Summer Syllabus 2018

Topics in Literature

Summer 2018

Ms. Fichera

Course Outline

            First, I want to say that I think you made an awesome decision in signing up for this class, so congratulations.  You are going to love it! And so am I. J  I just want to go over some basics here, but I’ll talk more in person at our various meetings.  The reason I’m putting this outline in writing now is so you can get started because I know a lot of you want to. Here goes.

1.      Choose a topic.  This can be virtually anything you are really interested in, but it can’t be what you just did your history research paper on.  It can be related but not the same.  So see me if you have questions about that.

2.      Use the link to my class blog that I sent you via School Loop.  It has a lot of guidelines and examples and also has links to all of my students’ blogs from this year.  I’m keeping this up rather than creating a new one for you because of all of the example topics and blogs it contains.  It’s a great resource and you should spend time exploring it before doing anything else.

3.      Set up your own blog, specific for this class, on Blogger.  Ms. Costello can help you with this, or you might already know how to do it.  Don’t use a blog you already have.  You need to set up a new one.

4.      Loop mail me the link to your blog so I can add it to my site and access your blog anytime.  This way you can also access each other’s blogs anytime.

5.      Choose books on your topic that equal a thousand pages or more.  Again, ask me, your parents, Ms. Costello, other teachers, etc., for help in choosing them. 

6.      Have your blog set up and all of the books in your hand when we meet again during finals week. (I’ll loop mail you a date and time.)

7.      The class officially starts during finals, but you can start now if you want.  (And I encourage you to because then you’ll be done earlier, make your summer easier, etc.)

Requirements:

1,000 pages of reading on your topic, annotated

200 vocab words found and defined

10 quotation blogs

10 analytical blogs

10 “quick burst” blogs                           

Ten hour active project at the end and 1,000 word blog reflection on it

Reminder:

This class replaces and entire semester of you going to class five days a week and most likely doing homework for at least four of them.  Signing up for it and doing it at the end of the school year and beginning of the summer is a no brainer.  You are going to learn a ton about a topic that you are really interested in and have something awesome to show on your college application (if you decide to go that route).  Do not drop it except for in extremely extenuating circumstances; it would be a huge mistake because this is going to be a great experience.  Let’s keep checking in before finals and get everyone on a roll. J