Semester Week

Topics to be covered this week

Possible articles for reading, discussion & writing

(All found in the Mercury Reader)

Week 1

Aug. 23-27

-Syllabus and schedule

-Introduction to Blackboard

-Student success

(188) Roger Rosenblatt – “I Am Writing Blindly”

(23) Russell Baker – “School vs. Education”

(35) Langston Hughes – “Theme for English B”

Week 2

Aug. 30-Sep. 3

-Parts of speech (LYSK 23-28)

-Vocabulary skills

(37) Frederick Douglass – “Learning to Read and Write”

(17) Joan Didion – “On Self Respect”

Week 3

Sep. 6-Labor Day

Sep. 7-10

-Main idea                          *Essay 1 assigned

-Frequently confused words (LYSK 3-22)

-Paragraph and essay organization

(101) Stephanie Ericsson – “The Ways We Lie”

(225) Richard Wright – “The Library Card”

Week 4

Sep. 13-17

-Supporting details/topic sentences   

-Remembering textbook information

-Strategic reading and note-taking strategies (Cornell, outline, map, summary, etc.)

(281) Mark Twain – “Reading the River”

(286) Bruce Bower – “Chimps May Put Their Own Spin on Culture”

(329) Aaron Copland – “How We Listen to Music”

Week 5

Sep. 20-24

-Prepositional phrases (LYSK 69-74)

-Subjects, verbs, and verb Phrases (LYSK 63-68, 97-102)

(378) Richard Rodriguez – “The Workers”

(45) Robert Coles – “The Children of Affluence”

Week 6

Sep. 27-Oct.1

-Organizational patterns in reading and writing (narration, cause and effect, comparison and contrast, description, listing, etc.)

-Maintaining consistent verb tense (LYSK 126-127)

(271) Leon R. Kass “Why Doctors Must Not Kill”

(84) Anna Quindlen “Abortion Is Too Complex to Feel All One Way About”

Week 7

Oct. 4-8

                              *Essay 1 DUE, Essay 2 assigned

-Using pronouns correctly (LYSK 155-167)

-Point of view (objective/subjective, tone, connotation) and person (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd)

(191) Helen Keller – “Everything Has a Name”

(236) Robert Heilbroner – “Don’t Let Stereotypes Warp Your Judgements”

Week 8

Oct. 11-14

Oct. 15 Fall Break

-Dependent clauses (LYSK 75-81)

-Compound and complex sentences

-Fragments and run-ons (LYSK 82-96)

(308) Kurt Vonnegut Jr. – “Harrison Bergeron”

(375) Carol Shields – “The Case for Curling Up with a Book”

(306) Barbara Jordan – “The Americanization Ideal”

Week 9

Oct. 18-22

-Dependent clauses, fragments, and run-ons, cont’d

-Inferences and critical thinking

(293) Edward Abbey – “The Right to Arms”

(207) Anna Quindlen – “Gay”

Week 10

Oct. 25-29

-Punctuation and capitalization, including comma rules (LYSK 168-202)

-Test-taking strategies

(183) Donald M. Murray – “The Maker’s Eye”

(115) Katha Pollitt – “Why I Hate Family Values”

Week 11

Nov. 1-5

                                 *Essay 2 DUE, Essay 3 assigned

-Introduce Night and related topics

-Vocabulary and context for Night

(56) Stanley Milgram – “The Perils of Obedience”

(29) Zitkala-Sa – “From: The School Days of an Indian Girl”

Week 12

Nov. 8-12

        *Tutorial on assignment of each student’s 

                choice DUE by or before this week

-Night and related materials

-Inferences and critical thinking

-Review grammar skills

(74) Helen Keller – “Three Days to See”

(152) Nina Shea – “A Worldwide Phenomenon”

Week 13

Nov. 15-19

-Night and related materials

-Reading skills: main point and supporting details

-Review grammar skills

(203) Everett Ruess – “Letters from the Frontier, 1934”

(211) Zora Neale Hurston – “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”

Week 14

Nov. 22-24

Nov 25 & 26 Thanksgiving

-Night and related materials

-Point of view, tone, and connotation

-Review grammar skills

(240) Vine Deloria, Jr. – “We Talk, You Listen”

(26) Northrope Frye – “Don’t You Think It’s Time to Start Thinking?”

Week 15

Nov. 29-Dec. 3

-Night and related materials             *Essay 3 DUE

-Final exam preparation

Week 16

Dec. 6-9

Final exam on grammar and reading