Teachers: Marie Levey Pabst and Amy Shapiro

English 10

Course: College

Syllabus 2015-2016
Course Philosophy and Welcome
Welcome to English 10.
You will leave here a better reader.
You will leave here a better writer.
Right now, some of you may be excited by this statement. Others might be wary.1
Some of you might be rolling your eyes (literally2 or figuratively3) and thinking Im
already good enough or yeah, right. Thats just cheesy.
Whatever your thoughts are, we look forward to welcoming you to our class
community. You will enter this classroom with rich experiences, deep thoughts
and brilliant ideas and were excited to see what you will contribute to our
learning. We know you come into this class with all of the raw material you need to
be the writer and reader you want to be.
Our job is to help you on your journey by giving you tools and time to practice.

We believe in:
CHOICE
COMPLEX TEXTS
TOOLS
TIME
RESPONSE
You will have a lot of CHOICE in this class. You will get to CHOOSE much of what
you read and write about.
We will share COMPLEX TEXTS with you and also give you the TOOLS you need to
understand them.
We will practice using the WRITING TOOLS you need to write well
Much of our class TIME will be spent reading, writing and discussing. It is important
to stick with it for some TIME. This is the time to TRY new ideas, CHANGE your
mind and take a RISK.
Our whole class community will RESPOND to each other. We will spend a lot of
time discussing ideas from readings and responding to each others writing. As your
teachers, we will also RESPOND to your writing and your reading responses.
We read to know we are not alone.

1 Suspicious or distrustful
2 actually rolling your eyes
3 youre not physically rolling your eyes, but that act represents what youre feeling
1

(C.S. Lewis, writer)

Here are some of the things we know about being a high school student:
You have lots of other classes and lots of work to do for those classes
You will feel overwhelmed and tired sometimes (or often)
You might have a hard time focusing on class if something difficult is going on
in your personal life
And here are some things we know you will face when you graduate from
high school:
You will go to college and get a job, where you will have to balance multiple
responsibilities, and maybe a family as well
You will feel overwhelmed and tired sometimes (or often)
Your college professors and your boss will not care that you are dealing with
something difficult in your personal life. They will expect you to work anyway.
Every moment in class is an opportunity to learn and grow. This means that you
should be reading, writing, thinking or discussing deep ideas every minute of
every class period. Remember, you need TIME to learn. There is no time to
waste. This means that, when you ask us for a free-day, or ask, cant we just relax
today? or when you tell us that you are tired and want to just put your head
down, we will say no. This is not because we dislike you or because we dont care
it is because we care that we wont give you any excuses to slack off.
The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places youll go. (Dr. Suess, author and artist)

In this class, during this year, youve got a chance to figure out
who you are, what forces affect your life, and how to use your
voice to make a difference in your community.

Lets do this.

Course Curriculum
Essential Question
What forces control our lives? Is it fate? Is it society? Is it our own free
will? How do these elements interact?

Course Goals
All assignments in this course are connected to these major goals:
1. To develop a better understanding of the forces that shape our
lives and choices
2. To produce in public discourse4 through writing and speaking
3. To use a variety5 of reading strategies to understand complex texts
independently
4. To identify the tools a writer uses to make their ideas and
arguments clear and analyze how these writers tools contribute to
the text as a whole.
5. To maintain an academic discussion

Units of Study

Scene and Narrative Writing

Othello by William Shakespeare
Informational Reporting
Night by Elie Wiesel
Research

Ongoing projects

Independent reading
Term Portfolios
Final Portfolio
Connections to the
world

4 The big conversation, what society is thinking/talking/writing about

5 a collection of diverse things
3

Course Policies
We want all students and their families to understand our classroom. If
you ever have questions about our policies or decisions, please ask!

Grading:
A student who has done all that we ask for usually receives a B. An A
grade will be earned when a student goes above and beyond and shows
that he/she has truly developed interesting ideas through reading and writing.
A HUGE part of learning is making mistakes. Therefore, 80% of your grade is
determined towards the END of the TERM in PORTFOLIOS, after you have had
a chance to practice your reading and writing skills. So, just because you
have an A (or a D) halfway through the term does not mean that youre
done!
Any late work requires an extension request. A student must request an
extension before the assignments due date. Not all extensions will be
granted.

Grade Breakdown by Category

If a student is missing assignments, or is behind on the reading, we expect him/her

to attend Tuesday or Thursday Office Hours from 2:30-3:30

Community Assumptions:

students help someone else

learn they are helping others
and themselves.

Different learning styles are what

make our classroom interesting!
ALL learning styles are welcomed
and embraced by the classroom
community.
Everyone is complex. We will be
mindful of how our actions affect
others.
The best way to learn something
is to teach it. Therefore, when
4

4. When we discuss identity

(race, class, gender, etc.)
we respect identity and
individuality

Rules:
1. Be on time.
2. Follow all school-wide rules
3. Support everyones learning

Maintaining the Learning Environment:

Response to a rule broken is dependent on teacher judgment. Our goal is to keep class
running smoothly for everyone. If a student is disrupting learning, we may:
Ask the student for cooperation
Have the student move seats
Call home to discuss the issue
Give detention (during detention the student may write a letter to which we will
respond)
Refer student to the a community leader

Attendance:
If you are tardy

You are tardy if you arrive after the teacher closes the door. When a student is tardy
he/she should wait by the closed door for 1-3 minutes while the teacher starts class. At
that point, the teacher will let the student in, and mark him/her tardy. The student will
then serve a ten-minute detention with Ms.Levey Pabst, Ms. Shapiro or a school
administrator.

If you are absent

If a student is absent it is the students responsibility to get the necessary work by
checking the weekly agenda and getting needed materials from the student resource
center. The student should get the work out THE DAY she/he returns and submit an
extension request in writing to the teachers if needed.

School Attendance Policy

BCLA attendance policy states that excessive tardy and absence may result in a loss of
class credit.

Supplies
Notebook with at least 100 pages
Your ELA 10 Toolkit (this will be provided and you are expected to have it every
day)
A school-based gmail account
Supply deadline is Monday, September 14th. Please contact Ms. Shapiro or Ms. Levey if
obtaining supplies by September 14th is not possible for your family (note in inbox,
email, phone call).

Class Website
bclarm11.weebly.com

Contact Information
Ms. Levey Pabst

Ms. Shapiro

mleveypabst@bostonpublicschools.org
(617) 635-8937 (school)
(510) 717-4808 (cell)
Office Hours: Tuesday from 2:30-3:30

ashapiro@bostonpublicschools.org
(617) 635-8937 (school)
(617) 571-8538 (cell)
Office Hours: Thursday from 2:30-3:30