Course Overview: English Vocabulary from Latin and Greek Roots

2008-09 School Year

Instructor: Dave Spotts	IM or Talk: spottsinator@gmail.com
Office Hours: To Be Announced	Skype: MrSpotts

Prerequisite: standing as a high school student. This course parallels a course frequently taught

at the underclass collegiate level, the distinction being that at The Potter's School it takes a full

school year as opposed to a semester or quarter.

Descriptor: Students in this course will learn study about 2000 English words built from approximately 500 Latin and Greek word elements. These Latin and Greek word elements serve as the building blocks for a vast number of English words. Knowledge of the word elements enables students to investigate and decode many many English words, reaching well reasoned judgments as to their meanings without the use of a dictionary. We will emphasize reading sentences for context in order to define words appropriately, as well as the word skills which are critical to good performance on the SAT and ACT exams.

Text: Dunmore, Charles W., & Rita M. Fleischer. (2008). Studies in Etymology 2^nd edition. Newburyport, MA: Focus. ISBN 978-1-58510-012-5. Students will also be purchasing access to an Internet-based workbook supported by the publisher, details to be announced.

Between Classes: Students will have reading assignments from the textbook and pages to

complete in the workbook. Students should prepare to ask questions about any difficulties they had with the workbook pages and to discuss the sentence exercises presented in the textbook, where they identify a word according to its roots and its meaning in context.

During Classes: Students are to arrive punctually with their equipment in good working order.

Students are not to engage in off-topic chat in the classroom. To assist students in self-discipline, I highly recommend that a parent attend class with his or her student occasionally during the school year. The instructor will have a review of material assigned for class, answering questions from students and asking students questions so as to assess their progress. Then the instructor will introduce and illustrate new material for the upcoming week's assignment. Participation is mandatory in order to do well. Students who are absent without a parental excuse or who are unable to participate on the level expected by the instructor will not receive good participation scores.

Tests: The instructor will post a test approximately once a month. Approximately 90% of test questions are pulled from the online workbook. All tests are cumulative. Late tests without a parent request prior to the due date will have 10% counted off until they are 24 hours overdue. Tests 24-48 hours overdue will have 20% counted off. Tests over 48 hours overdue without a parental extension request will not be accepted.

Grading: While the parent is responsible for preparing student transcripts, for purposes of this

class the instructor will count in-class participation and evidence of preparation each as 20% of

the grade, exams as 60% of the grade. Cut-offs are as follows: 90% A, 80% B, 70% C, 65% D,

64% or below F. Current grades will be posted on an Internet-based gradebook, which the instructor will update approximately once a month. Parents are responsible to follow-up with the instructor if they have reason to believe there is anything in error in the gradebook. Please retain evidence of submission of and scores on all assignments until they have posted in the gradebook.