Marc & Eva Stern Math And Science School

English Language Arts Handbook

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Stern MASS Titans Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools

Los Angeles, CA 2010-2011

Introduction

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Introduction

This English Language Arts (ELA) Handbook is designed to aid students with writing and

interpretation while at Marc And Eva Stern Math And Science School (Stern MASS). It is

designed to guide students to more sophisticated and clearer communication and analyses.

However, this handbook is not meant to be a substitute for a teacher’s instruction, but it is meant

to serve as a reference when completing compositions and analyses for history, science, math,

economics, and especially English. Students are expected to keep this handbook and bring it

to class everyday for the duration of their stay at Stern MASS. If it is lost, students may

purchase a new one from the Main office (the first copy is provided by the school). Major

additions to the handbook will be provided to students through their English teacher each year.

Acknowledgements Since the very nature of good teaching centers on the sharing and creating of materials, many of

an instructor’s ideas and handouts often spring from those of other teachers. Such is surely the

case for the materials in this handbook. Although much of the handbook was created or adapted

by teachers in the Stern Mass English Department, when an original source was known,

credit was given.

Known Direct and Indirect Contributors From Outside the English Department: Modern Language Association (MLA) American Psychology Association (APA) Chino Hills English Department Sacramento County Office of Education Helix Charter

Westview High School Los Angeles Public Library

Contributors of Student Sample Papers:

Jannet Galicia, Marlon Olmedo, Debbie Ortiz, Bianca Tejada

Table of Contents

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Beginning Page

Marc & Eva Stern M.A.S.S. English Department Policies 1

Revision & Extension Guidelines 2

Academic Honesty 3

Outside Reading Requirement 5

Rubric: English Department Persuasive Essay Grade 9 & 10 11

Rubric: English Department ATP Grade 9 14

Rubric: English Department ATP Grade 10 16

Rubric: English Department ATP Grade 10 Honors 18

Rubric: English Department Narrative Grade 9 & 10 20

Rubric: English Department ATP/Persuasive Grade 11 23

Rubric: English Department ATP/Persuasive Grade 12 25

Close Reading Strategies 28

Reading & Analysis Strategies: Theme & Tone 30

MLA Style Guide 32

APA Style Guide 52

Student Sample Paper: ATP Excerpt Grade 11 59

Sentence Trees 65

Literary Terms List 69

Timed Write Guidelines 70

Essay Writing Process 74

Turnitin.com Procedures 78

Student Sample Paper: Response to Literature Excerpt Grade 12 AP Lit 80

Student Sample Paper: Persuasive Essay Excerpt Grade 11 83

Student Sample Paper: Response to Literature Excerpt Grade 11 86

Policies

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1. 9th and 10th grade students have one opportunity to re-take assessments only after required

additional instruction and reflection between assessment administrations.

2. No late work will be accepted for second semester Honors English students.

3. No late work/retakes will be accepted for grades 11 and 12. (Visit our late policies).

4. All pieces of the essay (the entire process) must come in with the final draft; (each teacher

will determine the parts of the process required for each essay).

5. Students who do not turn in an essay on time will be required to sign an acknowledgement

of such on their cover sheet, which will be a permanent part of their portfolio.

6. All final drafts of essays must be typed using the MLA format and will be turned in

through TURNITIN.COM.

7. ATP (Annual Thesis Project) final drafts will be in APA format for 10th and 11th grade.

The 12th grade ATP is an academic journal article in APA format. 9th grade is a research

paper in MLA format.

8. Students will keep polished and timed writing essays in their Writing Portfolio.

9. Writing will be a substantial part of the English grade. Each Writing Assignment will

address 3-5 standards.

10. Standards on final writing will be 2.5 to 3 times the regular summative grade value.

11. If there are any problems with a student’s computer/printer, he or she must email a paper

the day the paper is due. Extensions on due dates will NOT be given due to technological

problems.

12. Citations are required for all “borrowed” material (timed writes are exempt) or the paper

will not be accepted.

13. Students must bring the department handbook every day.

Revision & Extension Guidelines

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Revision Guidelines

Students will have the opportunity to revise and resubmit essays that were initially

submitted on time. This opportunity will not be available to students who submit their work late.

Extension Guidelines

If a student knows that he or she will not be able to complete a major assignment by the

due date, the student may request an extension from his or her teacher. Extension requests must

be made in person or by email to the teacher directly no less than 24 hours before the due date.

Before requesting an extension, please review the following checklist:

• Have I talked with my teacher about the assignment during class or office hours?

• Is this a one time, special circumstance that is preventing me from meeting the deadline?

• Can I demonstrate that I have started working on the assignment?

In applying for an extension, students are expected to explain why they feel they need an

extension and propose an alternate, reasonable due date. The teacher has the right to either grant

or deny the extension. No extensions will be granted after the deadline has passed.

Academic Honesty Policy

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Stern Math and Science School

Academic Honesty Policy

There are two types of academic dishonesty that regularly occur in school: cheating and

plagiarism.

Cheating is defined as practicing trickery or fraud: acting dishonestly. This includes such things

as copying on exams, homework or research; using cheat sheets or notes during exams when

you’re not supposed to do so; opening books during closed-book exams and assignments; and

buying, selling or sharing old exams, papers or homework. Please understand that working in

groups does not mean that you can just “copy” each other’s work. The purpose of group work is

to help students improve your thinking by allowing you to think together with others. Unless

otherwise told, the product of group work should be each student’s individual words and ideas.

Plagiarism is defined as taking someone else’s words and writings and using them as if they

were your own. This includes 1. using another person’s exact words without quoting and citing a

reference and 2. paraphrasing another’s ideas without citing a reference. If you put down words

or ideas onto a piece of paper that didn’t come from your own brain, you need to cite the source

of those words and ideas.

It is each student’s individual responsibility to make sure that he or she is being academically

honest. Students who help others cheat will receive the same negative consequences as the

student who is caught cheating or plagiarizing. You should therefore be sure to keep all papers

covered during testing and keep your own work safe from people who might want to “look” at it

in order to copy your answers or use your ideas in their papers. Also, when getting help on an

assignment from a friend or family member, make sure that the changes to style and content are

in YOUR OWN WORDS, or this could be considered cheating or plagiarism.

If a student chooses to be academically dishonest, he or she will receive a zero on the

assignment, test, papers, etc. and will not be able to make up the grade. Additionally, the student

will be given a referral to the office and will meet with his or her teacher and the administration

Academic Honesty Policy

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to discuss the issue. In compliance with school policy, any student caught plagiarizing work will

be given detention for as long as the unit the plagiarized assignment was a part of. (Example, if

an essay that served as an assessment for a 5-week unit is plagiarized, the student will receive

detention for 5 weeks.) Please note that cheating and/or plagiarizing on a big assignment,

test, paper, etc. may cause a student to fail at the semester. Ultimately cheating or plagiarism

is a direct violation of the Stern MASS honor code and will be considered seriously.

Academic dishonesty is not something to be taken lightly. At the college level, students are

expelled from schools for cheating and plagiarism. By understanding what academic dishonesty

is, we believe students will be better able to make responsible choices that will positively affect

their academic success in the present and future. Additionally, practicing academic honesty will

help students stay true to the Stern MASS Honor Code and help them to maximize their learning

throughout their lives.

Outside Reading

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This list has the books with synopses in a separate list at the end The following is a list of suggested books for outside reading. The numbers in parentheses following the titles indicate the reading level of the text according to the Accelerated Reader program. Larger numbers are more difficult; smaller numbers are easier. Achebe, Chinua Things Fall Apart (6.2) Agee, James A Death in the Family (6.1) Allison, Dorothy Bastard Out of Carolina Alvarez, Julia How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (6.2) Anderson, Sherwood Winesburg, Ohio Angelou, Maya I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (6.7) Arnett, Peter Live from the Battlefield: From Vietnam to Baghdad Austen, Jane Pride and Prejudice (12.0) Austen, Jane Emma (9.3) Austen, Jane Sense and Sensibility (8.4) Baker, Russell Growing Up (6.9) Baldwin, James Go Tell It on the Mountain (6.5) Beckett, Samuel Waiting for Godot (5.4) Bellow, Saul The Adventures of Augie March Blais, Madeleine In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle Bradley, Marion Zimmer The Mists of Avalon (6.7) Brontë, Charlotte Jane Eyre (7.9) Brontë, Emily Wuthering Heights (11.3) Brooks, Polly Schoyer Queen Eleanor (8.3) Buck, Pearl S. The Good Earth (6.8) Camus, Albert The Stranger (6.8) Cather, Willa Death Comes for the Archbishop (7.9) Cather, Willa O Pioneers! (6.7) Chaucer, Geoffrey The Canterbury Tales (Pub. Penguin Classics) (8.1) Chekhov, Anton The Cherry Orchard Chopin, Kate The Awakening (8.5) Conrad, Joseph Heart of Darkness (9.0) Conrad, Joseph Lord Jim (9.1) Cooper, James Fenimore The Last of the Mohicans (12.0) Crane, Stephen The Red Badge of Courage (8.0) Dante Inferno de Cervantes, Miguel Don Quixote (13.2) Defoe, Daniel Robinson Crusoe (12.3) Dickens, Charles A Tale of Two Cities (9.7) Dickens, Charles David Copperfield (9.5) Dickens, Charles Great Expectations (9.2) Dostoyevsky, Fyodor Crime and Punishment (8.7) Douglass, Frederick Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (9.1) Dreiser, Theodore An American Tragedy (8.5) Dreiser, Theodore Sister Carrie (6.4)

Outside Reading

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Du Maurier, Daphne Rebecca (6.8) Dumas, Alexandre The Three Musketeers (11.3) Eliot, George The Mill on the Floss (9.9) Eliot, George Adam Bede (9.4) Eliot, George Silas Marner (9.7) Ellison, Ralph Invisible Man (7.2) Emerson, Ralph Waldo Selected Essays Faulkner, William As I Lay Dying (5.4) Faulkner, William The Unvanquished (6.1) Faulkner, William Intruder in the Dust (7.8) Fielding, Henry Tom Jones (13.8) Fielding, Henry Joseph Andrews Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Great Gatsby (7.3) Flaubert, Gustave Madame Bovary Follet, Ken The Pillars of the Earth Ford, Ford Madox The Good Soldier Fowles, John The French Lieutenant’s Woman Frank, Anne The Diary of a Young Girl (6.5) Goethe, Johann Faust Golding, William Lord of the Flies (5.0) Grealy, Lucy Autobiography of a Face (7.4) Gunther, John Death Be Not Proud (8.0) Haley, Alex Roots (7.4) Hardy, Thomas Return of the Native (10.2) Hardy, Thomas Tess of the d'Urbervilles (9.5) Hawthorne, Nathaniel The Scarlet Letter (11.7) Heaney, Seamus (trans) Beowulf (10.4) Heller, Joseph Catch 22 (7.1) Hemingway, Ernest A Farewell to Arms (6.0) Hemingway, Ernest For Whom the Bell Tolls (5.8) Homer The Iliad (11.3) Homer The Odyssey (10.3) Hugo, Victor The Hunchback of Notre Dame (11.8) Hugo, Victor Les Miserables (9.8) Huxley, Aldous Brave New World (7.5) Ibsen, Henrik A Doll's House (5.9) James, Henry The Portrait of a Lady (9.6) James, Henry The Turn of the Screw (8.3) Joyce, James A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (8.7) Joyce, James Dubliners (8.2) Kafka, Franz The Metamorphosis (10.5) Kafka, Franz The Trial Kesey, Ken One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (6.2) Knowles, John A Separate Peace (6.9) Kuralt, Charles Charles Kuralt’s America Larson, Erik The Devil in the White City (9.2)

Outside Reading

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Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird (8.6) Lewis, Sinclair Babbitt (7.8) Lewis, Sinclair Arrowsmith (9.5) London, Jack The Call of the Wild (8.0) London, Jack The Sea Wolf (8.1) Malamud, Bernard The Complete Stories: The Magic Barrel Malamud, Bernard The Natural (6.3) Maguire, Gregory Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (6.4) Mann, Thomas The Magic Mountain Marquez, Gabriel García Love in the Time of Cholera (8.9) Marquez, Gabriel García One Hundred Years of Solitude (8.7) McCaffrey, Anne Dragonsong (6.8) McCullers, Carson Member of the Wedding (6.3) Melville, Herman Bartleby the Scrivener Melville, Herman Moby Dick (10.3) Miller, Arthur The Crucible (4.9) Miller, Arthur Death of a Salesman (6.2) Mitchell, Margaret Gone with the Wind (7.1) Morrison, Toni Beloved (6.0) Myers, Walter Dean The Glory Field (5.0) O’Brien, Time The Things They Carried (5.8) O'Connor, Flannery A Good Man is Hard to Find O'Neill, Eugene Long Day's Journey into Night Orwell, George 1984 (8.9) Orwell, George Animal Farm (7.3) Paton, Alan Cry the Beloved Country (6.2) Pasternak, Boris Doctor Zhivago (8.2) Plath, Sylvia The Bell Jar (7.2) Poe, Edgar Allan Selected Tales (11.6) Potok, Chaim The Chosen (6.6) Proust, Marcel Swann's Way Pynchon, Thomas The Crying of Lot 49 Remarque, Erich Maria All Quiet on the Western Front (6.0) Rostand, Edmond Cyrano de Bergerac (7.6) Roth, Henry Call It Sleep Scott, Sir Walter Ivanhoe (12.9) Shakespeare, William Hamlet (10.5) Shakespeare, William Macbeth (10.9) Shakespeare, William A Midsummer Night's Dream (10.9) Shakespeare, William Romeo and Juliet (8.6) Shaw, George Bernard Pygmalion (7.0) Shelley, Mary Frankenstein (12.4) Shepard, Alan and Deke Slayton

Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America’s Race to the Moon Silko, Leslie Marmon Ceremony

Outside Reading

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Sinclair, Upton The Jungle (8.0) Sophocles Antigone (5.2) Sophocles Oedipus Rex (5.5) Steinbeck, John The Grapes of Wrath (4.9) Steinbeck, John East of Eden (5.3) Steinbeck, John The Pearl (7.1) Steinbeck, John The Red Pony (6.1) Stendhal The Red and the Black (8.4) Stevenson, Robert Louis The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (9.4) Stevenson, Robert Louis Treasure Island (8.3) Stoll, Clifford Silicon Snake Oil Stowe, Harriet Beecher Uncle Tom's Cabin (9.3) Swift, Jonathan Gulliver's Travels (13.5) Tan, Amy The Joy Luck Club (5.7) Thackeray, William Vanity Fair (12.4) Thoreau, Henry David Walden (8.7) Tolstoy, Leo War and Peace (10.1) Thurber, James My Life and Hard Times Thurber, James The Thurber Carnival Turgenev, Ivan Fathers and Sons Twain, Mark A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (9.2) Twain, Mark The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (6.6) Twain, Mark The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (8.1) Voltaire Candide (7.3) Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. Slaughterhouse-Five (6.0) Waugh, Evelyn A Handful of Dust Wharton, Edith The House of Mirth (9.7) Wharton, Edith Ethan Frome (7.6) Welty, Eudora Collected Stories (5.0) Whitman, Walt Leaves of Grass Wilde, Oscar The Picture of Dorian Gray (7.7) Williams, Tennessee The Glass Menagerie (5.3) Wilder, Thornton Our Town (3.9) Woolf, Virginia To the Lighthouse (7.2) Wright, Richard Black Boy (7.4) Wright, Richard Native Son (6.1)

Outside Reading

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Suggested Books for Reluctant High School Readers Difficulty Level: Easy

Cisneros, Sandra The House on Mango Street (4.5)

A young girl living in a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago ponders her environment and evaluates her relationships with family and friends.

Cormier, Robert The Chocolate War (5.4) This powerful novel is about a young high school student who refuses to be intimidated by society and the people around him.

Delany, Sarah and Elizabeth Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years (5.9) This book chronicles the experiences of two African-American women growing up in North Carolina at the turn-of-the-century.

Faulkner, William The Sound and the Fury (4.4) This classic novel, told in four chapters by four different voices, tells the story of the decline of the once prominent Compson family along with the deterioration of the Southern aristocratic class in the deep south after the Civil War.

Gaines, Ernest A Lesson Before Dying (4.4) Two black men--one a teacher, the other a death-row inmate--struggle to live and die with dignity.

Gruen, Sara Water for Elephants (4.4) Ninety-year-old Jacob Jankowski finds himself haunted by memories of his past in the circus and the freaks, exotic animals, and other people he encountered as a performer.

Haddon, Mark The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (5.4) Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.

Heinlein, Robert A. Stranger in a Strange Land (5.6) This is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, the man from Mars who taught humankind grokking, water-sharing, and love.

Hemingway, Ernest The Sun Also Rises (4.4) This book focuses on a "lost generation" of Americans who fought in France during World War I and who expatriated themselves from America after the war.

Hosseini, Khaled The Kite Runner (5.2) Amir, haunted by his betrayal of Hassan, the son of his father's servant and a childhood friend, returns to Kabul as an adult after he learns Hassan has been killed.

Hurston, Zora Neale Their Eyes Were Watching God (5.6) An American classic about a young black woman and her coming to an understanding about love and happiness.

Kingston, Maxine Hong The Woman Warrior (5.7) This book distills the dire lessons of a mother's mesmerizing "talk-story" tales of a China where girls are worthless, tradition is exalted, and only a strong, wily woman can scratch her way upward.

McCarthy, Cormac The Road (4.0) The journey of a father and his son is recounted as they walk alone after a great fire has consumed the nation and left everything in ashes.

Outside Reading

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Suggested Books for Reluctant High School Readers (continued) Niffengger, Audrey The Time Traveler’s Wife (4.7)

Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian, travels involuntarily through time, while Clare Abshire, an artist, takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate affair captures them in a romantic trap.

Potok, Chaim My Name is Asher Lev (4.2) Asher Lev, born into a devout Jewish family and community, struggles to reconcile his burning need to create art with the restrictions and expectations placed on him by his faith and his people.

Rodriguez, Luis J. Always Running (6.2) The son of Mexican immigrants, Luis J. Rodriguez grew up in Watts and East Los Angeles. He began writing in his early teens, and eventually won national recognition as a poet, journalist, and critic. This is his account of his coming of age.

Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye (4.7) A cynical teenager explains the events following his expulsion from prep school and subsequent nervous breakdown. The plot contains profanity and adult themes.

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (5.5) One man struggles to maintain his dignity as a man in a Russian concentration camp.

Steinbeck, John Of Mice and Men (4.5) Friends George and Lennie yearn for land of their own while working on a ranch in California's Salinas Valley.

Villasenor, Victor Rain of Gold (5.6) This story explores three generations of Villasenor's kin, their spiritual and cultural roots back in Mexico, their immigration to California and their overcoming poverty, prejudice and economic exploitation.

Walker, Alice The Color Purple (4.0) Life was not easy for Celie. But she knew how to survive, needing little to get by. Finally, she gains the courage to ask for more out of her life. The plot contains profanity, sexual situations, and adult themes.