Important Note  to Parents and to Students

This class is designed for the college bound student who wants to embrace a challenge. In this course, I compare the work of these students to the work of other college bound students at our state's best high schools.  I genuinely believe that our students must be prepared to compete against the best; therefore, I measure them against the best.  This is an honors course. If a student earns a B, it counts as an A in his/her grade point average. I applaud students who take this more difficult course and want you to know that I have hundreds of testimonials from students telling me that this class made all the difference to them in their ability to excel in college. 

Advanced Composition Course Description, Outcomes,

and State Standards Addressed :

 (Pre-requisites: Composition II if taken as a 9^th grader or a grade of A or B as well as a teacher recommendation from Composition I) This is an honors course which provides the students with an intensive study of grammar and mechanics which are then applied to paragraph, essay, report, and research writing. Units of study on logic, analysis, and speech enhance the students’ thinking, writing, and speaking skills.  The course is designed for the college bound student who wants to understand and apply the rules of grammar to learn to create more effective written communication.  It is highly recommended that students who plan to take Advanced Literature take this course first!

General Course Outcomes:  Upon completion of this course the proficient student will know and be able to: (core concepts/essential skills).

1. Complete proficiency tests at 80% or better for each of the following:

a.      descriptive paragraph

b.      narrative paragraph

c.      expository paragraph

d.      persuasive paragraph

e.   five paragraph essay

f.      capitalization

g.       commas

h.      colons

i.      semicolons

j.        quotation marks

k.        apostrophes

l.     parenthesis, dashes, and brackets

m.        fragments and run-ons

n.    sentence types: simple, compound, complex, compound/complex

o.      misplaced modifiers

p.      voice

q.      parallelism

r.      faulty coordination and subordination

*Failure to complete these basic skills for which students may test and retest multiple times will result in the student failing the course.

2. Write a literary analysis essay
3. Write a letter to an editor
4. Write an expository essay
5. Write a cause/effect essay
6. Write a persuasive essay
7. Write a properly formatted report providing detailed analysis of a college of choice
8. Timed essay writing
9. Work as an effective member of a writer’s workshop
10. Proficiently present a speech to demonstrate
11. Proficiently present a speech to persuade
12. Begin formal preparation for the ACT test
13. Research unit: how to use the library, the internet, search engines, interviews
14. Formal vocabulary instruction using the Princeton Review research based program
15. Listening and following directions

 State Standards addressed in this course:

Standard 1: Read and understand a variety of materials

·          Paraphrase, summarize, synthesize, and evaluate information from a variety of sources

·          Identify main ideas, supporting details, sequence of events or procedures, facts and opinions in literary, expository, and technical texts

·          Summarize literary, expository, and technical tests

·          Infer by making connections within and among texts

*Course outcomes that address Standard 1: 1a,b,c,d; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 10; 11; 13

Standard 2: Write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences

·          Write in a variety of genres including narrative, expository, descriptive, persuasive, and technical to extend understanding for purposes such as synthesis, analysis, evaluation

·          Plan, draft, revise, and edit for a final copy

·          Use the format, voice, and style appropriate for audience and purpose

·          Develop main ideas and content fully focused on a prompt that requires critical thinking as well as thorough and effective support

·          Organize writing using chronological, logical, spatial, and topical patterns as well as developing by cause/effect, problem/solution, and compare/contrast

·          Organize writing so that it has an engaging introduction, logical and effective development of ideas, and a satisfying conclusion

·          Create power thesis statements that follow the five criteria

·          Create power topic sentences that follow the five criteria

·          Use a variety of appropriate and sophisticated transitions

·          Use a significant number and quality of major and minor supports

·          Incorporate material from a variety of appropriate sources, understand and discern the difference between quality and sub par source material

·          Vary sentence structures and lengths to enhance flow, rhythm, meaning, clarity, and writer’s voice. Understand, identify and use simple, compound, complex, and compound/complex sentences

·          Use vivid and precise and concise words. Discern denotative and connotative meanings

*Course outcomes that address Standard 2: 1a,b,c,d, n 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 14

Standard 3: Write and speak using conventional grammar, usage, sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling

·          Edit for correct grammatical conventions

·          Use standard formal English in writing, including agreement of subject and verb, agreement of pronoun and its antecedent, eliminating fragments and run-ons, and then properly using parallel structure, correct modifiers, active voice, who and whom, coordination and subordination of clauses, capitalization, commas, apostrophes, colons, semicolons, and quotation marks, and parenthesis, dashes, and brackets.

·          Paragraph correctly

*Course outcomes that address Standard 3: 1 a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, I, j, k, l, m, n

Standard 4: Apply critical thinking skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing

·          Use reading and writing to define a problem, evaluate options, and propose solutions

·          Be able to identify an author’s viewpoint, biases, and purpose

·          Discern and understand historical and cultural context from information presented in text

·          Evaluate the reliability, accuracy, and relevance of various texts

·          Make predictions, draw conclusions and analyze a variety of text including editorials, stories, movies, essays, technical material, and advertisements

·          Make predictions, draw conclusions and analyze text

·          Evaluate the quality of ideas by applying criteria to determine validity

*Course outcomes that address Standard 4: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15

Standard 5: Read to locate, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media, reference, and technological sources

·          Use organizational features of printed text such as prefaces, appendices, annotations, citations, and bibliographic references to locate relevant information

·          Use organizational features of electronic text such as database keyword searches, Internet search engines, and e-mail addresses to locate relevant information

·          Evaluate information for specific needs, validity, credibility, and bias

·          Paraphrase, summarize, organize, and synthesize information from a variety of sources

·          Give appropriate and properly formatted credit for others’ ideas, images, or information

*Course outcomes that address Standard 5: 1d, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7,, 10, 11, 13

Required Unit of Study:

Themes within the course/Specific concepts being targeted

See general course outcomes for the units of study which target the following general concepts:

1. knowing how to be a critical reader
2. knowing how to write to clearly communicate an idea to a target audience
3. being proficient with grammar and with the conventions of writing
4. being a proficient speaker
5. knowing how to use a variety of sources and how to credit those sources
6. knowing how to analyze information and ideas to draw clearly supported conclusions
7. being able to create and organize the types of writing including technical, descriptive, narrative, expository, and persuasive
8. being able to create unified, coherent pieces of writing that possess quality thesis statements, linking topic sentences, and that are backed up by solid major and minor supporting pieces of evidence
9. understanding the process of preparing for, applying to, and qualifying for the college of choice
10. developing and using a more powerful vocabulary with the Princeton Review research based program designed for ACT preparation
11. being held accountable for listening to and following directions

Unit Modifications/Enrichments:

For students having difficulty:

·          business card to each student with email and phone number and an invitation to contact me

·          office hours to help students needing  extra assistance

·          multiple chances to obtain 80% or better on each competency requirement

Additional experiences for students capable of advanced work (cooperative learning, adaptive materials, re-teaching, second chance, etc.

·         see above

·         writers’ workshop

·         small group work

·         conferencing

·         exemplars

·         modeling

·         enrichment work for those exceeding expectations and standards