SCHEDULE

Week 1                    Orientation; Delta Winds; Summary Writing

Week 2                    Quiz 1: The Glass Castle (1—47); Quiz 2 TGC (48—94)

Week 3                    Quiz 3 TGC (94—159); Quiz 4 TGC (160—203)

Week 4                    Quiz 5 TGC (204—235); Quiz 6 TGC (236—288)

Week 5                    Midterm; Quiz 7 House of Sand and Fog (15—63)

Week 6                    Quiz 8 HSF (64—109)

Week 7                    Quiz 9 HSF (110—163); Quiz 10 HSF (164—218)

Week 8                    Quiz 11 HSF (221—272)

Week 9                    Quiz 12 HSF (273—324); Quiz 13 HSF (325—365)

Week 10                  Responses due; Reading for First Draft 1; Quiz 14 Born to Run (3-38)

Week 11                  First Draft 1; Reading for First Draft 2; Quiz 15 BTR (39—84)

Week 12                  First Draft 2; Quiz 16 BTR (85—122)

Week 13                  Quiz 17 BTR (123—160); Readings for Practice Mastery Exams

Week 14                  Rewrite due; Practice Mastery Exams; Peer Review

Week 15                  THE MASTERY EXAM WILL BE OFFERED ONLY ON MONDAY; Quiz 18 BTR (161—198)

Week 16                  Quiz 19 BTR (199—244); No class on Wednesday, May 9^.

Week 17                  Bring all of your essays to class. Results of Mastery Reading. Quiz 20 BTR (245—282); Final Review

Week 18                  Final Examination

Course Components:

To pass English 79, students must pass the mastery exam and must accumulate at least 700 points from the following course components:

Participation

Participation is worth 5% of your grade. You can earn a maximum of 50 points by the end of the semester. By the end of the semester, participation can make the difference between a C or a B. Writing exercises are considered part of your participation. Be on time for class and be prepared to write on the readings for the day. Students who use electronic devices during class time will be counted as absent. Students who are late two times are counted as absent, and students who leave class early two times are counted as absent.

Handouts

Handouts will be worth 5% of your grade. You can earn a maximum of 100 points by completing handouts on grammar areas and sentence combining strategies.

Quizzes

Quizzes will be worth 20% of your grade. Each quiz is worth ten points. The quizzes check for your understanding of the readings. As soon as class starts, you should be prepared to identify words or phrases from the texts. No discussion is allowed. Just write down your answers and hand in the quiz. Expect a quiz every class on fifty pages of reading.

Midterm

The midterm is worth 5% of your grade. You will have to write five pages on a topic related to The Glass Castle.

Responses

Responses comprise 5% of your grade. The act of responding through writing is a good way to improve both writing and reading skills. These writings do not have to be in an essay format, but they do have to be in sentences and paragraphs. For the responses, write ten typed pages responding to chapters from House of Sand and Fog. You have alternatives to choose from. You can use discussion topics provided in handouts to respond to. Or you can choose to summarize the events and respond in your own way. Complete the total number of pages required to get the total number of points. By writing ten full pages of single-spaced work, you can earn 100 points. Use 12-point type. No extra spacing!

In a response, use your own words. But if you add a quotation, then use the EXACT words of the author and use quotation marks to indicate the words belong to another person. Do this whenever you use three or more words from the writer. Do not use more than three quotes from the writer for this assignment.

The due date for the responses is listed in the schedule. Do not hand in your individual responses separately. I suggest that you write your responses in a word processing program. Keep all of your responses together in one document. The responses will be collected one time during the semester.

Essays

The essays are worth 15% of your grade. Each essay assignment is worth a maximum of 50 points. Two of the essays are timed first drafts. You have a limited amount of time—one hour and twenty minutes—to write these essays. The last essay assignment is a rewrite of one of your first drafts. Do not rewrite your essay until your first draft has been returned to you and you have read the comments on your first draft. After reading over the sample essays in the English 79 Mastery Essay Information Packet, you should have some familiarity with writing an essay in response to a reading passage. The packet is available on the English Department web site under Student Resources.

—First Drafts

Essays assignments One and Two consist of first drafts. You have to write a complete essay in one hour and twenty minutes. This method of writing only a first draft prepares you for the mastery exam, which cannot be revised. See the rubric for specific information on the scores for these essays. The grade you earn for the first draft is the final grade for your essay. While writing your first drafts, you can have a copy of the essay you are responding to in front of you.

You can also use dictionaries for your writing, but I would not recommend using them until you are finished writing a complete essay. If you have finished the main writing of your essay and you still have some more time, then take out your dictionary and check for words you have in question. In general, spelling points are not as critical as development of ideas and organization.

—Rewrite

This essay assignment consists of two parts--the first draft and the rewrite. Choose one of your first drafts to rewrite. Your rewrite is required to be 1000 words. You earn from 32 to 50 points for completing the rewrite of one of your first drafts.

After you have completed the first drafts, your instructor will read them and provide some comments for feedback. Be sure to read these comments before you begin rewriting your first draft. Highlight any words and sentences that you add in the rewrite. Make changes in the organization, in the development of your ideas, in your transitions, in your sentence variety, and in your word choice. You have time to make the essay look the way you want. Good writing usually takes much time and effort. Be prepared to spend considerable time revising your essay.

Some of you may be unclear about the meaning of revising. First of all, if you just copy the draft and do not change it, you are not revising your work. That would just be copying. Second, you may think revising means adding a new paragraph to the end of the essay. This is also not revising.

Revising involves making many changes throughout the essay, not just at the end. Revising requires taking a step away from your own creation to look at it critically. Try to be objective. Remember that even though an idea is clear in your own mind, the idea may not be clear in the reader's mind, so check every little point for clarity. And develop every point with more information than you think is necessary. In general, the more details you provide the better. When you are nearly completed with the revisions, check to be sure that you have revised the areas mentioned in the comments to your first draft.

Mastery Exam

The Mastery Exam is worth 40% of your grade. Every English 79 course at Delta College is required to count the mastery exam as 40% of the course grade. The mastery exam allows students one hour and twenty minutes to complete an essay in response to a reading passage. For more information on the mastery exam, read the English 79 Mastery Essay Information Packet, which is in print late into the semester. A previous version of the handbook is available under the English Department web site. The handbook for this semester can be purchased in the bookstore and includes the reading passage to be used for the mastery exam, sample exams, the grading procedure, and more. The actual topics for the mastery essay will not be in the handbook and will not be provided beforehand. For the mastery exam, you will have two topics.

As required for all English 79 courses, the mastery exam will be read and graded by two English instructors. These English instructors will not provide any written comments on your mastery exams, so you will not be given specific reasons for the score your mastery exam receives. The readers give scores from 1 to 5, depending on the quality of your work. Five is the highest score. The two scores are averaged to determine a final score. A 4 and a 5 become a 4.5; a 3 and a 4 results in a 3.5; a 2 and a 3 is viewed as a 2.5. The score of 3 and above is passing. If the two scores average out to 2.5, then a third reader is brought in. The 2.5 area is critical since a 2 would not be a passing score, but a 3 would be a passing score. In a case like this, a third reader casts the vote that determines the outcome. In regards to the scoring, basically, a 5 is A Level, a 4 is B Level, a 3 is C Level. See the rubric for more details. The reading of the mastery exams occurs the week after the mastery examination.

Final Examination

The Final Examination is worth 5% of your grade. The final examination will cover Born to Run.

Course Educational Objectives:

All of the students who successfully complete the course work for English 79 will be able to express themselves in the basic essay format and will show an understanding of the rules of Standard Written English. The students will be able to develop paragraphs to support a thesis in an organized essay. Students will have sufficient writing skills to complete college writing tasks successfully.

Supplementary Material:

In addition to the reader, students in any English 79 course are required to obtain the English 79: Mastery Essay Information Packet, Spring 2012. Instead of buying this packet, students in this class may access an older version of the packet online by going to the English Department home page under Student Resources.

Explanation of Grading Criteria:

Participation                                5%

Handouts                                    5%

Quizzes                                     20%

Midterm                                      5%

Responses                                 5%

Essays                                      15%

Mastery Exam                           40%

Final Exam                                  5%

NOTE: This is extremely important. The above method of evaluation will be used only for students who pass the mastery exam. The above method of evaluation will not be used for students who do not pass the mastery exam. Students who do not pass the mastery exam probably will not pass the course. Even if you have 700 points in the course, you most likely will not pass the course if you do not pass the mastery exam. However, students who do not pass the mastery may have a second chance to pass the course through the portfolio process, but the portfolio process is only available under the following conditions. If the student has been maintaining an A/B average on all previous essays and if the student has completed all of the assignments prior to the mastery exam, the student may be able to pass the course by submitting a portfolio of assignments from this class. This portfolio must then be approved by a board of English 79 instructors. We will not know the results of the Portfolio Reading until finals week. The students involved in the portfolio process will be notified of the results through email. It is vital that students keep all of their old work just in case the work is needed for the portfolio. So, do not throw away your writing for this class. Your results for the mastery exam and for the portfolio process are not determined by your instructor. The results are determined by a group of English 79 instructors.

Scoring of Assignments

There are 1000 points possible in the course. This chart shows the number of points for the mastery examination:

For Mastery Exam—400 points possible:

5.0=400

4.5=352

4.0=344

3.5=312

3.0=304

2.0=264

1.5=220

1.0=200

Explanation of Procedures:

You are expected to complete your work within the scheduled dates. I recommend that you keep up with these writing activities. Completing all of the work before the mastery exam is essential because you need to write your best work for the mastery and you will not be able to make up out-of-class work after “W” Day.

Any student who hands in writing that has not been written by the student is plagiarizing. Any assignment using plagiarism will result in 0 points for the assignment. This grade makes it unlikely that the student will pass the course. Refer to the English Department’s Plagiarism Policy in this packet.

If you hand in an assignment late, do not expect to receive any marks or comments. If you wish to receive marks and comments, hand in your work on time. Please keep me informed through email or talk to me before or after class if you wish to tell me something or if you’d like to arrange a meeting.

RUBRIC

Participation

5% of total grade. 50 points possible.

A Level=45-50 points

--The student has excellent attendance (0-1 absences)

--The student does not use cell phones during class.

--The student consistently prepares for class by reading and studying the reading selections and completing exercises from the text.

--The student interacts regularly with fellow students in group-work.

--Writing activities show careful thought and attention to the readings.

B Level=40-44 points

--The student has very good attendance (2-4 absences)

--The student does not use cell phones during class.

--The student frequently prepares for class by reading and studying the reading selections and completing exercises from the text.

--The student interacts with fellow students in group-work.

--Writing activities show careful thought and attention to the readings.

C Level=35-39 points

--The student has fair attendance (5-7 absences)

--The student does not use cell phones during class.

--The student sometimes prepares for class by reading and studying the reading selections and completing exercises from the text.

--The student interacts with fellow students in group-work.

--Writing activities show careful thought and attention to the readings.

D Level=20-34 points

--The student has poor attendance (more than 8 absences)

--The student uses cell phones during class.

--The student rarely prepares for discussion by reading and studying the reading selections and the discussion topics from the text.

--The student seldom interacts with fellow students in group-work.

--Writing activities lack careful thought and attention to the readings.

Handouts

5% of total grade. 50 points possible.

There will be many handouts during the semester. Some of these handouts will be graded and included in the course gradebook.

Quizzes

20% of total grade. 200 points possible.

There are twenty quizzes worth a total of 200 points. Each quiz is worth a maximum of 10 points. No make up quizzes will be allowed. The quizzes will be on The Glass Castle, House of Sand and Fog, and Born to Run.

Midterm

5% of total grade. 50 points possible.

The midterm will be based on The Glass Castle.

Responses

5% of total grade. 50 points possible.

For all levels, responses are expected to be appropriate to the course.

A Level=45-50 points

--The student responds to House of Sand and Fog.

--Total of 10 full pages, single-spaced, 12 point type.

--100% of the required number of single-spaced pages is completed.

--The student shows full understanding of the reading passage.

--The student identifies and evaluates supporting evidence in the passage.

--The student carefully analyzes the reading and draws logical conclusions.

--The writing shows use of sentences and paragraphs.

--The work is completed by the due date.

B Level=40-44 points

--The student responds to House of Sand and Fog.

--Total of 8 full pages, single-spaced, 12 point type.

--85% of the required number of single-spaced pages is completed.

--The student shows understanding of the reading passage.

--The student identifies and evaluates supporting evidence in the passage.

--The student carefully analyzes the reading and draws logical conclusions.

--The writing shows use of sentences and paragraphs.

--The work is completed by the due date.

C Level=35-39 points

--The student responds to House of Sand and Fog.

--Total of 7 full pages, single-spaced, 12 point type.

--75% of the required number of single-spaced pages is completed.

--The student shows some understanding of the reading passage.

--The student identifies and evaluates supporting evidence in the passage.

--The student adequately analyzes the reading and draws logical conclusions.

--The writing shows use of sentences and paragraphs.

--The work is completed by the due date.

D Level=20-34 points

--The student responds to House of Sand and Fog.

--Total of 6 full pages, single-spaced, 12 point type.

--65% of the required number of single-spaced pages is completed.

--The student does not show understanding of the reading passage.

--The student fails to evaluate supporting evidence in the passage.

--The student fails to analyze the reading and draw logical conclusions.

--The writing shows use of sentences and paragraphs.

--The work is completed by the due date.

Essays

15% of total grade. 150 points possible.

For all levels, essays are expected to be appropriate to the course. There are three essay assignments worth a total of 150 points. Each essay is worth a maximum of 50 points.

A Level=47-50 points

-- The essay is organized and focused on one main idea. The essay uses separate paragraphs and contains an introduction, body, and conclusion.

--The essay is extremely clear. Varied logical transitions are used to make connections between ideas. Specific and original word usage is used to make points easily understood and memorable.

--The essay is developed. The main ideas are supported with considerable length. The supporting sentences contain vivid details and examples.

--The essay uses sentence variety. The sentences show a mastery of various, complex sentence patterns. The sentences are complete and not fragmented or run on.

--The essay addresses the writing topic. The essay shows a thorough understanding of the topic and any related reading prompt and directions.

--The essay may, but most likely does not, contain minimal errors in grammar, mechanics, and word order.

B Level=42-44 points

-- The essay is organized and focused on one main idea. The essay uses separate paragraphs and contains an introduction, body, and conclusion.

--The essay is clear. Varied logical transitions are used to make connections between ideas. Specific word usage is used to make points easily understood.

--The essay is developed. The main ideas are supported with considerable length. The supporting sentences contain vivid details and examples.

--The essay uses sentence variety. The sentences show a strong understanding of various sentence patterns. The sentences are complete and not fragmented or run on.

--The essay addresses the writing topic. The essay shows a clear understanding of the topic and any related reading prompt and directions.

--The essay contains minimal errors in grammar, mechanics, and word order.

C Level=37-39 points

-- The essay is organized and focused on one main idea. The essay uses separate paragraphs and contains an introduction, body, and conclusion.

--The essay is clear. A minimal number of logical transitions are used to make connections between ideas. Word usage is understandable.

--The essay is developed. The main ideas are supported with sufficient length. The supporting sentences contain details and examples.

--The essay uses sentence variety. The sentences show a control of various sentence patterns. The sentences are almost always complete and not fragmented or run on.

--The essay addresses the writing topic. The essay shows an understanding of the topic and any related reading prompt and directions.

--The essay may contain some errors in grammar, mechanics, and word order.

D Level=32-34 points

-- The essay is not organized and focused on one main idea. The essay uses separate paragraphs but does not contain an introduction, body, and conclusion.

--The essay is not clear. Logical transitions are not used sufficiently to make connections between ideas. Word usage is not understandable.

--The essay is not adequately developed. The main ideas are not supported with sufficient length. The supporting sentences do not contain details and examples.

--The essay does not use sentence variety. The sentences do not show a control of various sentence patterns. The sentences are not complete and are fragmented or run on.

--The essay does not address the writing topic. The essay does not show a clear understanding of the topic and any related reading prompt and directions.

--The essay contains considerable errors in grammar, mechanics, and word order.

Mastery Exam

40% of total grade. 400 points possible.

The following information is taken from the English Department's Scoring Guide for the Mastery Exam.

A Level=400 points

An A essay clearly demonstrates competence in writing in both form and content, although it may have occasional errors. An A essay

--effectively addresses the writing task;

--is well-organized;

--develops the thesis with details and examples;

--demonstrates sentence variety.

B Level=344 points

A B essay demonstrates competence in writing in both form and content, though it will have occasional errors. A B essay

--may address some parts of the writing task more effectively than others;

--is generally well-organized, though it may be more formulaic than an A essay;

--develops the thesis with a sufficient number of details and/or examples;

--displays competence with English grammar, although errors will occur;

--demonstrates some sentence variety.

C Level=304 points

A C essay shows beginning competence in writing in both form and content. A C essay

--addresses the writing task but may address it in a partial or incomplete way;

--is adequately organized (and many not contain five paragraphs);

--uses some details and/or examples to support the thesis;

--demonstrates adequate but inconsistent or undistinguished facility with grammar and syntax.

D Level=264 points

A D essay remains clearly flawed in either form or content, although it may demonstrate some competence. A D essay

--responds inadequately to the writing task;

--fails to organize ideas in a logical way;

--fails to support the thesis with specific examples;

--accumulates errors in grammar and/or syntax to a distracting degree.

F Level=200 points

An F essay clearly demonstrates incompetence in writing. An F essay

--fails to respond to the writing task;

--shows no control of organization;

--fails to develop the thesis with specific details or examples;

--demonstrates serious and persistent errors with grammar and syntax.

Final Exam

5% of total grade. 50 points possible.

The final exam will involve essay questions on Born to Run.

STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES

I encourage students with disabilities, including non-visible disabilities such as chronic diseases, learning disabilities, head injury and attention deficit/hyperactive disorder, to talk with me after class or during my office hour. Any student with a documented disability needing academic adjustments or accommodations is requested to speak with the professor as soon as possible. All discussions will remain confidential. If you have not already done so, please register with the Disabled Support Programs and Services (located in the DeRicco Student Services Building). This office is responsible for coordinating accommodations and services for students with disabilities.

ATTENDANCE POLICY

POLICY 5150 ACSEN

5150        Absence From Class

A. Any student who fails to attend any class session during the first three sessions of the class at the beginning of a term may be dropped from that class unless the student has advised and obtained an absence approval from the faculty member.  The foregoing statement will be read by every faculty member to every class at the first session and for as many subsequent sessions as the faculty member feels to be necessary.

B. A faculty member shall mandatorily drop a student from a class when the student's absences, prior to the end of the fourth week of the semester, exceed two weeks of class time (i.e., 2 x the number of times the class meets per week throughout the semester).  After the fourth week, the faculty member may dismiss a student from class when at any time during the semester the student's absences for any reason reach three times the number of times the class meets per week prior to the last day of the fourteenth week of the semester.  No drops will be allowed from a credit class after the last day of the fourteenth week of the semester;  a grade must be issued.

PLAGIARISM POLICY

One of the most important principles of a college education is intellectual honesty. In preparing for successful careers and rewarding private lives, you should be aware that nothing is more important than establishing and maintaining your own integrity. As a student, you demonstrate integrity by doing your own work and by giving credit to others whose words, facts, or ideas help you.

Plagiarism is a fundamental violation of intellectual honesty. It is the act of using another writer’s words, facts, or ideas without giving credit to that writer by using proper methods of documentation. In other words, plagiarism is a form of stealing. It is a very serious intellectual crime, and it is severely punishable. A student who submits plagiarized work in a college class may receive an "F" on the plagiarized assignment and an "F" as the final grade in the course in which the assignment is submitted; furthermore, an instructor who receives a plagiarized essay may petition to have the student who submitted the essay dismissed from the college entirely, even in the middle of a semester. The result in such a case can be that a student who submits one plagiarized paper in one class loses credit for a whole semester’s work in all of his or her classes. Therefore, it is important for every student to learn to use proper documentation methods and to take very seriously the responsibility to give credit to other writers.

The first step in giving credit to another writer is to use quotation marks around any words, with the exception of an indented quotation, that are taken directly from another text.  Use of these quotation marks is the most basic way of telling the reader that you did not write these words yourself. For example, you might quote this sentence from Richard Rodriguez’s essay, "The Achievement of Desire": "After years spent unwilling to admit its attractions, I gestured nostalgically toward the past." If you use these words without the quotation marks, this is plagiarism. If you change a few words but keep the same idea, that is also plagiarism. For example, if the writer says, "After a period of time unwilling to admit its attractions, I thought nostalgically of the past," this is plagiarism. Changing "years" to "a period of time" and "gestured" to "thought" is not enough to be a real paraphrase. You would be relying too much on the author and not enough on yourself. Also, the idea of the nostalgic gesture to the past belongs to Rodriquez and must be credited to him.

A second step in giving credit to another writer is to use signal phrases, source notes, and bibliography entries to identify the source of the words, facts, or ideas that you are borrowing. A signal phrase identifies the author and/or the title within the structure of your sentence. For example, you might say,

Richard Rodriquez observes in "The Achievement of Desire" that he "gestured nostalgically to the past" (29).

In Modern Language Association (MLA) style, a source note is placed in parentheses after the borrowed words, facts, or ideas. A complete listing of the source, with the author’s full name, the title, and the date and place of publication, is included in the Works Cited page at the end of the essay. In the example cited above, the page number appears in parentheses by itself because the author’s name is already stated in the sentence; if the author’s name is not identified previously in the sentence, the quotation and source note will appear like this:

"After years spent unwilling to admit its attractions, I gestured nostalgically toward the past" (Rodriguez  29).

At the end of the essay, an entry in the Works Cited page will appear like this:

Rodriguez, Richard. "The Achievement of Desire." Rpt. in The Critical Reader,Thinker, and Writer. Eds. W. Ross Winterowd and Geoffrey R. Winterowd. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 1992. 12-32.

Instructors in some classes do not want students to use MLA documentation style, but it is still important for students to show where their information came from. Students should learn to use whatever documentation style the instructor requests.  Footnotes (raised numbers in your text and an explanatory note at the bottom of the page or at the end of the essay, along with a bibliography at the end of the essay) may be preferred by some instructors.

One mistake that student writers often make is to assume that putting a source note in parentheses after quoted words is enough to show that the words are not your own. Quotation marks and a source note are needed to give proper credit to your source. When you are quoting, you must use the exact words of the author and you must put them in quotation marks, unless you indent a long quotation, in which case the indentation replaces the quotation marks to show what you have borrowed.

A second mistake that student writers often make is to paraphrase too closely to the original source. If you find yourself tempted to use the words, phrases, and sentence structures of the writer from whom you are borrowing, you may find it helpful to put the source aside before you begin to paraphrase. Read a passage carefully, think about it, and then write a summary, an explanation, or an interpretation of what you have read in your own words.

A third mistake that is causing problems for many student writers is the assumption that information taken from online sources can be "cut and pasted" into essays without worrying about proper documentation. This assumption is completely wrong. All of the rules of documentation for standard printed sources apply to online sources as well, with the addition that you must also include documentation of the date the information was posted, the date of your access, and the electronic source path.  An example of a Works Cited entry for an online source follows:

Gill, Brian. Home page. 22 Apr. 2002. 28 June 2002.

< http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/bgill >

There are many websites offering to supply ready-made essays for students, but the use of these essays is dishonest and a blatant form of plagiarism. Faculty members have access to sophisticated software programs that identify plagiarized passages from virtually any online source. Whenever you use online sources, take pains first to evaluate the credibility of the source, and then follow the documentation procedures outlined here to make sure that you give proper credit for any words, facts, or ideas that you have borrowed.

(The above statement was written by Dr. Phil Hutcheon, English Department, San Joaquin Delta College.)