An interesting thing about the word syllabus is that it comes from a misreading of Latin. That doesn’t change its meaning now, but it does let us think more critically about what a syllabus actually does, not just what we expect it to do.
This syllabus is an overview of our course. It includes the grading policy, homework policy, etc., but it is also an example itself of how instruction works — flipped so that you can access it at your own pace, with plenty of opportunities to ask questions and receive feedback.
Read on carefully, and use the comment section or your email to ask questions.
The Occasional Bottomless Abyss
By the time you graduate from high school, you will have spent around 2,340 days in public education — about a third of your life up to that point, depending on how the hours are calculated. You might remember how it started:
http://www.theonion.com/article/6-year-old-stares-down-bottomless-abyss-of-formal–2510
That’s from The Onion. It’s satire, although some people don’t always get the joke. In a Humanities course, you’ll occasionally study how satire helps us deal with unsettling or upsetting stuff — here’s another, more recent Onion article on schooling, for instance, that speaks to some of the systemic problems we all face in school.
By the time you hit high school, though, you’ve been doing this for a while, and you are closer to the end of the experience than the beginning. You’re used to those systemic problems. The first day of school, with its flurry of handouts and icebreakers and generally miasmic exhaustion1 is familiar to you.
This course requires you to pay attention from the opening bell. We need to look at education — at your education — from a fresh perspective. Start with this video, which animates a TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson:
That video was the initial inspiration for what you will experience this year in the makerspace. That’s the philosophical crux, to give you another word worth knowing.
After you’ve watched the video, read on.
Assurances
Before you jump into this thing, you should have assurances that it will work. Start with the official course description:
This course studies reading and writing across the modes of discourse. Students will engage in individual and small group presentations, class discussions and active listening activities. The course involves students in the authentic examination of research, rhetoric, and writing from various genres. English 12R prepares students for college and career readiness through close examination of reading, both fiction and nonfiction texts, and effective writing. The English 12 curriculum is aligned with the Common Core Standards.
The focus is on preparing you for college, a career, a gap year, the military — anything you might do with yourself once you leave high school. That’s the point of school, of course, and the purpose of the district’s Strategic Coherence plan, which lines up exactly with our course:
New in 2021 is a set of testimonials from English 12 students, giving the course and space testimonials from every sort of student that our high school has:
You can also read this article from the end of the 2018-2019 school year:
To see more examples of what this space produces, and to read testimonials from former students and other stakeholders, visit the following Google Site:
The Makerspace
Once you realize that this space can work for any kind of student, and probably in unexpected ways, you can start to learn how it works.
Start here:
Then read this:
What’s most interesting is that even if you don’t read those posts, the space will work for you. It just works better if you are an active, invested participant.
Still, those posts emphasize a new kind of reading. Click on links, look up words, track down references. This is a web of ideas; you are meant to get stuck in it for a while.
In fact, you might also look at the FAQ prepared for the Humanities makerspace, since it takes many of the most important, interconnected ideas and lists them out for you:
Another FAQ was prepared specifically in 2020–2021 to help English 12 students. Read it here:
TL;DR — Grade Abatement
That’s a lot to read, I know. Of course it is. It’s not meant to be read now and tested in a week, though; it’s meant to be a kind of instruction manual for the rest of the year.
The only thing you must memorize, and the thing that will take priority for all of you, can be printed on a single sheet of paper:
This course uses grade abatement, which is a profile-based system using a set of universal skills and traits. That is a printable handout of the profiles, skills, and traits that inform every grade you receive.
Copies of this and other assessment tools are available throughout the classroom. That includes this walkthrough of how each evidence-gathering and analytical process works:
Every fifteen days (or so), you will collaborate with others, including your teacher or teachers, to determine which profile best fits the work you’ve done during that time frame. This is a consistent, fair, and objective process. It rewards growth and collaboration much more than performative skill, but it honors all the hard work you do.
It may also be worth reading the guide to pre-GAP triage.
The syllabus given to you at the beginning of the year will tell you exactly when you will stop to assess your work to that point. Your twelve profile scores will be set up in advance in Infinite Campus, which . Once you understand how much meaning can be unpacked from each number, you’ll understand that we are gutting and remaking grades so they do more for you.
Note: Senior grades are due in early June. The twelfth and final GAP score is there in case we find another purpose for it, perhaps related to the senior projects you’ll present at the end of the year. It’s more likely that it will be dropped.
Digital Learning Environment
That calendar shows you one of the structural components we have in place. There are many others to discuss. In fact, this space is an iteration of an idea from Tony Wagner’s Creating Innovators:
The challenge is to set up systems that allow students to follow their interests. People tend to dichotomize approaches in education: The teacher is either telling students what to do, or standing back and letting them figure it out. I think that’s a false choice: The issue is not structure versus no structure, but rather creating a different structure. Students need to be exposed to new ideas and learn how to persist. They also need support.
You will have tremendous flexibility. You’ll also be given tasks to do, texts to study, etc., because those directives will lead to flexibility.
That’s why a digital learning environment is indispensable to us: It gives you formal assignments, due dates, and requirements, all neatly linked to instructional posts. It lets us expose you to new ideas, ask important questions, teach critical skills, and so on, with this website as the framing instruction.
Starting in 2022, you’ll be using Schoology as a digital learning space. Assignments and updates will appear there, with updates and feedback posted when appropriate.
On that note, feedback works differently in a makerspace. Read about this here:
That post is essential reading, if you want to be successful in here. Again, this sort of flipped instruction also helps you develop as a reader. It scrapes off some of that summer atrophy, too.
The Physical Space
As you complete your first assignments, you will experience firsthand what the typical day in here looks like. You will see what each part of the classroom does and learn more about how assessment works.
In other words, you learn by doing in here. You also learn by reading lots and lots of teacher-written posts. To help clarify what a typical day looks like, for instance, you could read this essay:
This is the basic idea of how each day’s period works. The background and notes are provided outside of class, which frees us up to do more with the 40 minutes or so we have together2. We might circle up some days; we might talk in groups or meet individually; we might take practice tests or take a shot at timed writing. There is enormous freedom to do what is needed, and you will direct most of the lessons yourself.
Your job, then, is to know what you are doing each day and to waste no time in doing it. That is the most important part of this course, so it gets a rare bolded font: When we are together in our classroom, you must be ready to work.
The interstitial/online elements are there to support this (and to make the Sisyphean grind of high school a little more manageable). Grade abatement is there to free you and empower you. Still, technology is only a tool. There is no replacement for the learning that occurs through discussion and collaboration when you share a learning environment with someone.
This essay explains more about how crucial our face-to-face work is:
(It also lets me continue to reference Wu-Tang and Grindhouse kung-fu movies.)
If nothing else, I want you to be able to answer these two questions each and every day:
- What are you working on?
- What help do you need?
If you can’t answer either, that will be an issue, because you will always have work to do, and most of that work will be easier with help. If you believe you’ve discovered a day without work, let me know. I’ll redirect you. During the first few weeks of school, for instance, you might need time to go over the syllabus. You might need help setting up your Google account. You might want help with your first writing assignment.
You face no risk right now, so ask questions and try things out. The more you experiment and the harder you work over these first few weeks, the easier you will find it to begin generating evidence for your grade abatement profiles — a concept that will be second nature to you soon enough.
Homework and Classwork Policy
The homework policy is built into the grading policy, specifically into the thresholds that separate upper- and lower-tier profiles from each other. Read them carefully. The penalty for failing to complete homework is significant.
Google Classroom is the central hub for required assignments. It tracks completion, including time and date stamps for submitted and edited work. We will also familiarize you with Turnitin.com, Google Forms, and other mechanisms for sharing and evaluating work.
Classwork and homework are part of what’s called interstitial learning, which is best understood through practice. It allows you to work when you work best, with one exception: You must use class time effectively. This is outlined here:
This is the usual give-and-take of a classroom: The two most basic requirements of this course, in-class focus and feedback, are also the two keys that unlock the best performance and strongest growth — as well as the highest scores. What observable habits and behavioral patterns do you create over time?
When you are uncertain about what to do in class or at home, ask for help. You can also read this annotated step-by-step guide, which is available in class, online, and as one of our classroom posters:
Required Exams
The only exam requirement for English students is the New York State Regents in English. If you need to take it, you’ll be scheduled separately. You can be individually assigned practice exam questions in place of other work. If you need a refresher, here is the structure of the test:
Individual help will be offered through Castle Learning and one-on-one workshops as needed.
Any and all final exam scores for seniors will be drawn from the senior project, which will be built on the Pareto Project work outlined above.
Required Materials
Bring your district-issued Chromebook or another Internet-ready device every day. Bring paper and a pen or pencil. Keep our current novel, nonfiction, writing prompt, etc., organized and with you at all times.
Otherwise, we’ll determine together what you need to be most successful. The onus is on you to start that process, and not just because we are an English makerspace. At this point in your academic career, you need to individualize a system that helps you accomplish your goals.
We are also going to try to be as paperless as possible this year. We need to be able to edit some documents in real time and to collaborate in a more 21st-century way. You need access to the hyperlinks and connections that make up the bulk of all contemporary writing and reading.
You will still have the ability to print any materials you want printed. Think of it as responsive printing: If you need a copy of something, then you’ll get it. It’s up to you to determine that need, though, and usually to take care of it.
We can also print some essays and other texts that we annotate together. Not everything can be done on a computer, and that’s not the point; the point is to minimize our paper use and strengthen your digital skills.
Writing Requirements
One of your goals this year is to create writing that expresses who you are before you apply for college and/or a career. You will organize yourself through Google Drive, publish through Medium and other online platforms, and document your growth in different ways.
That’s a powerful digital footprint — the kind of thing an admissions board or prospective employer will see when they search for you online. The world wants you to have a digital presence. This course will help you build it.
The writing itself will be driven by a universal writing process. The steps are carefully constructed to help you develop your own style while learning how to answer any prompt you are given. It fits any rubric and prompt. This is to encourage risk-taking, revision, and metacognition.
You can read the complete breakdown of the writing process here:
Reading Requirements
You need to develop a reading habit. Your success, now and in the future, increases the more you read discerningly and actively. Read a little of everything, and read whenever you can. Emulate Malcolm X, who wrote, “I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.”
One way to encourage this habit is through posts like this. All instruction will be flipped online, with class time reserved for face-to-face discussion and small-group collaboration. The more we balance and preface that in-class work with the written word, the stronger both parts of your learning will be.
The beauty of the devices we all have is that they give us access to limitless text — they put us, at all times, close to compelling essays, powerful short stories, beautiful poetry, even the best books. If you learn to read for yourself, not just because you are in school, you will have a lifelong habit.
And if reading for yourself seems clichéd, reject that seeming cliché. Embrace the truth of it, which is that reading makes you a better person. This works for literature as well as the essays you will strive to emulate. It’s the simplest shortcut, as shown by the video at the top of the central post on the reading process:
Summer reading will be our first look at how literature and nonfiction affect us.
Asking Questions
You can post any of your questions so far in the comment section below. You can also send an email or schedule a time during the school day to meet.
In the meantime, let’s end this first post3 with an essay on what it means to take risks like this:
Welcome to Room 210, and to Sisyphean High. Good luck.
That word, miasmic, is a really good one for far too many school-related situations. I first encountered it in this review of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was part of a unit on horror movies and censorship years ago. It’s a particularly smart look at horror cinema, but it’s the use of language that made it worth teaching in the classroom. ↩
The essays haven’t been updated to reflect any changes to our bell schedule, mostly in an effort not to lose the Wu-Tang allusions. ↩
Which is longer than most future posts will be. This one needs to be as dense as possible, because this is the overview of the year. You need a few dozen chances to realize the most important truth: This course is different, and only by leaning into those differences will you be successful. ↩