The Skinny on AP Lang and American Studies

What to have and what to expect in my class

Before you get to my class, make sure you have all of the following with you every day:

  • Your English notebook
  • Plenty of plain, loose-leaf notebook paper
  • A blue or black ballpoint pen, a pencil and highlighters, markers or colored pencils for text marking.
  • Textbook (if needed that day)
  • Independent reading book
  • A pocket sized dictionary
  • A personal planner/daybook/calendar for recording assignments, due dates and upcoming events.

Each day when you arrive at class, I expect you to do the following:

  1. Enter the classroom and take your assigned seat. You must be sitting in your assigned seat by the time the bell finishes ringing, or you will be considered tardy and issued a tardy in the computer system.
  2. Upon being seated, please immediately focus on the bellwork while I take attendance. You should be able to complete the bellwork on your own without being reminded every day. Bellwork may be collected, discussed, saved for later discussion, or stored in your notebook for a later notebook check depending on the day. Whatever the result, bellwork is expected to be completed independently during bellwork time every day.
  3. After attendance and bellwork review, we will go over announcements. This is your opportunity to announce any important events, upcoming dates, reminders or congratulations. Next, I will go over the day’s schedule on the board. While I do so, or after you have finished the bellwork, please copy the agenda and any homework or other important information such as due dates into your personal planner/agenda. This will give you a record of what we did in class that day and will be useful for classmates who were absent.
  4. After the bellwork, what you do will depend on the day. Have your homework, if any was assigned, ready to turn in at this time every day. You will not be allowed to work on homework during the bellwork time.

    5. Late Work Policy

    • Work is considered late if it is not turned in by the due date and time. In most cases, work is due at the beginning of class. Therefore, work turned in at the end of the period or the end of the school day will be considered one day late.
    • I accept MOST work up to three school days after the due date. Please note that because of their nature some assignments are not eligible for late credit. These assignments include vocabulary homework, class presentations and some projects or tests.
    • Late assignments will be graded as follows:
      • One day late - 10% off
      • Two days late - 20% off
      • Three days late - 50% off
    • Assignments that are more than three school days late will receive a grade of zero. However, I would be happy to go over an assignment so that you may still benefit from the lesson it was designed to teach.

    Class Rules:
    Be Prepared
    Work Hard
    Show Respect to All