Please take this home to share with your parents!
Have them read & sign the accompanying letter! You
should keep the syllabus for future reference.
Washington-Lee High School
Mrs. Sarah Congable, sarah.congable@apsva.us
Mr. Dave Peters, david.peters@apsva.us
IB Language A1: English, part II (course # 31198)
I. GOALS
A. The official goals for the course, from the IB Language A1 Subject Guide, include:
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to develop the students’ powers of expression, both in oral and written communication, and provide the opportunity of practicing and developing
the skills involved in writing and speaking in a variety of styles and situations;
to encourage a personal appreciation of literature and develop an understanding of the techniques involved in literary study and criticism;
to introduce students to literary classics and to a range of modern writing in different literary genres, styles and contexts;
to promote an international perspective through the comparative study of works from the students’ own culture and other cultures;
to introduce students to ways of approaching and studying literature, leading to the development of an understanding and appreciation of the
relationships between different works;
to develop the ability to engage in close, detailed and critical examination of written text;
to promote in students an enjoyment of, and lifelong interest in, literature.
B. In addition to these laudable goals, I hope you will:
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surprise yourself with the power and value of your own thought processes;
learn discipline & responsibility and cultivate a work ethic you can be proud of;
encounter memorable stories, characters, and turns of phrase that will stick with you for life;
discover the value of thinking, writing, and learning for their own sake, irrespective of more tangible rewards.
II. CLASSROOM RULES & PROCEDURES
A. The basics. In this classroom, we follow all school rules. This means, among other things:
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There is no eating or drinking in class (water is the exception).
You may not bring electronic devices to class. This includes cell phones, iPods, DVD players, or anything else you can imagine.
You must come to class fully clothed. Please do not make me call attention to your fashion choices.
B. The intangibles. There are two essential operating principles in my classroom: RESPECT and FAIRNESS. Please show respect by:
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Arriving in class on time and prepared, with your text, your journal, a writing implement, and paper. There will NEVER be a day when I will not
expect you to be prepared with these basic items, even if we do not use them on a given day.
Participating fully in class; not speaking when someone else has the floor, distracting others or interrupting class unnecessarily.
Paying attention the first time around.
Taking the efforts of everyone in the class seriously – you, me, and the other students. I try hard to create an interesting curriculum, with texts and
questions to engage your minds. I expect you to give your best thought and energy to the work in this class. It is important to me that my
students find value in the work we do together other than the mere bottom-line of grades and college acceptance. If these are the only reasons
you are taking this course, PLEASE have the courtesy to keep that information to yourself. Trust your own instincts and intelligence; eschew Cliff,
Spark, and Pink Monkey. Those are hackneyed, surface-level interpretations compared to the readings you are capable of. Never indicate that
any work you are giving me is less than your best; if I hear you say how little time & effort you put into an assignment, I will certainly grade it
accordingly. You receive fairness by having the opportunity to share your ideas, revise your work, do meaningful assignments, and have my
expectations grow as you master new material and thought processes.
C. Reading. This is an advanced course which demands that students read much and deeply. Reading in the fall is lighter compared to the reading load
in the spring, when we will cover upwards of 1300 pages in 16 weeks. You must demonstrate that you are prepared for class. The only way to do this
is by making sure you complete your reading assignments on time, and bringing your annotated books, notes, journals, and ideas to class. It is
certainly fine to forge ahead (practicing courtesy towards those who don’t know what happens next!), but you must at least keep up. Reading quizzes
will occur at any time.
There may well be times that you do not enjoy a particular text we are reading. You may even come to despise an author or a work. That is fine: good
literature should stir emotion and be controversial. Use those feelings to learn how to express your opinions cogently and support them with text-based
rationales. Regardless of your opinion of a particular text, I ask that you try always to be objective and develop at least respect for the work.
Remember, literature is a STUDY, just like any other discipline, and is meant to inspire thinking.
D. Speaking. Especially in the fall as we prepare for the Formal Oral Exam (which will itself count for a significant portion of your second quarter grade),
a large portion of your grade will be based on oral presentations and surprise oral commentaries, which you will prepare in the 20 minutes before your
15-minute close reading in class. At all times, your participation in class discussions is both appreciated and required. You will have the opportunity to
discuss literature with a partner and in small groups as well as in whole-class discussions.
E. Writing. Assuming you have mastered the basics of correct and elegant writing, now is the time for you to develop your own voice in literary analysis.
In this class you will write in a variety of formal and informal ways, from major papers (always typed, double-spaced, in 12-point font with 1” margins,
and submitted via www.turnitin.com) to informal journal reactions to questions posed for classwork or homework. Revisions of formal assignments are
permitted at my discretion and only after an individual conference. If you revise a paper, your new grade will be averaged with the original.
Each quarter you will receive grades for your journal, the notebook in which you will write informal homework and class assignments and take notes on
presentations and class discussion. These grades will be based on thoroughness and evidence of genuine engagement with texts under discussion.
III. ASSESSMENT
A. IB Internal Assessment: Formal Oral Exam. In addition to our intellectual enjoyment of the texts under discussion, the focus of our fall
semester will be preparation for this exam, which will take place in December. At the time scheduled for your exam, you will receive an excerpt of ~ 40
lines from one of the texts we study in the fall (Teaching a Stone to Talk, Macbeth, As I Lay Dying, selected poetry). You will have 20 minutes to
prepare a commentary on this excerpt, and a maximum of 15 minutes to present your commentary to a panel of English teachers. Your exam will be
recorded, and several representative tapes will be sent to IB for external moderation.
B. IB External Assessment: Written Exams. This exam, which takes place in early May, consists of two papers. Paper One presents you with
an unfamiliar poem and a prose excerpt and asks you to “write a commentary on one of the following.” Paper Two gives you a list of broad questions,
of which you choose one to respond to, using several of the four novels we will study in the spring (Song of Solomon, The Remains of the Day, Solibo
Magnificent, and The Handmaid’s Tale).
C. IB External Assessment (from 11th grade): World Literature Papers. These papers, of which you wrote many drafts last year, must
be sent to the IB Assessors in the fall of your senior year. You will turn in two copies of each of these papers on TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22. As this
is leftover work from your junior year, I will neither read nor grade these papers (which count for 20% of your final IB score) but expect them to be
thoroughly revised and polished. I will, however, give you credit for handing them in on time – that’s one easy “A”!
D. Classroom Assessment (or as past students have clamored, “My grade! My grade!”). Each quarter, you will complete a number of
assignments in and out of class – from major papers, exams, and class presentations to journal entries, class notes, and verbal participation. Each
assignment is weighted according to its relative difficulty and importance; an exam might be worth 100 points, while an in-class reflection on a literary
passage might be 15 points.
Please keep in mind the following facts as you obsess about your grades:
 Grades are earned, not given. As part of your growing-up experience, you will make choices about how to spend your limited time and energy –
this is good, and to be expected. Please be mature enough to accept the consequences of your choices.
 Arlington County gives you extra quality points on your GPA just for attempting this course. Grading is, accordingly, rigorous.
 Good and excellent grades in this class result not from guessing or listening to what I think and parroting it back (no matter how brilliant) but from
engaging thoroughly with the texts, creating your own original interpretations, and grounding them with textual support.
 Student grades reflect student achievement and not student behavior. Grades will be given in accordance with the standard Arlington Public
Schools grading scale:
(“A” 90–100%) (“B+” 87–89%) (“B” 80–86%) (“C+”77–79%) (“C” 70–76%) (“D+” 67–69%) (“D” 60–66%) (“E” 0–59%)
 Your total grade will be calculated based on the following breakdown:
25% = Exams (large-scale assessments)
25% = Quizzes
25% = Papers & Oral Presentations
25% = Participation (daily active engagement, journals, textual annotations, etc.)
 Something else to consider: According to APS School Board Policy Implementation Procedures 25-1.1 Attendance, “students forfeit daily class
grades for all unexcused absences.” Students entering class after the bell has rung will be marked tardy and will lose credit for any warm-up
activity already in progress or homework collected. Consult pages 12-13 of your W-L student handbook for more information.
 Students will be asked to sign an honor pledge for each major assignment turned in. By signing the pledge, students will acknowledge their
understanding of the honor policy and that they have not violated that policy in any way. The pledge reads: “On my honor, I pledge that I have
neither given nor received information on this assignment.”
E. Late Work Policy
Late work will only receive credit if a student’s absence is excused. Any previously assigned late work is to be turned in immediately upon your return
to class. It is your responsibility to retrieve missed work or handouts from the class binder and complete missed assignments within one week of the
last day of absence. If you are sick on the day a major assignment is due, you are encouraged to submit it via e-mail or through a friend. If your
absence is excused, the assignment must be submitted the next day you return to school.
IV. TEXTS (these are the official IB texts; you may also be reading other books alongside these!)
A. Fall Semester.
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In the fall, we will be studying essays from Annie Dillard’s Teaching a Stone to Talk, William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, William Faulkner’s novel
As I Lay Dying, as well as an overview of poetry by T.S. Eliot and Emily Dickinson
Spring Semester. In the spring we will enter into an in-depth study of the genre of prose fiction. We will concentrate on character development and narrative
style in four novels: Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison), The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro), Solibo Magnificent (Patrick Chamouiseau), and The Handmaid’s Tale
(Margaret Atwood). As this is a college level course and you will be expected to mark in your books, you are strongly encouraged to purchase them.
Washington-Lee High School
1301 North Stafford Street • Arlington, VA 22201 • (703) 228-6200
English Department
September 6, 2011
To Parents of Students in IB English 12:
We look forward to being part of this, your child’s last year of high school! We will be having some intense literary and philosophical
conversations about some great works of literature this year. With luck and hard work, your child has the opportunity to earn college credit for
this English course, saving time and money. We think it is important for you to be aware of what your high school SENIOR (!) will need to
know and to do in order to succeed in this class; that is why we have asked your child to take home a copy of the class syllabus and go over it
with you. Please sign the bottom of this page & return it via your messenger – and be sure to include any questions or comments you have!
As you will see on the syllabus, we have a busy year ahead of us. Your child has already read and annotated his or her edition Annie Dillard’s
Teaching a Stone to Talk. In addition to this text, we will study William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. In the
spring semester, we will conduct an in-depth study of the genre of prose fiction via several 20th-century novels: Song of Solomon (Toni
Morrison), The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro), Solibo Magnificent (Patrick Chamouiseau), and The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret
Atwood). With our Barnes & Noble educational discount, the cost is $60.00 for all six books. As this is a college level course, your children
will be expected to read as college students do: not just with their minds, but with their pens! You are strongly encouraged to purchase these
books to facilitate the annotation process. Please let us know if you would rather not – we can certainly work out other arrangements.
As you are perusing your child’s first day packet and writing a number of checks for everything from yearbooks to PTA dues, please take the
time to write a check for $60.00, made out to Washington-Lee High School, and have your student return it to us in class (not in the first day
packet!), along with any comments you wish to share.
If you have any questions about IB English 12, please contact us via e-mail at sarah.congable@apsva.us or david.peters@apsva.us. We look
forward to meeting you on Back-to-School Night and to communicating with you throughout the year. Thank you for your time and support!
We trust this will be a mind-opening, rewarding, and enjoyable year for us all.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Sarah Congable, NBCT
Mr. Dave Peters
PRINT STUDENT’S NAME HERE: ___________________________________________________
_______ I have reviewed this letter and the syllabus my child brought me.
_______ I am enclosing a $60.00 check (made out to Washington-Lee High School) or cash for to cover the cost of all texts my child will read this year.
_______ I am not enclosing any money at this time.
Questions / Comments:
_____________________________________________
Parent or Guardian signature
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Date