Syllabus – English Lit./Bi-Annual Literary Magazine
Instructor: Mr. Tepper
Email: thestaticshock@gmail.com
Telephone: 310-424-0746
Prerequisite: None
About the class: This class is part traditional English Literature class, whose aim is to better understand reading and writing, and also part production class, whose aim is to produce an actual literary publication. The focus will be on improving the students’ reading and writing, artistic appreciation, editing, and desktop publishing skills. Additional benefits include experience in teamwork, project leadership, communications, literature interpretation, marketing and technology.
• Literature Strain. This course helps students understand literature by emphasizing critical reading and character analysis. Students study The Outsiders, House On Mango Street, To Kill A Mockingbird, and a work by Shakespeare, among others, and short stories. Students also analyze and write poetry and learn the basics of grammar by identifying vocabulary, as well as the parts of simple sentences.
• Writing strain. Students will submit weekly works that experiment in poetry, fiction, personal essays and screenplays/drama. These works will be published for the entire class to discuss and edit, with the best ones submitted for publication in the magazine. Part of this process will involve reading both professional and student work to prepare them for writing and editing.
• Editing strain. Students will learn skills for peer editing their classmates’ pieces.
Assessment:
• Portfolio. Students will build a portfolio of their work for presentation at the end of each nine weeks. Meeting the rubric for this will involve having a complete portfolio that shows growth in each strain. Students will reflect on their work as well. This will be 50 percent of their grade.
• Tests/Quizzes. Students will have a literature/vocabulary quiz/test roughly once every two weeks. These tests/quizzes will constitute 25 percent of their grade.
• Weekly work. A combination grade of weekly in-class participation, meeting deadlines and quality of effort will occur each week, making up the last 25 percent of their grades.
Class Structure:
The structure of class will be conducted on around two week blocks that look roughly like this:
Week 1:
Monday:
Classwork: Literature reading & analysis.
Homework: Weekly reading assignment and Literary Magazine writing assignment assigned. Weekly vocabulary words assigned.
Tuesday:
Classwork: Literature reading & analysis.
Wednesday:
Classwork: Literary Magazine Writing Workshop and/or time given in class to read (for weekly reading assignment).
Thursday:
Classwork: Literary Magazine Writing Workshop and/or time given in class to read (for weekly reading assignment).
Friday:
Classwork: Literary Magazine Writing Workshop and/or time given in class to read (for weekly reading assignment).
