Welcome to the Fall 2005 semester at El Camino High School. This semester I'll be teaching two freshmen honors courses, one sophomore college prep class, and two reading classes. My goal is to develop and improve basic skills while challenging students to develop their critical thinking skills in a number of activiites relevant to our curriculum in the South San Francisco Unified School District. Our freshmen honors classes will continue working with our summer reading, East of Eden, Epic of Gilgamesh, and Oedipus Rex. The fall semester is constructed around units in grammar, short story, novel, and mythology. Sophomore English class will introduce basic elements of fiction to use in reflective papers that exhibit each students interpretive skills when reading literature. We will read short stories centered in multi-cultural literature. Also, we will read When the Legends Die, a novel portraying the devastation of the native Americans by their captures. The semester will end with a career unit or creative writing. Reading classes focus on basic reading skills by introducing the skill and providing activities constructed to assist in the development of that reading skill.
South San Francisco Unified School District
El Camino High School
English and Reading
Instructor: Mike Schneider
Email: whitewhale70@hotmail.com
Course information found on Internet page: http://www.quia.com/pages/schneidercourses.html
Phone: (650) 342-5171
Textbooks: Prentice Hall Literature, Language Network, and additional supplementary works.
Grading: Grades are based on student percentage of points in the following areas of instruction: class work, homework, composition, quizzes, tests, and projects. A= 100-90%, B= 89-80%, C=79-70%, D= 69-60%, and F= 59-0%.
Major Goals of this Course: This class searches for avenues to assist students in developing comprehension of literature, composition/formal writing, critical thinking and problem solving skills, a general knowledge of the conventions of the English language, and develop aural skills in public speaking and dramatic performances.
No late work is accepted in this class. Any extra credit requests must be prepared by the student and “pitched” to the teacher. If the activity warrants extra credit, both the teacher and student will agree upon its point value before work is started.
Homework occurs regularly each week with more time spent on work at home when working on significant assignments, like an essay or a project.
Teacher assistance is available before or after school. If a student needs assistance, they need to advise the teacher, and they can choose a time acceptable for both.
Our reading classes will continue to develop reading skills through activities constructed to improve reading skills. At the end of the fall semester many students improved one or more grade levels on the miscue analysis test, which typifies the hard work and accomplishments by those students.
Diagnostic Testing: The first week of school will focus on diagnostic testing to get a sense of each classes abilities reading, writing, and conventions of the English language.
Honors classes:
Leadership: What's the criteria for making decisions that impact others? What makes a good leader? What are some negative aspects of poor leaders?
September 6-9
We begin instruction in all classes.
Reading classes will begin work on main idea that is a key to constructing a summary. We will introduce Six-Way Paragraph, a book designed for developing the skills needed to identify main idea. We will also introduce our Cloze books that help students develop their skills in identifying vocabulary using context clues. Finally, we will continue introducing novels; students will choose a novel to read in class. All work in reading is done in class, and we keep the work in class, stored in a folder and kept in a file cabinet.
Honors classes start with work associated with East of Eden,elements of fiction (reading response), and parts of speech. We will start our short story unit. Finally, we will assign students to one of two debates that we will have next week.
College Prep will start working on short story unit and grammar exercises to assist students in identifying parts of speech. We will spend a great deal of time focusing on how to write a reading response.
September 12-16
Reading classes our working on Six-Way Paragraph, exercises to develop skills in identifying main idea and constructing a summary of what they've read. Also, they continue working on Cloze books, developing vocabulary through context clues. This week students will start reading a novel. Ane we will work on prefix exercises.
Honors classes will have a debate on Friday, continue reading short stories and writing reading responses, and work on parts of speech.
College prep class will continue working on short story unit and grammar unit.
September 19-23
Reading classes continue working on Six-Way Paragraph to improve skills in main idea and summary, Cloze to improve skills in context clues for vocabulary, and reading their first novel. We will introduce Critcal Reading Series for reading comprehension and Scanning for alphabet and visual acuity.
College Prep continues working on short story unit, grammar; parts of speech, and an essay will be assigned.
Honors classes will continue working on their units. We will assign a paper on East of Eden from their summer reading books.
September 27-30
We welcome the parents and guardians of our students to Back to School Night.
Reading classes continue working on all activities introduced in class; students also continue reading their novels.
College Prep class will continue working on short story unit and grammar unit. They will also be assigned a 50 point essay assignment.
Honors classes will hand in the first draft of their essay on East of Eden, continue work on short story unit, and grammar unit.
October 3-7
All English classes are completing their work on short story unit, preparing for a test the following week. Honors classes are also preparing for a test on parts of speech.
October 10-14
English classes take a test. They will be introduced to the novel unit that follows the testing.
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