8/4/2019 Seminar Syllabus

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Draft syllabus:

11th grade seminar: Seeing the World Through American Eyes(Overview)

Team-taught by English Department ChairCraig Carpentieri and ChiefAcademic Officer Gary Weisserman, this course is taught in a seminar stylesetting intended to transition students into college-level modalities oflearning.

The course will also serve as a "demonstration classroom," where Hillelteachers may come observe unique and outstanding "best practice"teaching from two experienced, master educators.

Students will earn honors credit for this class.

Students will be engaged as partners in determining which AmericanLiterature will be selected, what genres and media of writing will beemphasized, what emerging technologies will be employed, and how thecourse may be used as preparation for next year's implementation of ourCapstone Years Program. Areas of emphasis may include:

Americans abroad: Literary perspectives on a global society;

Creative and multi-disciplinary writing about contemporary issues; Investigations into the relationships between technology, aesthetics

and literacy; and Other themes as they arise.

Essential Learnings

Students in this class will:

(Blooms Taxonomy level: Application) select and interpret global themes

as they arise in American Literature that will guide at least four book talks

on separate novels (of their own selection), and by authoring at least one

formal critical response based on those novels.

Each student will collaborate with instructors to select four novels, to

be read on a schedule negotiated in class. They will partner with at

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least two other students reading that same novel to conduct a book

talk connecting each novel to a global theme, and will independently

author at least one formal critical response (between 5-7 pages).

They will also participate in classmates book talk, drawing

connections between and across novels. (30%)

(Blooms Taxonomy level: Evaluation) debate contemporary issues, as

seen through the eyes of key figures in American Literature chosen from

their four books or novels, by creating a media-based project bringing the

characters together.

Each student will create a media-based project, preferably web- or

video-based, that shows a rich and complex understanding of

different characters perspectives as they would relate to modernworld issues, and present it to the class and other faculty or

members of the community (including families) in a meaningful and

engaging way. (25%)

(Blooms Taxonomy level: Synthesis) create a substantial written product in

the form of creative writing, non-fiction writing, blended media or critical

analysis, to be published digitally or in print, and provide feedback on

others works throughout the writing process.

Each student will plan, workshop, and self-publish a serious work of

literary or scholarly merit. They will give and receive feedback to

other members of the class, and will thoughtfully incorporate this

feedback in a meaningful way. (25%)

(Blooms Taxonomy level: Knowledge) construct a technology-centered

mechanism for teaching and learning vocabulary, using a given text as a

starting point.

Each student will work independently or collaboratively, as

appropriate, an interesting and effective technology-based

mechanism for teaching vocabulary using a given text as a starting

point. Each student must also demonstrate mastery of this

vocabulary themselves. (15%)

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(Blooms Taxonomy level: Knowledge) construct a technology-centered

mechanism for teaching and learning vocabulary, using a given text as a

starting point.

Each student will work independently or collaboratively, as

appropriate, an interesting and effective technology-based

mechanism for teaching vocabulary using a given text as a starting

point. Each student must also demonstrate mastery of this

vocabulary themselves. (15%)

(Blooms Taxonomy level: Evaluation) respond briefly and thoughtfully to

significant philosophical prompts drawn from contemporary issues and

American literature.

Each student will respond regularly, via Twitter or other

technological mechanism, to prompts, with those responses used to

facilitate discussion on critical issues. (5%)

Areas of consideration for themes:

Engineering (the mastery of tools);

Knowledge building (making useful intellectual contributions to a learning

community);

Artistic expression (the cultivation of aesthetic sensibilities);

Civic engagement (addressing important social issues and engaging in

meaningful public and private discourse);

Spiritual development.

Grades