Course Syllabus
American Literature B - English 11-12

Description

This is the second course in a two-course sequence and has been redesigned to align to the Common Core Standards. Two major themes for this semester are “Becoming My Own Leader” and “Leading Others." Students will address several essential questions related to these themes while reading a variety of works by American authors. In addition to major works, students will read short stories and informational texts, engage in poetry analysis, view informational videos, and write for various purposes. Larger writing assignments include an argument essay, a narrative essay, and a business email. As a supplement to these assignments, students will partake in grammar challenges where they learn about grammar concepts and develop a mastery of their use. In addition to building their writing skills, students learn several reading strategies such as how to use graphic organizers to extract important information, take Cornell notes for an informational text or during a lecture, and summarize to monitor comprehension. Furthermore, students will explore several rhetorical devices and strategies like characterization, allusion, word choice and diction, setting, symbolism, point of view, and more. Prerequisites:  American Literature A

Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to...

• Identify their current responsibilities and develop plans for managing future responsibilities; activate prior knowledge and build a personal connection with unfamiliar texts
• Use graphic organizers to write a variety of paragraphs understand, identify, and evaluate the effectiveness of several literary and rhetorical devices like characterization and word choice
• Use systematic approaches to analyze poetry
• Understand temperament types and apply what they learned to the lives of characters as well as their own lives
• Conduct and gather research using secondary sources
• Develop an effective argument essay with claims and counterclaims
• Create a works cited page and parenthetical documentations using MLA format
• Use graphic organizers, Cornell notes, and summarizing to guide them through readings and help them to think critically about literary and informational texts
• Use comparison and contrast for evaluation
• Understand, identify, and evaluate the effectiveness of several literary and rhetorical devices like dialogue, symbolism, allusion, and point of view
• Evaluate how the passage of time alters perspectives
• Understand and identify the elements of a persuasive business email
• Construct a persuasive business email
• Understand and identify the elements of a narrative essay
• Construct an effective narrative essay

Course Outline:

Unit 1: Responsibilities and "Everyday Use"

Unit 2: Temperament Types and Word Choice

Unit 3: Into the Wild and Transcendentalists

Unit 4: Argumentative Essay

Unit 5: "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

Unit 6: The Great Gatsby

Unit 7: The Things We All Carry

Unit 8: Narrative Writing

Resources Included:  Online lesson instruction and activities, opportunities to engage with a certified, online instructor and classmates, when appropriate, and online assessments to measure student performance of course objectives and readiness for subsequent academic pursuits.
There are links to electronic versions of the following works included in the course content:

1. “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
2. “A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O’Connor
3. “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
4. “Where I Lived and What I lived for” from Walden by Henry David Thoreau
5. “Danse Russe” by Williams Carlos Williams
6. “Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
7. “Waiting on the World to Change” by John Mayer
8. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot
9. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

Additional Costs: Students will be responsible for locating a print or online version of the following books:

1. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
2. The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald

In addition, students may need to locate some short stories, essays, and poems.

Scoring System: Michigan Virtual does not assign letter grades, grant credit for courses, nor issue diplomas. A final score out of total points earned will be submitted to your school mentor for conversion to their own letter grading system.

Time Commitment: Semester sessions are 18-weeks long: Students must be able to spend 1 or more hours per day in the course to be successful. Summer sessions are 10 weeks long: Students must be able to spend a minimum of 2 or more hours per day, or about 90 hours during the summer, for the student to be successful in any course. Trimester sessions are 12-weeks long: Students must be able to spend 1.5 or more hours per day in the course to be successful.

Technology Requirements: Students will require a computer device with headphones, a microphone, webcam, up-to-date Chrome Web Browser, and access to YouTube.

Ensure that your school or district network and device administrator whitelists online resources relevant to the course in which you are choosing to enroll. Ref., Michigan Virtual Course Whitelist

Please review the Michigan Virtual Technology Requirements: https://michiganvirtual.org/about/support/knowledge-base/technical-requirements/

Instructor Support System: For technical issues within your course, contact the Customer Care Center by email at CustomerCare@michiganvirtual.org or by phone at (888) 889-2840.

Instructor Contact Expectations: Students can use email or the private message system within the Student Learning Portal to access highly qualified teachers when they need instructor assistance. Students will also receive feedback on their work inside the learning management system. The Instructor Info area of their course may describe additional communication options.

Academic Support Available: In addition to access to a highly qualified, Michigan certified teacher, students have access to academic videos and outside resources verified by Michigan Virtual. For technical issues within the course, students can contact the Michigan Virtual Customer Care by email at customercare@michiganvirtual.org or by phone at (888) 889-2840.

Required Assessment: Online assessments consist of formative and summative assessments represented by computer-graded multiple choice, instructor-graded writing assignments including hands-on projects, model building, discussion-based assessments (one-on-one conversations with your teacher), and other forms of authentic assessments.

Technical Skills Needed: Basic technology skills necessary to locate and share information and files as well as interact with others in a Learning Management System (LMS), include the ability to:

• Download, edit, save, convert, and upload files
• Download and install software
• Use a messaging service similar to email
• Communicate with others in online discussion or message boards, following basic rules of netiquette
• Open attachments shared in messages
• Create, save, and submit files in commonly used word processing program formats and as a PDF
• Edit file share settings in cloud-based applications, such as Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides
• Save a file as a .pdf
• Copy and paste and format text using your mouse, keyboard, or an html editor’s toolbar menu
• Insert images or links into a file or html editor
• Search for information within a document using Ctrl+F or Command+F keyboard shortcuts
• Work in multiple browser windows and tabs simultaneously
• Activate a microphone or webcam on your device, and record and upload or link audio and/or video files
• Use presentation and graphics programs
• Follow an online pacing guide or calendar of due dates
• Use spell-check, citation editors, and tools commonly provided in word processing tool menus
• Create and maintain usernames and passwords

Additional Information: This course requires students to purchase or otherwise access various reading materials. See the Additional Costs section of the syllabus for details.