English XI – Mr. Brennan

Block E - Room 24

 

 

 

The Course:

Welcome to American Literature!  Over the course of this year, we will be exploring the work of writers who helped to shape our relatively young country, America.  From the first writers who arrived here as colonists under the rule of the British throne to those who today still question our own government’s decisions, writers help to support, to call into question, and to defy the society in which they live. 

As we meander through the 200+ years of American Literature, we will also join in with a great deal of our own writing.  In-class writing assignments and out of class essays will provide opportunities for each student to engage in the greater dialogue between student, teacher, and the written word.  Needless to say, I do expect that each of you will also be actively involved in class discussions as well. 

 

SEMESTER I:                                                                                SEMESTER II:

SELECTIONS: VOICES OF AMERICA                                          THE GREAT GATSBY BY F. SCOTT FITZGERALD                 

THE SHORT STORIES OF NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE               THE LOVE SONG OF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK BY T.S. ELIOT

THE SHORT STORIES OF EDGAR ALLAN POE                          AS I LAY DYING BY WILLIAM FALUKNER

POETRY OF ANNE BRADSTREET                                                POETRY OF ROBERT FROST

SELECTIONS FROM RALPH WALDO EMERSON                      A LESSON BEFORE DYING BY ERNEST GAINES

WALDEN (SELECTIONS) & CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE BY THOREAU                 POETRY OF LANGSTON HUGHES

INTO THE WILD BY JOHN KRAKAUER                                     A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

POETRY OF WALT WHITMAN                                                    THE THINGS THEY CARRIED BY TIM O'BRIEN

THE AWAKENING BY KATE CHOPIN                                      

POETRY OF EMILY DICKINSON

MAGGIE AND SHORT STORIES BY STEPHEN CRANE

Homework

            All homework, reading and written, needs to be completed by the beginning of class.  Students will be held accountable for the material with announced and unannounced quizzes.

Essays

            Essays will usually be between three and five pages in length, and students will be given ample time to complete the work.  Essays must follow the guidelines outlined in the English Department Stylesheet 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, I reserve the right to refuse an extension if I feel the reason for the request is not legitimate or if the student has a history of abusing the extension policy.

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 must make up the test the next day. 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 a weekend 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.

Extra Help

            Individual attention is available in two ways. A student may “drop-in” to the Deans' Office during free time, or 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.

How to reach me

            I teach in either room 24 or room 27; you can find me during free periods in the Deans' Office; I check email and voicemail regularly; lastly, you can try me at home, but do not call after 9:30 PM.