North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS) provides high quality online educational opportunities in order to prepare students for a 21st century global economy.

 

OCS English IV

 

Course Prerequisites:  

Students are required to complete English III before taking this course.

 

Course Description:

This course is intended for Occupational Course of Study (OCS) students who will be working with both their face-to-face classroom teacher and an NCVPS online teacher.  Students will gain mastery of curricular concepts through a survey of world literature.  Through the examination of the English language in various contexts including literary and non-literary texts, the student will explore, examine, and evaluate a wide variety of modes of expression. The course will also prepare students for development of a comprehensive research-based essay.  Technology skills will be honed through the course.  Pre-Assessments will be used as diagnostic tools, while lessons present the content, and Post-Assessments measure mastery.  This course is designed to be implemented in a blended learning environment with collaborative instruction delivered by an online highly-qualified English teacher as well as a face-to-face OCS teacher.

Technical Requirements

Quicktime, Shockwave and Flash need to be installed for videos. Need to have Blackboard Collaborate Rooms setup, Blackboard IM, and a working headset.  Firefox is the recommended browser for Mac users.  Please check your browser and take down all media blockers in order to view all media content in the course.  

Course Outline:

 

Unit 1: Lanuage as Oral Tradition

• Lesson 1: Review of Terms and Concepts
• Lesson 2: Oral Traditions and Beowulf
• Lesson 3: Introduction to Research

Unit 2: Language as Social Influence

• Lesson 1: Satire
• Lesson 2: Sentence Structure
• Lesson 3: Finding and Using Resources

 

Unit 3: Language as Performance

• Lesson 1: English Drama - Macbet
• Lesson 2: Thesis and Outlines

Unit 4: Language as Expression

• Lesson 1: Poetry
• Lesson 2: Writing Paragraphs

Unit 5: Language as Story

• Lesson 1: Elements of a Story
• Lesson 2: Writing Paragraphs
• Lesson 3: Body Paragraphs

 

Unit 6: Language as Research and Persuasion

• Lesson 1: Finishing Your Research Essay

 

Unit 7- Language as Life Skills

• Lesson 1: The Job Search
• Lesson 2: The Job Application
• Lesson 3: The Job Interview

 

Unit 8: Language as Presentation

• Lesson 1: Presenting Your Research

Communication Policy:

All communication should occur in the Messages system in Blackboard.  This function works just like e-mail.  Messages from students on Monday through Thursday will be answered within 24 hours. E-mails from students on Friday through the weekend will be answered by Monday.

Grading Scale:

Your grades will come from a combination of online activities and activities you complete in the classroom.  Your grades will be based on your f2f school’s grading scale and your classroom teacher’s gradebook.

NCVPS Academic Integrity:

The North Carolina Virtual Public School has an expectation that all work submitted by a NCVPS student is his/her own. Academic integrity of all students must be maintained, and NCVPS considers it to have a high degree of importance.

Academic Integrity determines that all assignments and exams submitted by a NCVPS student is his/her own and the student:

 

• Will not plagiarize* any material in written or verbal forms
• Will not share work with others, unless directed by your instructor, or copy the work of others and represent it as their own
• Will apply appropriate use of information literacy
  
  

* To plagiarize is to copy or use the ideas and/or words of another and represent them as your own.

The accuracy in which student work is submitted to NCVPS is of great importance and NCVPS reserves the right to use technology, such as SafeAssign to investigate plagiarism.  The academic integrity for all students must be maintained.

NCVPS Privacy Policy:

The North Carolina Virtual Public School will abide by the student privacy guidelines set forth by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The following persons have access to student records:

• NC  State Board of Education (SBE) members
• NCVPS Executive Director, administrative team, and professional staff of NCVPS (teachers, guidance counselor, and student support services staff)
• Appropriate administrative support staff members and other professionals who have a legitimate educational or legal interest in student records as designated by the NCVPS Executive Director.
• Lab facilitators assigned by LEA who use school labs to access NCVPS courses

North Carolina Virtual Public School provides an academic transcript to the student's primary school of record upon completion of the online course(s), or upon any request of the primary school and/or student's legal guardian.

In accordance with state and federal privacy laws, students who attain the age of 18 may transfer certain rights related to their academic records. Some LEA schools may assign a lab facilitator to help students who use school labs to access NCVPS courses. Facilitators will have access to students’ online work from their school.

No member of the NCVPS staff is authorized to release student information without the written permission of the student’s legal guardian or without approval of the NCVPS Executive Director. Names, images, and/or course work of NCVPS students will not be published in print, video/film, or via the Web without written student and guardian consent. The privacy of all NCVPS students is protected through a unique password to access online courses. It is the student's responsibility to keep his/her password in confidence.

All the data provide to us is protected to ensure both the privacy and security of the data. We use state-of-the art technology to keep personal information as secure as possible to ensure that no one will be able to tamper with, intercept or access data. Remember to keep account information and password private and secure.

 

NCVPS Virtual Support Center:

In order to streamline support requests and better serve you, NCVPS uses an online ticketing system. Every support request is assigned a unique ticket number that you can use to track the progress and responses online. A valid email address is required. To submit a Help Desk Ticket, go to http://www.help.ncvps.org/

 

If you need to speak with a support representative, call the Help Desk  phone number at 1-919-480-8770* during operating hours (8am-4pm, Monday-Friday). *NOTE: This is NOT a toll-free number and charges may apply.

NCVPS Computer System Requirements:

 

NCVPS Computer System Requirements
Operating Systems	Windows	Vista, XP, 2000
	Macintosh	OS X 10.4.6 (minimum)
Browser Options   (select one)	Internet Explorer	6.0 (minimum)
	Firefox (Windows)	2.0.0.1 (minimum)
	Safari (Macintosh)	2.0.3 (minimum)
Browser Plug-ins	Sun Java	J2SE 6.0 (1.6.0)  (minimum) Windows
		JRE 6.0 (1.6.0) (minimum) Macintosh
	JavaScript	Supported, Java 7 Update 45
	Flash	9.0 (minimum)
	Adobe Reader	8.0 (minimum)
Internet Connection	56K (or faster)
Media Players	Real Player	9.0 (minimum)
	QuickTime	7.0 (minimum)
	Windows Media Player	9 (minimum)
Audio	Sound Capability & Headphones/Speakers
Pop-up Blocker(s)	Must be turned off for NCVPS courses.

 

NOTE: For a more detailed list of system requirements, go to http://www.ncvps.org/technology.html