Ms. Lindsay Rubenstein

lrubenstein@browardschools.com

Course Description

This course promotes excellence in English language arts through enriched experiences in reading, writing, speaking, viewing, listening, language and literature. Instruction includes frequent practice in writing various types of multi-paragraph essays, including documented papers, written and oral analysis of American literature and representing the ethnic and cultural diversity of the American experience. Students must keep a binder containing this course outline, class notes, handouts/downloads, and evaluations. Written evaluations, as well as practical evaluations, will accompany each unit. Writing, grammar and vocabulary skills will be routinely checked for improvement. Lack of preparation, missing assignments, presentations or participation points will impact your grade. Govern yourself accordingly.

Composition and Grammar

Students will be developing a number of written papers this semester to demonstrate competency in written communication. Each assignment will be evaluated in accordance with the rules of Standard American English. Each assignment will focus on a different writing technique or style. Students will be working in the Writing and Grammar Exercise Workbook to develop sentence construction skills. These exercises will help support and enhance written communication skills.

Literature Analysis and Reading Skills

The focus in English 3 is American Literature. We will be reading a variety of material from the McDougal Littell Language of Literature: American Literature textbook. Several of the stories and novels we will read have coordinating films that we may watch in excerpts or in their entirety as a class. The following is the expected content of our course of study:

In Harmony With Nature- Native American Traditions: Mythology

              “The World on the Turtle’s Back (24)

              Coyote Stories (39)

First Encounters: Cultural Diversity

              “Of Plymouth Plantation” (81)

              “Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” (93)

              My Sojourn in the Lands of My Ancestors (109)

A New Cultural Identity: The Harlem Renaissance

Langston Hughes: “I Too” (924), “Harlem” (926), “The Weary Blues” (927), “When the Negro Was in Vogue” (932)

Toni Morrison: Thoughts on the African-American Novel” (973)

Zora Neale Hurston: “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” (950)

Between Heaven and Hell: The Puritan Tradition

              “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (152)

              “The Examination of Sarah Good” (144)

              “History Clashes with Commercialism” (150)

              The Crucible (163)

The Dark Side of Individualism: American Gothic

              “The Masque of the Red Death” (454)

              “A Rose for Emily” (516)

              “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” (528)

              Danse Macabre (464)

A Vanishing Frontier: Tricksters and Trailblazers

              Mark Twain: Autobiography (658)

                            “Epigrams” (678)

                            “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (679)

Women’s Voices, Women’s Lives: A New Literature

              Emily Dickinson: Poems (750-761)

The American Dream: Illusion or Reality

              “We Wear the Mask” (835)

              “Sympathy” (835)

              The Great Gatsby

Required Materials

              Students must provide a notebook with paper, pen and pencil each day. Students may require access to technology such as online research tools, computer, digital camera, and multimedia software as needed.

Grading and Evaluation

The class grades will be divided in the following manner:

              Class work                   15%

              Homework                    15%

              Tests/Quizzes              30%

              Writing                           30%

              Participation                 10%

Work will only be given full credit on the due date. Late work will lose ten points (or ten percent of the total value) per day it is late. No work will be accepted after ten days.

Classroom Policies

Polite and appropriate behavior is expected at all times.