Mr. Pletsch's Course Overview
English III: American Literature
School Year 2014-15
The Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences
Introduction
You will write the next great piece of American literature.
As a teacher for approaching a decade, I have noticed that most teachers design literature curriculums around reading and writing strategies, skills, and schema meant to boost ACT scores, and this is a noble approach; the chief concern, if not obstacle, for most students who pass through my classroom, brass tacks, is their
ACT score. I have profoundly wrestled with this approach, and my students, in my mind, have achieved much success using it. However, in stark contrast to popular belief, the Common Core State Standards have challenged and transformed this approach into something more universal, something more, dare I say, creative .
Your words, not your bubbles, shall now bear more merit.
With the aforementioned assumed, the English Language Arts Common Core State
Standards will drive our course to your artistic epiphany. As the esteemed Sir Ken
Robinson asserts, "new ideas with value" define creativity. The primary goal for this course, to borrow from Sir Ken Robinson once again, is to "prepare you to be wrong," because if you're not, you will "never create anything original."
So...
I beg, I implore, I dare you—to write the next great piece of American literature.
Course
The course demands that you become a critical reader in order to become a creative writer. Reading alone will not achieve this; there is a certain mindset you must adopt in order to meet this demand. The course will coach you to think like a writer and to explore how writers use literary technique to convey specific, complex meaning to an audience. This will tax you at first; this level of critical thinking may or may not have been asked of you thus far. Reading for mere pleasure, though important, will take a back seat to reading critically in order to write cleverly. With this said, I will use Socratic Reasoning (which we will discuss using
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Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”) and Bloom's Taxonomy style questioning to help you master the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.
Grades
How teachers grade students is currently the most widely contested tenet of teaching next to the merits—or lack thereof— of standardized testing. The goal of a grade is merely to give someone who has not observed your work in class a sense of how well you have performed; therefore, I will use grades in this manner. How well you perform on the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards performance tasks will determine the bulk of your grade. At the risk of sounding naive, there are times when work outside of my class will be considered as part of your grade. With this in mind, the grading breakdown is as follows:
Guided Activities/Participation: 25%
Reading Tests: 25%
English Tests: 25%
Compositions: 25%
Units
We will explore the theme of alienation in all our units this year, and concurrently, the goal of each unit will be to master specific Common Core skills. All Common
Core State Standards for English Language Arts will be covered by the end of the school year. Units, like syllabi, are organic, living things, and therefore, grow and change. Nevertheless, I have sequentially listed the tentative units for the upcoming year:
Argument Writing
Poetry Connection: [Buffalo Bill's] by e e cummings
Art Connection: "A Day in the Life" by The Beatles
Grammar Connection: Active Voice, Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers, Parallel
Structure
ThinkCERCA Connection: Foundational Unit/Selections from "Civil
Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau
 "Speech in Virginia Convention" by Patrick Henry

"Gettysburg Address" by Abraham Lincoln
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
"Inaugural Address" by John F. Kennedy

"I Have a Dream" by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Narrative Writing
Poetry Connection: "A Dream Within a Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe
Art Connection: "Scull" by Jean-Michel Basquiat
Grammar Connection: Verbs
ThinkCERCA Connection: "The Ship Shape" by David Sedaris and "The Fly" by
Katherine Mansfield

"Zombie" by Chuck Palahniuk

"The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved" by Hunter S. Thompson

"Emergency" by Denis Johnson
 "The School" by Donald Barthelme
 "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" by Delmore Schwartz
Informational Writing
Poetry Connection: "Genius Child” by Langston Hughes
Art Connection: Selected graffiti art of Banksy, David Choe/"Like a Rolling
Stone" by Bob Dylan
Grammar Connection: Adjective and Adverb Phrases
ThinkCERCA Connection: Selections from "Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo
Emerson
 Selections from Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Selections from "Shipping Out" and "Tickets to the Fair" by David Foster
Wallace
Reading and Writing Fiction
Poetry Connection: "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg
Art Connection: "The Scream" by Edvard Munch
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Grammar Connection: Topic and Development and Knowledge of Language Skills
Non-fiction Connection: First Amendment to the United States Constitution
"The Censor in Each of Us" by Colm Toibin
"Introduction to Howl" by William Carlos Williams
"Boy Poet" by Adam Green
"Holden at Fifty" by Louis Menand

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Expectations
Anything worth its salt has come about through blood, sweat, and tears—comfort has not produced much in this world. Discipline allows you pursue your passions full force. However, the notion of discipline is not romantic, and usually is an afterthought at best. For me, discipline is not necessarily a set of rules, but instead a set of behaviors that will guide you along your journey to success. Without further ado, here are the behaviors I expect you to exhibit on a daily basis:
 Be punctual. Tardiness will deflate your grade. The bell does not signal that it is time for class, but that you are late for class. Respect the distinction. I will contact your parent the day you receive your second tardy; detentions will not be the first course of action, but will be used if necessary. Penalties are progressive.
 Be prepared. Bring all said materials to class on a daily basis. I will not issue passes to go to the bathroom or your locker as a rule of thumb, so take care of any issues before class begins. If you are absent, you have a day for each day absent to turn in your work without penalty; late work will be docked one letter grade for each day late. It is your job to acquire missed work.
 Be honest.
I will not tolerate plagiarism and cheating. Penalties are progressive.
 Be on task. Follow my lead with fortuitous focus. Stay in your seat for the duration of the period unless you are directed to move about—your burning desire to throw away that paper ball does not trump my burning desire to light your mind aflame.

Be respectful. My room is not a cafeteria, so eating will not be allowed. If you are thirsty, you may drink water out of a clear plastic bottle; I will not issue passes to the water fountain. There may be times I allow you to use your cell phone for academic purposes; otherwise, I will confiscate your cell phone if found to be on in the classroom.
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*Please note that I will enforce the CPS Student Code of Conduct in my class as well.
Writing Conferences
A one-on-one writing relationship will benefit the both of us. Feel free to discuss your writing beyond my annotations during a free period or after school. I'm available.
Contact Information: dmpletsch@cps.edu
Email is my preferred method of contact. Emails must pertain to academic performance and academic performance only.
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I have read and comprehended Mr. Pletsch's English III: American Literature
Course Overview for the 2014-15 school year.
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