 page word-processed papers based on the week’s reading assignments. Assignments for long weekends and major holidays may consist of reading, generally wll not include any writing.
Weekly assignment sheets will be posted on the websites of the various English 9 teachers. The address for the English Department home page is:
../english
Weekend Essays
Weekend essays will be 2-4 word-processed papers that require a student to generate original thoughts and interpretations. Lecture notes will provide a basis and a direction for these essays, but the student should clearly understand that he is to incorporate his own thoughts into the paper. The essays will generally be less than two pages early in the year and will become progressively longer as the student grows intellectually and gains command over more sophisticated essay structures.
Grades for these essays are determined by the student’s command of the topic, his depth of understanding and clarity and conciseness of his writing which includes the clarity and strength of sentence, paragraph and essay structure and the proper use of language.
Essays should be word-processed. "Hard" copies will be submitted in class; students must also provide electronic copies of their essays. Essays should be double-spaced with the student’s name and the current date in the upper left-hand corner. Essays should always be titled. The use of spell-checkers and grammar checkers is encouraged.
Presentations
Students will frequently be asked to produce
"presentations" and be discussion facilitators. These presentations
will be of equal value to an essay grade; therefore, their preparation should be
taken seriously. Guidelines for preparing presentations and facilitating
discussions may be viewed by following this link: Presentation
Guidelines
Lateness Policy
Essays and other homework assignments are due in class on the day they are assigned. If an assignment is not submitted in class, it will be considered late and will be penalized 5% per day. A student may seek an extension by asking for one before the assignment is due. However, we reserve the right to refuse an extension if we feel the reason for the request is not legitimate or if the student has abused the extension policy previously. With the increasing use of technology, it should be remembered that students are still responsible for submitting their work on time.
Make-Up Work
If a student is out of school with an illness the day an essay is due, that essay will be due when the student returns to school on the theory that an essay is a long-term assignment, and the student should have been constructing it before the one-day illness.
A student who misses school on the day of a test will be given two days to make-up the test. It is the responsibility of the student to schedule the test with the teacher.
Failure to take a test or submit a paper within the given period of time will result in a 5% per/day penalty. Deadlines following lengthier illnesses will be negotiated on an individual basis.
Essay Rewrites
A student may rewrite an essay after having a writing conference. This conference is to ensure that the rewritten essay will be of suitable quality and worth the time and effort required to earn a new grade. Rewritten papers submitted without consultation will not be accepted. The student will have ten class days to submit a rewritten paper.
Extra Help
Individual attention is available in two ways. A student may "drop-in" to the English Office during free time, or he may schedule a conference. Extra-help may be obtained from any member of the English Department.
Academic Honesty
Reading great literature and struggling with the weighty ideas contained in that literature has bought joy, fulfillment and confidence to people for centuries. Not surprisingly, the Brunswick School English Department is committed to the idea that students should learn to read and enjoy great works of literature and should then learn to articulate in clear, concise writing the thoughts inspired by that literature. The thoughts the students generate, however, should be their own, derived from the works read and the guidance provided by the English instructors. The thoughts presented in their written work should not be regurgitated thoughts culled from external sources such as Cliff’s Notes, Sparknotes, or any of the numerous sites devoted to providing students with ready-made essays.
Because students are unfairly tempted to plagiarize, the unacknowledged use of someone’s else’s work in place of one’s own , by taking whole essays, parts of essay, or merely bits of sentences from the websites they find, Brunswick is now subscribing to an online service that will check the authenticity of students’ written work either whole or in part. All essays submitted to us will be checked by this service, developed by a group of professors at The University of California at Berkeley, . Initially this may sound like an extreme solution, but further deliberation should bring students and parents to the realization that the pressure to plagiarize in the quest for higher grades has been lifted. The Brunswick English Department has always preferred that students learn to think for themselves and learn to articulate their thoughts in original form rather than merely regurgitating the thoughts of others. The adoption of the new technology merely reinforces the preexisting policy.
Students who wish to use outside sources to assist them in writing papers must cite those sources, and any member of the English Department will gladly provide assistance in doing so. Failure to cite a source will be considered plagiarism. Any assignment found to be plagiarized will receive a zero and the student will be required to rewrite the essay. The maximum grade for the rewritten essay will be a 50. The student will also face serious official sanctions from Brunswick or Greenwich Academy.
The same sort of standards that apply to the construction of essays also applies to daily assignments. Any homework of any sort that is handed in under a student’s own name must in fact be work produced by the student, not through collaboration with other students; some assignments may ask students to work in a group, but such projects will be clearly delineated as such. Any homework submitted that is not clearly collaborative in nature must be original. We would like students to learn in to take pride in doing their best on any given assignment. Parents are always welcome to assist their sons and daughters in doing homework, but help should be rendered with the understanding that homework is an opportunity for students to strengthen their knowledge; homework is not something that is merely to be completed.
The Brunswick English Department takes very seriously the issue of academic integrity, and we hope our strong stand on this issue will help students avoid succumbing to the powerful temptations with which they are presented.