Course Overview

Course Overview: SophoMorphology 08/09

This ain't yer brother's or sister's sophomore English.

The focus of Fall Semester is on writing. You will almost always be working on a draft of an essay. As a general rule, three out of four class meetings will cover writing, grammar, and vocabulary, while one day will center on Literature.

As we move into Othello, in Quarter 2, I will change up the cycle so that we spend two out of every five class meetings addressing the play.

Quarter 1: Approximately seven weeks: Sept 10--Oct 30

Grammar: parts of speech, parts of a sentence, sentence completeness. Exercises drawn from Grammar for Writing

Writing Assignments: review elements of the paragraph, narrative/descriptive (biographical essay), persuasive (Tabor editorial), literary analysis (short story element). Set up writing workshop and have partners use each week the skills of revising, editing, and proofreading

Literature: select short stories and Fences

Quarter 2: Approximately eight weeks: Oct 31--Jan 19

Grammar: phrases (prep, participial, gerund), clauses, sentence types. Exercises from Grammar for Writing

Writing Assignments: Students will use the three different essay types from Q1 (narrative, persuasive, lit. analysis) to respond to teacher-created topics.

Speech: Prepare persuasive speech before Christmas Break. Use vacation time to memorize and practice--ski lifts and tropical beaches are excellent for this type of exercise--then deliver
speeches in January. Final competition will be around Jan 20th. Serious cash money prizes and mad props to the winners. Would you prefer to attend college at Dartmouth or UMass Dartmouth? This honor could ultimately make the difference for you!

Literature: select short stories and Othello

Quarter 3:

Literature: 1984 and Their Eyes Were Watching God

Quarter 4:

Literature: Zodiac