Teacher Name: Ms. Smith-Kimble (Ms.

Smith is fine)
Room: 110
Course: English 10
Contact Information: SmithKimble@TheMetroSchool.Org
Office Hours: Tuesdays from 3-4 p.m.

Education is what survives when what has been learned

has been forgotten. B. F. Skinner
Course Description & Overview
This course consists of reading, analyzing, and interpreting short stories, speeches, plays, poems, novels and
other non-fictions texts. Students are expected to continue fostering their reading, research, writing, and verbal
skills that will allow them to become effective and knowledgeable communicators. This course will be fast-paced
and it demands the usage of higher-order thinking skills. In addition, it seeks to further develop students ability
to make meaning through asking and answering critical questions. It is anticipated that students will compare,
contrast, construct, argue, infer, evaluate, explain, deduce, summarize, synthesize, revise, write, and take
exams.
In addition, assignments in this course will further the development of the Metro habits: active and
responsible decision-making, effective collaborator, effective communicator, critical thinker, and inquiring and
engaging learner. These assignments will include, but are not limited to: journal writing, note-taking, presenting
learning, collaborating with peers, reading and responding to the writing of others, peer editing, and monitoring
your progress.

Course Objectives
Writing:
Narrative Writing:
Write narrative to develop real experiences or events using well-chosen details and well-structured
event sequences.
Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation, establishing one or
multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a smooth progression
of experiences or events.
Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to
develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the
experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.
Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over
the course of the narrative.
Expository Writing:
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information
clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information to make important connections
and distinctions.
Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete
details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience's knowledge of
the topic.
Use appropriate and varied transitions to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and
clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts.
Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to manage the complexity of the topic.
Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and
conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.
Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or
explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic).
Argumentative Writing:
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning
and relevant and sufficient evidence.
Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an
organization that establishes clear relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and

evidence.
Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly, supplying evidence for each while pointing out the
strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience's knowledge level and
concerns.
Use words, phrases, and clauses to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the
relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s)
and counterclaims.
Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and
conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.
Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.

Reading:
Key Ideas and Details:
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well
as inferences drawn from the text.
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of
the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective
summary of the text.
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over
the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
Craft and Structure:
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and
connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone
(e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).
Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g.,
parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension,
or surprise.
Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside
the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:

Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how
Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by
Shakespeare).

Supplies
Keep in mind that most assignments will be submitted digitally. Students will need to bring the
following with them to class everyday unless instructed otherwise.
Notebook
Folder
Pens & Pencils
Color Pencils
Sticky Notes
Computers

Commitments
Absenteeism/Late Work/Missing Work:
Students will avoid late work at all costs. In the
instance that an assignment is missed due to
absenteeism, consider the following:

In regards to foundational assignments,

students are responsible for consulting
his/her peers to collect notes from their
peers. Handouts, PPTs, and so on will be

Cell Phones:
Phones will be submitted in the cell phone depository at
the beginning of class and may be collected at the end of
class.

In the case that a phone is used during class, it will

be taken.

available on Blue Quill. These assignments

will not be accepted late.
Vocabulary tests must be taken on the
first available office hours date.
Independent Reading Project/Vocabulary
projects will primarily be digital and
because the dates will be provided in
advance, they will not be accepted late.
Mastery assignments will not be accepted
late.

Homework, vocabulary project, I/R project, and

mastery assignment grades can be improved. See
the remediation section.

o
o

1st Transgression: The device will be held

until the end of the day.
2nd Transgression: A parent will be contacted
to come and collect it.

Bullying
This classroom is a safe place for EVERY student. This is
an environment where distinctive qualities will be
appreciated. The culture of this classroom is rooted from
collaboration, teamwork, and open-mindedness. In short,
bullying will not be tolerated.
1st Transgression: Parents will be contacted and a
detention will be served.
2nd Transgression: A referral will be submitted to the
students permanent file.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined as the unacknowledged use another persons work as if this

were your own original work.
Plagiarism will not be tolerated and the consequences will be severe.

Logistics: How You Get Your Points...

Foundational Assignments:
Classwork
Homework
Group Work
All of these assignments will
be out of 10 points.

Mastery Assignments:

End of Unit Essays

End of Unit
Project/Presentations
All of these assignments will
be out of 100 points.

Vocabulary/Independent
Reading:
Vocabulary Tests
(weekly)
Vocabulary Projects
I/R Projects
The points in this section
will vary.

Grading & Remediation

Grading:
Foundational assignments cannot be submitted late and all other assignments will have a due date that
will be far enough in advance that absences should have no impact on timely submissions.
When assignments are not submitted on time, they will be entered into the grade book as a zero (0).
Upon receiving 90% or above on a mastery assignment, foundational assignment grades will shift as
follows:
0 8
3 or 5 9
Note: Perfect scores can only be obtained from initial submission.
Remediation:
At the end of each unit, there will be time allocated towards improving the mastery assignments. During
these days, students will receive individual consultation during class time.

At the end of the year:

If students have not reached mastery in the vocabulary test section, a complied exam that includes all
of the words learned throughout the year will be administered.
If mastery has not been achieved in the vocab/independent reading category, students will need to redo
the projects.