11^th Grade A-1 I.B. English

Welcome

Mr. Tallman

to IB English.

This is a literature class. Over the next two years, you’ll read more than 15 books for the course. I hope all by itself that provides enjoyment and interest. If you don’t share my love of reading and literature, you’ll at least have to give it a try. Besides being a key to solving many of the big questions on the planet about how humans can live together in a more civilized and open way, literature should open your own mind to new ideas and generate a dialogue with yourself. As far as studying the works goes, it can be usually be boiled down to answering two main questions: What are authors trying to achieve? How do they achieve it?

But first: The top 4 rules in this classroom:

1. Please do not speak out of turn. Step one is always to listen. Then think. Raise your hand third. Then wait your turn. It’s simple politeness, with a dash of maturity.

2. Please do not get out of your seat without permission. It’s amazing how much more smoothly everything goes when this rule is followed. I don’t know why; it’s a mystery. But if you need to leave your seat (to throw something away, for example), raise your hand and wait to be given permission, even if it seems odd or silly to you.

3. Please remember that every person’s contributions to the class are valuable. In this class, no one should ever be afraid to say something. You and I will make sure everyone gets respect.

4. Please come to class prepared—prepared to work with all books and supplies (yes this means you, and yes this includes your own paper and writing utensil), and prepared to learn with an attitude of seriousness and purpose. Or at least politeness. Even if you’re having a bad day.

You will need the following supplies for this class:

• An A-4 or 8½” X 11” sized book to use as a journal, either spiral or staple binding, with LINED, not squared, paper. A skinny, 50-page journal should be enough. This notebook will be for journal entries only. I will assign you journal topics to write in it.

• Lined paper for taking notes and other class work. This paper should fit in your notebook in an organized way. When I ask you to take out a piece of paper in class, you should have your own paper ready to use, not be looking around the room asking to borrow paper (nor using tiny, torn scraps).

• A black pen of YOUR OWN. This is required for all in-class writing I collect. If I’m not collecting it, you may write in pencil—if you have one, and your own eraser & sharpener. Please note that my class is a NO White-Out, NO correction fluid class. I’m peculiar about this. Do not use any liquid paper correction fluid product in my class.

NOTE: This is a two year course.

Everything we do this year builds toward, and prepares you for, your major IB assessments, which take place next year. The content all relates to the IB examinations and tasks, and the assignments are all practices for them. In a way, this is just “teaching to the test,” which is something I’d normally both dislike and find boring. However, the IB A-1 English curriculum happens to be an interesting—even fascinating—one, and the IB assessments are varied and useful. So this is a nice chance to do two things at the same time: read and discuss lots of interesting things from a wide variety of places, and acquire the skills you’ll need to succeed in for the English part of your IB diploma.

The Course, Briefly:

We will start the year with an overview of the course theme and aims.

We’ll also review your summer reading, the novel 1984, by George Orwell.

Other major course literature includes: the novels Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, and Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; the plays Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca and Oedipus the King by Sophocles; short stories by Edgar Allan Poe.

Grading:

Your EBV quarter grades are made up of the following categories. (Tests and quizzes are probably pretty clear, but the other categories will be explained in more detail during class.)

Journal Assignments/Homework: 20%

Tests/Written Assignments: 35%

Quizzes/Smaller Assignments: 25%

Oral Activities/Commentaries: 20%

Am I going too fast for you?

Is your brain overloaded?

Do you have an enquiring mind that wants to know more, more, more?

Would you like to discover the secret source of higher grades?

Would you like to appear highly organized though if your backpack is a black hole of crumpled papers?

Are you in the mood to waste a bunch of time learning all there is to know about your new English class?

Fret no more! Look no further!

The place for you is waiting on the internet:

www.tallmania.com

Class handouts, extra resources, contests!

Go home, log on, and check it out tonight.

Are you ready?

A Good Year Starts NOW.

(Actually, the year is going to start whether you’re ready or not. But it’s always better to be ready.)