Mr. Sullivan's Expectations for his English III students

Mr. Sullivan's goals for his English III students during the 2008-09 academic year:

• Become a critical thinker;
• Appreciate the writing process.

Click here for the English Department's Policy on Academic Integrity.

Click here for the English III Home page.

Mr. Sullivan's two unconditional rules:

• Must have your text book or required materials (computer, etc) in class;
• Value each other and participate in one conversation. In the words of his Holiness, the 14th Dali Lama, before speaking, consider one's contribution to be sure it is useful and kind.

Grading System:

The following grading weights are an approximate percentage at the beginning of any term. Weights may change due to unforeseen class cancellations or unexpected trends. For example, if students in a particular section are not keeping up with the reading assignments, they may encounter a large number of reading quizzes, and the subsequent weight for these quizzes may alter. Alternatively, if the class has executed a unit or an evaluation well, then weight might increase to reward the positive work.

Effort Grades: At midterm and the end of term, students receive effort grades. In order to supply students with a sense of their approximate effort grade, students will receive effort grades as well as letter grades on large assignments as well as on other smaller assignments, such as keeping an organized notebook for class. In fact, some homework assignments may be graded entirely on the reflected effort. See the Student & Parent Handbook for the delineations of excellent, good, fair and poor.

Planbook: Students don't plan to fail; they only fail to plan. Students must bring their Planbook to class and write down current and future assignments. Keeping a Planbook not only helps students but also helps teachers and advisors when they sit down with a student to work on time management skills and other academic strategies.

Due Dates: students should submit papers at the beginning of class on the day that the paper was due. Papers and assignments will suffer point deductions each time the student crosses the threshold of the classroom. Students should plan to incorporate time to print out their paper.

English III Notebook: Implicit in every reading assignment is the task of taking notes. Thus, student notebooks will begin to make observations of patterns and trends as well as questions in them prior to the day's discussion. Specifically, students should be reading actively and should be underlining and annotating significant passages in their personal copy of the text. Students who actively read and make notes enliven and enrich our class discussion and more importantly create good work habits for working in a college seminar environment. During a large literary test, students may be asked to bring their notebooks for closer examination and evaluation. What is the difference between a fair notebook and an Excellent one? The following are some but not all descriptions:

Excellent: There is abundant evidence of active learning and questioning throughout the notebook. Signs of review exist because the student has chosen a different color ink to review notes and fill in the gaps with additional information from being more comfortable with the material, in this case American literature, or perhaps something from his/her American history class has shed light on a situation in English III. A good example of this instance occurred when students brought great information about Anne Hutchinson to our understanding of Chapter One in The Scarlet Letter. Excellent notebooks also include notes taken during each evening reading assignment. In this case, excellent students trace patterns from previous observations and also write down questions. (Inside joke from English III class: Their miner's lamp is fully lit when they make the journey through the wondrous and adventurous cave of literature!)

Good: A student follows through with the above steps but does so without excellent effort or care. For example, a student may go back and put a day's concept into his/her own words; however, the effort invested into this work is completed in haste.

Fair: a student appears to be copying down words and phrases from the board in a regular manner. Although there are signs of being a good secretary of items and ideas mentioned in class, there is no evidence of review. When we put words or phrases of challenging terms on the board, a student should copy them down in class and try to understand the concept(s). If a student does not understand a concept during class, he/she should put a hand up immediately. Once a student understands the concept, he/she should then jot down a few note that will trigger full comprehension of the concept. That night, the student should review the concept and put a longer explanation of it in a different color ink next to the notes taken in class that day. A great example of this issue was when we covered the three interpretation of YGB. Do your three interpretations in your notebook match the ones that are now on the web page? Click here to check.

Poor: a student may have some of the qualities above but is missing quantities of class discussion. Besides gaps of missing information, the student shows no interest in trying to following any of the above suggestions. A poor effort grade may feel bad at the time it is received, however, it should be viewed as a wake-up call for exam preparation. When a student receives a "poor" effort grade on a notebook, that student was sent an early warning that informs him/her to improve the current note taking system because the current one will not serve as a tool for review!

Class Absences. Know that Mr. Sullivan has to send the Dean of Students office an email if you are not in class on a particular day. It is up to the student to learn about the missing work from a classmate or to send an email to Mr. Sullivan; in either case, do send Mr. Sullivan an email to update him about the nature of your absence. If a student misses a Pop Quiz during when he/she is absent, that student may be given a special Pop Quiz at another time in order to create a fair environment for evaluation that occurred for his/her peers.

SUFFIELD ACADEMY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

Statement on Academic Integrity and Acceptable Practices for Student Work

            The English Department places a very high value on academic honesty. Plagiarism, the act of using another person's words or ideas without giving credit to the source, is seen as contrary to the central purposes of student work in English classes and is treated as a major school rule violation. Individual teachers discuss with their classes the philosophy and policies of the English Department in relation to academic integrity at the outset of each school year. In addition, students are expected to understand the following guidelines:

      At all times, students should follow their teacher’s specific directives regarding appropriate use of primary and secondary resources; in many instances, teachers will expect students to confine their reading to the primary source only. In addition, students must understand the importance of the acceptable use of technology—and that unacceptable use may carry academic as well as disciplinary consequences. Given Suffield's open access to information technology, students should remember that even cursory browsing of Internet sites related to an assigned text will influence their consideration and interpretation of the work.

      Teachers may encourage group work and peer-editing on certain assignments; however, students should understand that unauthorized cooperation is also prohibited. Individual teachers will clearly establish appropriate boundaries for collaboration on specific assignments. When in doubt, students should assume that an assignment—whether a routine vocabulary exercise or a major, analytical essay—is intended as an independent task. 

I have read thoroughly and understand the policies of the English Department regarding academic honesty and acceptable practices for student work.

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