Overview

Daily check-ins, comments, and +1s on Google+ Community are recommended. Assignments, quizzes, and all activity on the Google+ Community must be turned in by the due dates stated in the week's blog post.

Assignments and quizzes coming in time-stamped before 7pm on the due date receive full credit.
Assignments and quizzes coming in time-stamped before 7pm one week later will be docked one point. 

Assignments and quizzes coming in after one week will receive a zero. Students may still post late work after one week, but parents are responsible for grading it and submitting an email to me giving the grade (docked 2 points), the assignment, the reading period, and the extenuating circumstances that caused the lateness. Please note the difference between a history assignment and a quiz. 

Weekly Work

Quizzes
Each week there will be a quiz posted on the blog. Quizzes are open book! Students should email the answers to each week's quiz, with the subject header ANCIENT LITERATURE QUIZ READING PERIOD X, by 7pm Monday. Grades will be given out of ten possible points for ten possible correct answers with occasional bonuses possible. 

Creative Assignments

Each week a creative assignment will be given, connected to the week's reading or a related historical topic. Students will post their completed assignments to the Google+ Community, and will comment on each other's assignments. Grades will be assigned according to effort on the assignment and also communication with other students. 

Writing Assignments

Each week a writing assignment will be given, connected to the week's reading or a related historical topic. Students will post their completed assignments to the Google+ Community, and will comment on each other's assignments. Grades will be assigned according to effort on the assignment and also communication with other students. Students will also submit the writing assignment on paper in Thursday's class, for my comments. 

Paper

In the fall semester, we will be working on a 2000 word persuasive essay, and in the spring semester we will be working on a 2000 word rhetorical analysis of a piece of expository writing. Details and deadlines will appear on a separate page.

Real Literature Project

Our real literature project will be individual this year. Each student will need to figure out a way that they can bring the literature we study into the real world. This could be painting a mural, creating a game, getting a poem published, writing an op-ed, participating in an open mic, writing a children's book, volunteering at a literary festival, or many many other things.

Presentation

In accordance with the VA SOLs for high school English, each student will give a 5 to 10 minute oral presentation each semester. The first presentation will be a persuasive speech, using specific rhetorical strategies. The second one will demonstrate or explain the student's Real Literature Project.

Tests

There will be a midterm and a final, to be completed during class.

Grade Percentages:

Quizzes: 20%
Paper: 20%
Creative/Writing Assignments: 20%
Participation: 10%
Tests 20%
Project/Presentation: 10%