Nipomo High School
Pre-Advanced Placement English 9
2015-2016
Instructor: Mr. Nathan Shields, MA
Contacting your instructor: District email is the preferred method (nathan.shields@lmusd.org)
or you may call 474.3300 x8142
Mission Statement of the District
"The mission of the Lucia Mar Unified School District is to ensure that all students acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes essential to become productive members of society."
Mission Statement of Nipomo High School
The mission of Nipomo High School is to provide a safe, structured environment which enables high levels of relevant learning for all students, empowering them to realize their full potential as productive citizens in our changing world, drawing upon the unique resources of the local community and new innovations in science, technology, and the arts.
Course Description
The pre-AP English student is a gifted student who desires preparation for a college level English experience in his junior and/or senior year. This student will be entering a four-year vertically aligned English program that culminates in Advanced Placement Literature (junior year) and Advanced Placement Language (senior year). Students should enjoy reading excellent literature, exploring ideas presented in this literature, and writing about these ideas.
The guiding theme for this year’s inquiry will be “The Hero’s Journey.”
Students enrolled in this course are expected to make a commitment to a rigorous curriculum of reading, literary analysis, and composition. Students are expected to be professional in their presentation of themselves and their work in the class. If there is an issue, such as a lack of a computer, the student will need to communicate with the instructor and work out a solution—such as allocating extra time in the library or in Mr. Shields’s classroom outside of class. Each student should be
ready every day with supplies, with assignments turned in on time, through attentive reading, and through a readiness for discussion!
Outcomes:
All students will successfully exit Pre-AP 9 having demonstrated the following:
—The ability to write a literary essay analyzing theme
—The ability to write a literary essay analyzing character
—The ability to identify certain poetic devices in a work and discuss their use
—The ability to recognize certain literary devices in a work and discuss their use
—The ability to write an expository essay (CAHSEE)
—The ability to write a persuasive essay (CAHSEE)
—The ability to write a biographical narrative (CAHSEE)
—The ability to identify and use correctly the parts of speech, the subject and verb in a sentence, verbal and prepositional phrases, and types of sentences
—The ability to read independently
Academic Honesty
Cheating is cheating. It is wrong. It is unacceptable. It is a blot on the cheater’s character. I cannot stress enough the importance of having academic integrity. Plagiarism is “stealing” the unique ideas or wording of another and presenting them as one’s own. It includes, but is not limited to, cheating on examinations, copying work, the purchase, renting, borrowing or otherwise appropriation of a research paper, project, or assignment and presenting it as one’s own work.
The principle rule of academic integrity is that each member of the Nipomo High community will do one’s own work, executed to the best of one’s ability, exclusively for the assignment of which it is presented. Refer to the NHS Handbook to see the immediate and long-lasting consequences to cheating.
Required Materials
• a three-ring loose-leaf binder
• tabbed dividers inside binder to keep class papers in order. You may organize your binder in whatever way works for you, but I suggest you have at least the following sections:
—Vocabulary
—Tests/Quizzes
—Essay papers
—Independent Reading
—Miscellaneous
• a large supply of wide ruled 81/2” X 11” filler paper
• blue or black ball point pens (pencils and highlighters are also greatly beneficial)
• a positive and drama-free attitude while in the class!
Literary Works to be Explored in Class this year (not an exhaustive list):
• Taran Wanderer by Lloyd Alexander
• The Odyssey by Homer
• Antigone by Sophocles
• The Once and Future King by T.H. White
• The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Independent reading novels: Anderson’s Speak, Ranh’s Anthem, Potok’s The Chosen, Kidd’s The Sectret Live of Bees, Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Card’s Ender’s Game
• Selected short stories, poems, and movie clips
Grading Policy
Work is expected to be turned in on time and in a professional manner. Name, date, and period should identify every piece of work turned in, and any paper illegible or without necessary information will not be looked at. All essays and formal work needs to be typed in MLA format. Refer to the Handbook’s policy concerning late work. Unless otherwise stated, assignments are due at the beginning of the period for which you are enrolled.
CSU and UC schools will not accept any English grade lower than a 70%. So while you can pass a semester of English in high school with a 60%, if you earned less than a D+, those four-year schools will not count that class’s credits and you might be five credits short of meeting entrance requirements.
If you have
missed a test or a quiz, it is your responsibility to come in and make it up within a reasonable time period.
To better ensure your success in this course, please visit the classroom website to see when homework is due. Homework assigned in class will be posted on this website later that day. This will enable you to stay well informed and up to date on what is expected. If Mr. Shields suspects that students are not utilizing this website, he may choose to cease spending time updating it regularly. But until then, use the following online steps to access this information: