English III is a survey of American Literature that stresses the 11th grade English Language Arts Common Core Standards. The course will be divided into quarterly units where the standards will be studied and mastered through the lens of thematic units. Those units are as follows:

Quarter 1: Home and Family

Quarter 2: Identity and Culture

Quarter 3: Conformity and Rebellion

Quarter 4: Tradition and Progress

The titles within each unit are still being determined, but there will be a balance of novels, plays, poems, short stories, and informational texts of varied length and text complexity. Common titles that I have used in the past are Richard Wright's Black Boy, Arthur Miller's The Crucible and Death of a Salesman, Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

My main goal for this course is for EVERY student to be a better reader and writer when they leave in June than they were when they began in August. Growth is key! We will accomplish this by finding texts and writing prompts that the students will be able to connect with, which will therefore help them to stay interested and focused throughout the year.

SUPPLIES NEEDED

The key to success in English III is organization. Therefore, every student needs a notebook where all notes, assignments, and handouts can be housed. This can best be organized in a three-ring binder, but if a student prefers a spiral notebook, just make sure that it has pockets or that you have an additional folder for handouts.

In addition, please have pencils, pens, and highlighters that are needed for notes and annotating documents.

You do not need to purchase any of the texts that we will read, but once a text is issued, it is imperative that it be brought to class on a daily basis. If lost, the student is expected to purchase a replacement text.

Grading Policies MHS English Department

Minor grades (quizzes, homework, classwork) will have a weight of 1.

Major grades (tests, projects, compositions) will have a weight of 4.

It is the student's responsibility to submit all work when due in order for the purpose of the assignment to help the student to achieve success and to aid the teacher in determining next steps to help the student. Late work will be accepted, but it will not aid the student in the learning process as effectively as submitting work on time. Assignments are made with a connected alignment, and when a student alters this alignment with late or missing assignments, the overall learning for the unit is highly affected. Don't  expect the teacher to take the original assignment late. Depending on the nature of the assignment, a different assignment may be required.  When work (typically a project or essay) is the unit's major assessment, it is imperative that the student submit  this work on time to avoid a deduction or a zero since, in order to receive full credit, all work must be received by the end of the unit.

Remediation Plan to Improve Grades

Test Corrections will be allowed for 1/2 credit.

In certain situations, a retest may be allowed for full credit.

Students may submit revisions to major papers in order to earn up to 10 points back on the original grade.