Literature & Composition IV
Course Syllabus
Instructor: Jeffrey Arrowood
E-mail: arrowoodj@mfldacs.net
Web Sites:
http://cchsmoraltheology.blogspot.com for daily class journal
http://www.schoolnotes.com/54449/arrowood.html for weekly homework schedule
Course Description
This course is a culmination of the skills that students have been developing in the previous three years of high school. Students will apply what they have learned about critical and analytical thinking to great works of literature in order to dialogue about some of the most important ideas of Western culture. Students will use the oral and written communication skills they have been developing up to now in order to clearly convey their thoughts on the literature and about these ideas. Individual help will be given to each student on writing and grammar in order to pinpoint specific strengths and weaknesses in their abilities. Students will be expected by their senior year to be able to comprehend what they read and to find meaning in it. They should be able to dialogue with literature and share ideas on a mature intellectual level. They should also be able to express these ideas clearly, concisely, accurately, deeply, logically, and in a way that is relevant to their lives.
Materials Needed
- 3-Ring binder
- Loose leaf paper
- Pen
- Textbook Junior Great Books Series 9 (provided or available for purchase)
- Novels: classroom sets of all novels required for this class will be available, but students may also purchase them.
Key Concepts of the Course
While familiarity with literature is an important part of growing in cultural wisdom, rote knowledge of literature is not the focus of this course. Rather, the goal of this course is to teach you how to think about literature. Literature plays an important role in our culture because it expresses the most important ideas of human nature. These ideas are worthy of thought and reflection. To enter into a dialogue with the authors of great literature exercises our intellect in the search for what is true, good and beautiful.
Furthermore, thinking about these great ideas exercises your free will. People who think deeply and carefully do not just passively absorb what is on television, in the movies, or in entertainment literature. They examine their life philosophies and ideas so that they do not unconsciously absorb the philosophies and ideas of those around them. As a result, they do not become products of forces they do not choose. They make up their own minds about what to think and who to become.
A good place to start is to take charge of the ideas that you have about literature. Learn to think consciously, deliberately, and skillfully about the ideas you find in literature. This process can help you to remake your own mind and to understand its inner workings, to take control so that you can make it healthy and fit and fine-tuned.
Whenever you are doing a task in or for this class, ask yourself, “would an independent observer watching me closely conclude that I am engaged in taking charge of my mind, or my ideas about literature, or would such a person conclude that I am merely going through the motions of doing an assignment, trying to succeed by rote memorization?”
General Course Plan
This class will focus on practice, not on lecture. It will emphasize your figuring out things about the literature we read using your own mind, not memorizing characters, plot, and setting even though you will be held accountable for these elements of each story assigned to you. A typical reading assignment will follow the following pattern:
- Each literary piece will usually be divided into a series of reading assignments except for the shorter pieces.
- Quiz on the objective elements of each reading assignment
- As you read each literary piece, you will record definitions and examples of literary terms, interpretive questions for discussion and deeper thinking about the ideas in the literary piece, and a record of new vocabulary terms and their definitions.
- We will discuss comprehension questions and make sure that everyone understands the selection being discussed.
- We will discuss the interpretive questions for the selection being discussed.
- You will periodically be asked to answer interpretive questions in writing. You may also be asked occasionally to read a short literary selection in class and write interpretively about it.
- We will discuss one or two key interpretive ideas I will introduce to the class for the entire literary piece
- At the end of a literary piece you will take a test on cultural and biographical information, on literary terms, and on key interpretive concepts
Course Goals, Objectives, and Assessments
Goal 1: Students will describe the key functions of the various elements that make up fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama (ex. Narrative point of view, figurative language, etc.)
Objective 1: Students will memorize the definitions of important literary terms from a provided list for each literary piece studied.
Objective 2: Students will identify examples of each literary device and reflect on its effect on the piece of literature being studied.
Assessment: quizzes, tests, essays, participation, worksheets
Goal 2: Students will read literary works both critically and reflectively through application of the elements described above and through the “shared inquiry” process
Objective 1: Students will be able to formulate interpretive questions about a text.
Objective 2: Students will be able to use interpretive questions to analyze and interpret literary texts.
Objective 3: Students will be able to compare and contrast literary texts
Objective 4: Students will be able to articulate and defend their responses to literary works
Objective 5: Students will grow in proficiency of the intellectual standards in their interaction with each other and with the teacher about literary texts
Assessment: shared inquiry reading journals, participation, essays, presentations, informal writing activities, informal interpretive activities
Goal 3: Students will formulate and defend a thesis statement about a literary work through close textual analysis
Objective 1: Students will be able to apply and expand on the “shared inquiry” method in order to formulate a thesis to explore in writing and to begin to defend it
Objective 2: Students will defend their thesis and minor claims using significant and relevant textual evidence, methods of critical analysis, and literary terms
Objective 3: Students will show a mastery of intellectual standards in their writing
Goal 4: Students will gain appreciation for literature as an aesthetic form and as an expression of the human condition
Objective 1: Students will learn that there are greater reasons for reading literature than entertainment as it is understood in modern culture
Objective 2: Students will gain a greater appreciation for the aesthetic beauty of well-crafted literature
Objective 3: Students will explore themes in literature that explore the great questions of the human condition, and enter into a dialogue with the authors regarding these themes
Assessment: Attitude objectives are not graded, however they are informally assessed through participation and informal activities
Goal 5: Students will learn how to reason clearly and completely
Objective 1: Students will learn intellectual standards and intellectual virtues
Objective 2: Students will apply intellectual standards and intellectual virtues to their own thinking process
Objective 3: Students will apply intellectual standards and intellectual virtues to the thinking process of others
Assessment: essays, in-class activities
Grading Policy
Grades will be figured based on a points system (not by weighted categories). The points students earn will be divided by the total points possible for a grading period. Since this course is designed to be flexible and guided by student progress and interest, the total points possible will be variable. Graded assignments will include the following:
- Quizzes will be given on most reading assignments. Their purpose is to train you to become careful and skilled readers. They focus on the details of the reading, not because the details are necessary for you to memorize, but because being aware of the details of a literary piece is necessary for supporting your own ideas and theses about it. Most quizzes will be worth 10-25 points, depending on the literary piece being studied. If students are absent, they may make up quizzes only if their absence is excused. Students are responsible for seeing me for make-up quizzes, and must do so within a week after their return to school. Failure to do so will result in a zero for that quiz.
- Writing Assignments: If you want to learn how to think well, you need to learn how to write well. Students will be asked to perform a number of writing assignments throughout the year. These assignments will be graded according to a graduated rubric. This rubric grades the various elements of an essay at five different skill levels. Students progress to higher skill levels individually as they master each element of essay writing. This allows me to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each student and to offer individualized instruction. Essays are worth 100 points.
- Participation is very important in this class, and is in fact the main activity of this class. You should consider it your opportunity to enter more deeply into the ideas presented in class. I will keep track of each person’s in-class participation and award points based on my observations and student self-assessment. Participation will be assessed according to how well it shows mastery of course goals and objectives. Participation is worth 25 points per quarter. Participation means:
- Coming to class prepared with your binder, pen, loose leaf paper, and correction fluid ready.
- Completing all of the homework. It is very difficult to pass this class if you do not read!
- Active, skilled participation means sharing thoughts, ideas, and questions that are well thought out and that meet the intellectual standards. There will be many opportunities – it’s the way I teach! If you don’t participate, the class does not move forward. Just remember – you could be listening to one of my boring lectures instead of having a discussion!
- Taking advantage of participation alternatives, such as e-mailing comments to me or commenting on the blog, keeping a journal of your thoughts and periodically handing it in, discussing your questions with me one-on-one, etc.
- Semester exams will be worth 150 points each. You will be given a short piece of literature to analyze and interpret. You will be asked questions about the literature that will test your ability to understand the author’s purpose and ideas, and also to find meaning in the text through interpretive skills.
- Interpretive activities will be worth 10-20 points each. These are short writing assignments, either on the literary piece being discussed or as in-class interpretive assignments on short literary pieces read in class.
- Self-evaluations will be worth 50 points each quarter. You will “make a case” for receiving a particular grade using criteria provided in class and citing evidence from your work across the semester. Your self-evaluations will not determine your quarter grade. Rather, you will be graded on how well you defend your case.
Grading Expectations: Intellectual Standards
- Clarity: When you write something that cannot be interpreted or understood by your reader so that they clearly recognize the ideas you are trying to communicate, you demonstrate that you are writing, and presumably thinking, in a vague way. You should therefore strive to write so that you make clear precisely what you mean.
- Precision: When you write sentences or use terms that can be interpreted in many different ways and you do not make clear which meaning you intend, you demonstrate that you are writing, and presumably thinking, in a vague way. You should therefore define key terms and concepts so their specific meanings are clear.
- Accuracy: When you do not give concrete examples and illustrations to support your thesis and minor claims, you demonstrate that you do not know how to develop and bolster your ideas. You should therefore give examples and illustrations to strengthen your arguments.
- Relevance: When you fail to explicitly show how your thesis and minor claims follow from specific elements in the literary selection, you demonstrate that you may not be truly interpreting the literature, but may instead be “free thinking” or misunderstanding the literature. You should therefore make the connection between your ideas and the literature explicitly known.
- Significance: When you do not focus on the most important concepts or evidences in a literary selection, you demonstrate that you do not understand the ideas that made the literary piece important to our culture, and are therefore not reflecting on these ideas. You should therefore identify and think about the most important universal ideas being considered by the literature rather than getting lost in the specific details or less important ideas.
- Logic: When you fail to make the connection between your minor premises, or between your minor premises and your thesis, you show that you do not understand your own argument and are unable to defend it. You should therefore make sure that you are explicitly showing how your argument is built and how the parts of the argument fit together to support your thesis.
- Breadth: When you fail to acknowledge other possible ways of looking at your thesis, or possible contradictions to your arguments, you show that you do not fully understand the idea you are reflecting on. You should therefore consider and analyze all ways to see your thesis and arguments against it.
- Depth: When you fail to consider the complexity of the idea you are reflecting on, you reveal that you do not fully understand it. You should therefore think carefully and completely about the idea and consider all aspects of it.
Extra Credit Options
Limited extra credit is available. It is especially intended for those who are struggling to maintain their desired grade, but who are putting forth good effort. Students who do not do the required work will be allowed to turn in extra credit only after they have shown a pattern of improvement in meeting their class duties. The following options are the only extra credit options available.
- Students may read a novel or a series of shorter works that we will not cover in the course. The selection must be of high literary merit, and must be approved by me. Students may either keep a reading log or discuss the works with me after school.
- Once students receive a grade for a writing assignment, they may choose to do one revision for each assignment to attempt a higher grade. The student will be given whichever grade is higher.
Teacher obligations for this class
- To know the subject material and prepare handouts and lectures that will help students understand that material
- To organize the course in a meaningful way so that knowledge builds over the semester leading to an increased sophistication and sensibility
- To consider student concerns regarding time management when assigning reading and constructing requirements for the class
- To guide classroom discussion so that each student has an opportunity to participate, and to welcome student participation with respect for all students as learners and persons
- To grade fairly and to meet with students in conference to answer questions about grading or instructor comments on papers
Student obligations for this class
- To read and agree to the Advanced Placement Literature Student Contract
- To read all assigned material and come to class prepared to discuss that material
- To participate in all class activities. This includes being attentive when other students are speaking or making oral presentations
- To complete all assignments on time, and to provide drafts and revisions of assignments as requested by the instructor
- To respect all members of the class as learners, teachers, and as persons. To enter into respectful reasoned discourse in response to disagreements. As Christians, we are called to treat each other with dignity and charity. Common courtesy, awareness of each other’s needs, caring communication, and observance of the safety and comfort of those around us are all part of this call.
- To enter fully into the learning process and to do your own work. Since the goal of this course is for you to become your own thinker, it is imperative that you do your own thinking and your own work. Essays need to be completely your own thought process. Plagiarism in part or in whole will result in a zero, not just a failure, for the paper. Suspected plagiarism that cannot be proven will be brought to the attention of the student, who will be given a chance to assert his or her thought process in dialogue with me. Quizzes and tests are meant to train you to become better readers, and must therefore be conquered through your skills in reading and thinking. Copying or cheating on these quizzes or tests will result in a zero, not just a failure, of the quiz or test. The same is true for any assignment given in the course of this class.
- To take pride in your work as a learner and scholar. Please type all assignments except informal in-class assignments. Please make all assignments neat and presentable before handing them in. Use only loose-leaf paper for collected assignments.
- If you are absent, the best way to make up what was missed is by checking the daily journal Internet site and the weekly homework schedule. All necessary notes and any discussions notes recorded for the day will appear there, along with homework assignments. If Internet is not available, request an assignment sheet from the office. You must take the initiative to make up missed work!
