COURSE OUTLINE FOR ORIENTATION

Pat Wyatt

Subject Area: English

Topics: learning to be a productive member of a community, conflict resolution, self-examination

Skills:

1. Students will be able to write four-paragraph expository essays.

2. Students will be able to write narrative essays.

3. Students will be able to work in small groups.

4. Students will be able to revise their own work.

5. Students will be able to constructively critique others written work.

6. Students will learn how to function and be a positive asset in a community.

7. Students will be able to give oral presentations to an audience of their peers.

8. Students will be able to make meaningful and realistic short and long term goals.

Assessments:

The instructor and the students will use rubrics to examine, analyze, critique and revise all class work in the following areas: group discussions, oral presentations, writing assignments. Students will be given major examinations in the following areas: conflict resolution and literature.

Instructional Materials:

1.Conflict Resolution Workbook by Ruth Perlstein and Gloria Thrall

2. The Pigman

3. poems and short stories by various authors in various texts

4. biographical excerpts and essays by Richard Wright

Instructional Strategies:

The students will examine themselves in several ways. They will create time lines that chronologize the important positve and negative events in their lives. They will create collages that represent their personalities (how they see themselves). They will write short essays about the positve and negative habits they have developed in and out of school. During all of this, they will be reading literature which relates to their writing assignments. And, all of this will be used to aid them as they create their final project: an autobiographical essay.

The students will also develop a revision portfolio during the course of this semester. They will have to collect completed assignments from all of their classes which demonstrate their ability to revise their own work. The portfolio will be saved and can be used for future projects and classes they will have as they progress in their studies at this school. To conclude, the students will always share their work with some or all of their classmates.

Instructors: Patricia Wyatt and Barbara Gottlieb