IB ENGLISH LITERATURE HL 1 SYLLABUS 2016-2017 msolano@rowlandschools.org solanosclass@yahoo.com Martha Solano M205 626-965-3437 Ext. 3775 The CURRICULUM is designed to prepare students for the International Baccalaureate examinations. Success in passing these academically challenging tests usually results in college credit. Note: the required IB Literature exam is given in the spring at an approximate cost of $95.00. (A family s income may qualify a student for greatly reduced fee.) The accelerated pace of the IB class is similar to a college-level freshman analytical English literature course. Students develop skills which allow them to read critically, to write analytically, and to participate actively in daily class discussions, debates, and oral presentations. Objectives of this course are to prepare students for the IB examinations, to promote a greater appreciation of works of literary merit, and to assist students in enriching their writing and communication styles. A strict Honors policy prohibiting the use of another source as one s own will be enforced. Violation of this policy in the program could result in expulsion from the AP/IB program. WORKS STUDIED: Genre/Century Perfume Patrick Suskind Work in Translation (German) / 20th Therese Raquin Emile Zola Work in Translation (French) / 19th Chronicle of a Death Foretold Gabriel Garcia Marquez Work in Translation (Spanish) / 20th Poetry Selections Sound and Sense Perrine and Arp Poetry /16th - 20th Moby Dick Herman Melville Novel - American / 19 th Frankenstein Mary Shelley Novel - British / 19 th Maus 1 & II Art Spiegelman Graphic Novel - American / 19th Other Works explored in total or in part by students may include: Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Short One Act Plays by Albee and Valdez, Selection of Short Stories (Perrine), Edith Hamilton s Mythology and the initial chapter of The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy ( The Bible ). In considering our IB curriculum and literary works, it is important to note: Our high school embraces the two year Higher Level IB English (International Baccalaureate) program as pat of the Full IB Diploma Program taught during the senior year thereby providing a broad range of works from a variety of genres spanning British, American, and World Literature from the ancient world (Classical Greece), and including but not restricted to the 16 th century to the present. Junior students benefit from a rich foundation of IB and AP caliber literary works which will be enhanced with the study of the following works their senior year in IB English Literature HL 2: Part II Works (In preparation for the Individual Oral Commentary): Gulliver s Travels Part I and A Modest Proposal (Jonathan Swift) 1
The Selected Poetry of John Donne (John Donne) Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) Part III Works (Genre Study: Drama, in preparation for the May Examinations) Hamlet (William Shakespeare) Pygmalion (George Bernard Shaw) Dr. Faustus (Christopher Marlowe) The Glass Menagerie (Tennessee Williams) OTHER SOURCES consulted or employed in the course: Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms - Baldick MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers - Gibaldi Sound and Sense - Perrine and Arp Greek Mythology - Edith Hamilton The Bible Depth vs. Breadth: During this course, students will study intensively, getting to know intimately a few representative works from several genres and periods, worthy of scrutiny for their complexity and richness in thought and language. Students are expected to fully immerse themselves in the beauty and depth of literature, discovering the answer to that perplexing question: Why do people read? Writing: As students begin to understand and appreciate an author s craft, they will focus on writing clearly and concisely while refining skills through avenues such as response papers, dialectical journals, free-writing and Reader Response Notebooks, to name a few. Writing is thinking; I want my students to do a lot of thinking. Therefore, students will have many opportunities through several modes of discourse to become more articulate users of language. Students will not only have the opportunity to write papers outside of class, including creative opportunities through a multimodality approach, but in addition to analysis papers, the students will write journal entries, write letters that will heighten their understanding of rhetorical forms, and they will write a research paper in preparation for college. Students will also be expected to write timed analysis papers in class in preparation for the IB Exam. Most importantly, students will be taught the four critical elements of analysis: identify the section of prose or poetry, identify the literary device being discussed, incorporate evidence from the text (smoothly inserted quotations) and include commentary that clearly and insightfully explains how the evidence works to illustrate the 2
IB ENGLISH LITERATURE HL 1 SYLLABUS 2016-2017 author s purpose. Such assignments will afford the students the opportunity to learn the value of revising and editing (the writing process). Conferences with the teacher are a must throughout the course for a complete individualized program. Vocabulary: Students will be encouraged to build their vocabulary by keeping logs of words they read in the novels, etc. so that they appreciate the word choice of others in an attempt to enhance their own. Students will also create personal thesauruses of words that they can use to substitute in their papers for a more sophisticated read. Students will be expected to glean vocabulary from the various texts and create their own vocabulary flip file index. As a learning community, we will together create vocabulary quizzes as well as other forms of assessments to enhance their diction. Vocabulary handouts include: college level lists from individual literary works studied in context, lists of academic language, literary terms lists, and lists of writing skill words such as transition words or rhetorical devices. Grammar is taught extensively in the first year (junior) of the IB higher level English program and reviewed in the second year (senior) Book Records: Students will create Book Records on index cards after each text that they read, including independent reading texts. Students will maintain the file in alphabetical order by author, and use these as a flashcard review system to prepare for the IB test. Model: STUDENT NAME AND CLASS PERIOD A PICTURE /CLIP ART CARD # TITLE & AUTHOR (date born-date died/where lived) publication date of work [original, not current edition] SIGNIFICANCE OF TITLE: GENRE (Literary Form) and Sub-Genres: LITERARY MOVEMENT: SETTING: (place/time/atmosphere) MAJOR CHARACTERS: [with brief descriptions] [identify Protagonist and Antagonist] PLOT SYNOPSIS: [Provide the Exposition, Major Conflicts, Climax, and Resolution] THEME (DOMINATING): [in one declarative sentence] THEME TOPICS: [List 4] Major SYMBOLS, Motifs (Patterns of Symbols): ALLUSION(S): 3
DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS of the work: Three (3) QUOTATIONS that represent the work as a whole: LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY: [Identify the chosen theory and then write a question about the work applying this theory.) POSSIBLE RESEARCH QUESTION: [Make sure that it has three layers color code/identify them.] WORKS CITED: [Include the work itself, pictures, and scholarly sources.] Independent Reading: Students should read approximately 1,500-2,000 pages independently per semester. Students will read the works critically in preparation for the Written Assignment (Part I Works) and the Individual Oral Presentation (Part IV Works). Students must select one book analyses from each part for their respective IB assessment. The Written Assignment Process Stage 1: The Interactive Oral At least one interactive oral must be conducted for each work studied. Each student should have some specific role in one of the orals (across all the works studied). The prompts that students work with must require them to probe into the cultural and contextual underpinnings of the work and to consider how these considerations affect their understanding of the work. The orals ideally should be an integral part of teaching the work, not an artificial add-on. The following suggestions show the range of possible types of interactive orals. In all cases it is advisable to ensure the prompts (or stimulus for discussion) have a tight focus that relates directly to a specific part of the work. During the course of one lesson, several students could introduce a problem they have in understanding the culture or the context, with the class and the teacher discussing each issue raised. Students could introduce the discussion, adopting the teacher s role for lessons on the work, and lead the class discussion. Students, either individually or working in groups, could choose a clip of a film or other visual medium and lead a discussion on how it may deepen understanding of culture or context. Stage 2: The Reflective Statement It must be written as soon as possible following the interactive oral. It is advisable for students to take notes during the interactive oral discussion to assist them in writing the reflective statement. Each student must write one reflective statement on each work studied. Where there is more than one interactive oral on a work, which is likely, writing on each interactive oral is advised, but optional. Students must know that the reflective statement on the work on which the essay is written will be assessed, along with the essay. There is one guiding question for the reflective statement, which is: How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work developed through the interactive oral? Context refers to all possible contexts. It is intended to embrace the cultural underpinnings of the works by looking at specifics such as: the time and place in which the work was written information about the author (particularly as it relates to the way in which the author s ideas as presented in the work do, or do not, accord with situations in the contemporary society) philosophical, political and social contexts ideas that the students themselves bring to the work. 4
Developed is the other key word in the question. It is a personal statement that is most likely to be written in the first person, and should be an honest account of the evolution of understanding. If the student feels that they have not really learned anything, then they should reflect on what they still do not understand. The aim is to ensure the focus of discussion is sufficiently challenging so that students will be stimulated to think more deeply about some aspect of the work. The criterion by which students are assessed uses the same words as the question on which the reflective statement is based. If they answer this honestly and fully, then they should be able to achieve the three points. Stage 3: Supervised Writing At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher should provide three or four prompts for the work studied. The students must not have seen these prompts prior to the lesson. Supervised writing is intended to stimulate independent thinking and choice of topic. It must be in continuous prose. However, the format is not prescribed it could be journal writing, or it may be more like a draft. At this stage, it is no longer important to consider the cultural or contextual elements of the work. The students complete three pieces of supervised writing and their essay topic must be generated by one of them. The link between the final choice of title and the supervised writing does not have to be direct, but there must be a recognizable germ of an idea that can be tracked. The Portfolio Assessment Folder: This is the official IB English Literature Work Folder. Again, conferences with the teacher are a must throughout the course for a complete individualized program. In this folder, students are to keep an organized collection of the following: Completed, not-yet-graded essays and writing (ready for collection at any time) Graded essays, including the 40 minute timed responses Rx work Book Records Outside Book Analyses modeled after the AP examination with prompts created by the students Works in progress (Writing Process) IB ENGLISH LITERATURE HL 1 SYLLABUS 2016-2017 The Website: Teachers have access to their own Teacher created Webpages, the soon to be adopted District LMS: Schoology, and Edmodo or Google Classroom. In considering our IB curriculum and literary works, it is important to note: Other Handouts may include a variety of topics such as archetypes, sample examples of literary terms and analytical techniques, outlines, rubrics, debate formats, dialectical journaling, etc. Supplements to core literature: DVDs of dramatized plays such as Macbeth and Hamlet have proven beneficial when presented with strategic pauses to allow for student/ teacher enrichment commentary. Poetry readings may also be presented effectively as models of the joy of reading poetry aloud and to enhance appreciation for the poet s use of such traits as alliteration, assonance, repetition, etc. Attendance at live play productions is encouraged and often part of the program, funds permitting. GRADING: Grades will be computed based on tests, quizzes, essays, homework, projects, research, and oral presentations. The students will be assessed using the IB Rubric and given a point value. The quarter/semester grade 5
will be based on short tests on readings (multiple choice modeled after the exam), writing (essays, journals, etc.), creative projects and activities (often collaborative), the IB Portfolio, and class participation. Class participation includes attendance, attentiveness, speaking, and showing a positive learning attitude. Student progress will also be posted at various intervals between school report cards so that students may closely monitor and assume ownership for their personal progress. Students are apprised of the grading scale by handout the first days of school. Numerical Average with IB Conversion: 90-100 = A (7,6) 80-89 = B (5,4) 70-79= C (3) 60-69= D (2) 0-59= F (1) Student Guidelines Regarding Absenteeism or late submission of work: To the Student: If you are absent the day an assignment is due, send it with a parent / trusted friend or Email it to me directly. (Always save a copy) Late assignments may be accepted under special circumstances but will usually receive a grade reduction, or in many cases, little or no credit. I would suggest that you secure the phone numbers/emails of several classmates from whom you can obtain notes and daily assignments so that work may be submitted when you reenter class---unless, of course, you ve been seriously ill. It is imperative that missed assignments, quizzes, and tests are promptly addressed. See teacher on the day of return to coordinate efforts. Any form of plagiarism, cheating, copying, or other violations of the Honor Code will not be tolerated (See school policies and honor code guidelines) SUMMER EXPECTATIONS--- All Junior IB students are required to do summer reading to facilitate full and timely accomplishment of the AP reading and writing requirements. All incoming IB juniors for the 2016-17 school year will receive a packet of information containing the syllabus, a contract requiring student and parent signatures, various AP/IB informational handouts including an IB composition rubric and other pertinent aids. A VIEW OF APPROACHES FOR OUR SCHOOL YEAR-- Please note: Works will be studied in depth, giving consideration to numerous areas of literary analysis using literary terms as applicable and investigating various rhetorical devices employed by authors to create meaning. Crosstextual discussion will be encouraged, that is, discussion of all works at anytime comparing one to another on the bases of literary elements such as theme, symbolism, allusion, focus, etc. Emphasis will be placed on DISCUSSION of the works as well as on written assessment. It is this teacher s contention that works cannot be understood, internalized, and written about unless and until they are discussed in a classroom environment allowing the free exchange of ideas. Since we span a two year IB program, students have been provided with a practice year of discussion and debate on the topic or work at hand. The classroom environment will be arranged to facilitate open discussion within the entire class, or in groups, or with some 6
IB ENGLISH LITERATURE HL 1 SYLLABUS 2016-2017 leadership by the teacher. Periodically the teacher needs to opt out of the discussion and allow it to run itself with strong students leading the class. The teacher s role further is to provide opportunities for the less articulate or less extroverted students to consistently contribute to class discussions. Various techniques will be applied. It is also this teacher s contention that students must be allowed to investigate risky or contrary opinions on the literary works and their meanings. Although the teacher must ask and guide with leading questions, those questions themselves should not entail an answer, a yes/no choice, or a perceived bias on teacher s part. Daily participation scores will be part of the student s grade. Participation takes a variety of forms: attendance, comments, group work, etc. Various other classroom learning monitoring activities such as group work, debates, role-playing, interactive and participatory games will be provided to help students internalize the meaning, effect, and intricacy of texts. Both presentations (individual or group) and debates may be used in the analysis of literary works and acquisition of skills. Such activities encourage and practice student confidence, creativity, and articulation of ideas. Memorization of significant passages will be required and tested. Usually students memorize and internalize key quotes or passages when practicing oral and written responses to IB or teacher-originated questions. A major emphasis will be placed upon the writing of essays that incorporate analytical and compositional skills as presented in an AP/IB rubric and take the form of timed written responses to practice IB exam questions, AP freeresponse questions and/or teacher formulated questions and extended essays on topics relevant to the respective literary work(s). Alongside IB rubrics will be presented model essays or essays for students to score once they have internalized the rubric. A goal of approximately 2-4 written responses will be required per month, dependent on other activities/ requirements. Students will also be assessed through quizzes and tests as dictated by teacher. INITIAL WEEK OF SCHOOL: During the first week of school, students will be notified of the requirements of both the AP and IB tests in May. Students will be provided with sample formats and questions of both tests. Requirements, grading policies, and the syllabus will be covered. Students will be encouraged to create a schedule/timeline to be completed as the year progresses. Students will also be asked to begin their college resumes and college application essays. All typed and revised papers will be required to be in MLA format. Students who have completed the junior year of IB have already experienced or mastered the MLA format for college papers through the execution of at least three major papers and revisions. IB candidates will revise their world literature papers in the first quarter of the school year. Additionally, students will be tested in some format on their summer reading (i.e. in 2016-2017 Mythology and Suskind s Perfume). Students will also be introduced to overarching topics/themes relevant to the literary works to be discussed and a general discussion of Why is the Study of Literature So Important? and what students hope to obtain through taking the class and IB tests. COURSE OUTLINE: Part 1: Works in Translation (in preparation for the Written Assignment, Reflective Statement and Interactive Oral Presentations) Discussion of Bildungsroman, morality, themes. AP Style Analysis: Tone, Style and language: Perfume. Crimes of the Heart: Therese Raquin and Chronicle of a Death Foretold 7
Various Poets Grammar review as needed Assignment of Written Assignment Papers Students will review literary elements, rhetorical and poetical devices, articulate a deeper understanding of the novel as genre, and begin analysis of style, along with timed writings of new and reviewed pieces of literature including narrative (prose) and poetry. Part 4: New Textualities (In preparation for the Individual Oral Presentations) Moby Dick: the Individual Revenge and the Nautical Novel Frankenstein: the Individual and the Pursuit of Knowledge Maus I & II: the Individual and the Pursuit of Knowledge Final Weeks: Shakespeare (or other writer): Sonnets other activity; Student self-reflective letter Office Hours/Tutoring (Prep Period 4): Monday - After-School By Appointment Friday 11:11-12:08pm or By Appointment 8