Jamie Handling

Victory High School

LA/Com II

Mrs. Handling – Room A-1

Email: jhandling@Rocklin.k12.ca.us

Course Description:

       Welcome to LA/Com II.  In this class, you will be diving in to your creative mind while analyzing poetry, short fiction, plays, graphic novels, film, music, and many other forms of the arts.  Along with analyzing fiction, you will be writing your own stories leading up to learning how to submit your fiction for publication or competition. 

We will be covering the following topics:

Poetry (including SLAM and music)

Short Fiction

Writing Dialogue

Elements of Literature including Plot, Setting, Theme, Characters, Point of View

Screen Plays

Comic Books/Graphic Novels

Writing Submissions

Classroom Procedures:

Behavior: First and foremost, you will be held to the Victory High School Code of Conduct Student Handbook. 

Assignments/Grading:  The grading policy is as follows:

              Final products                                 50%

              HOMEWORK/CLASSWORK/QUIZZES      50%

• What does this mean?  I do not grade based on points.  Everything you complete is out of 100.  I will then average your tests/projects/essays grades to make one grade.  Then I will average your homework/classwork/quizzes grades to make another grade.  Once I have those grades, I will average the two together and you will have your overall grade for the quarter.  Every quarter we will start over.  You will automatically have an A to begin with.  Any Questions?

Supplies/Materials:

You will need the following supplies/materials to be successful in this class:

• Three ring binder for Writing Portfolio – this will be kept in my room
• Writing notebook – may not be a composition notebook, but can be any other type of notebook with no less than 100 pages
• Pens, pencils, erasers, highlighters, loose leaf paper
• Thumb drive/memory stick for computer days

Requested Supplies:

• One box kleenex
• One ream printer paper – this will allow us to print in the library
• One bottle hand sanitizer

A Day in the Life:

You can expect consistency in my classroom.  Everyday will have the same expectations:

Poetry Mondays:

Every Monday will be about poetry.  We will learn a new style of poetry, read and analyze a poem in that form, and then you will create your own poetry based on the assigned form.

Computers:

We will be spending quite a bit of time on the computers where you will be able to type your latest masterpiece.  Please make sure you have a thumb drive with you at all times so you can save your work.

Movies:

During our exploration of the arts, we will be watching films or clips of films in the class. This will allow us analyze varying types of approaches.

Below, is a list of the possible films I will be incorporating into the curriculum. This list is subject to change, but not film will exceed the PG-13 rating.

Hercules

Finding Nemo

Importance of Being Earnest

National Treasure

Russell Simmons Def Jam Slam Poetry

Class Rules:

I only have two rules in my classroom. 

• Be Respectful – this means that you will respect others, yourself, and school property.
• No cheating – Buena has a very strict plagiarism policy.  If you plagiarize, you will receive a zero on the assignment, no questions asked.

Format:

All work needs to be in MLA Format.  This means:

• 12 Point Font
• Times New Roman/Ariel/Comic Sans font
• One inch margins all around
• Double spaced
• Heading in upper left
• Running header in upper right
• Staple in the upper left hand corner – no paper clips
• DO NOT USE PRESENTATION COVERS

Heading format is as follows:

Student Name

Teacher Name

Class Name

Date

Assignment title will need to be centered on first line of text.

Running Header needs to be in the upper right corner.  This needs to be your last name and page number.  Ex.  Handling 1

I look forward to spending this school year with you all.  Good luck and may the force be with you!!!! J