Students will be working towards meeting the Common Core Standards. Access to all the standards at each grade level can be reached through the following site:
ELA Common Core Standards
Here's a breakdown of what we will be working on throughout the year in order to meet these standards:
Texts Used: The Witch of
Black Bird Pond, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, various
other short stories and informational articles, and a choice of a
WWII based novel: Weedflower, The Boy Who Dared, We
Were Witnesses, The Hiding Place, Elephant Run, and
I Have Lived a Thousand Years,
and several others. Various released items from MEA and NECAP
and several non-fiction current event articles are used for skill
building in reading fluency and comprehension.
Units of Study: Historical
Fiction, Note Taking and Research Paper Writing, Public Speaking, WWII
Literature Study with a focus on character development as well as understanding the many different perspectives/experiences during this era.
Year-long Skill Building: Proper
capitalization, word usage, use of the comma,
colon, semi-colon, types of nouns, types of verbs (linking, helping,
action), 6 Traits of Writing, and vocabulary. Students will also
continue their work with Constructed Response writing and developing
literature analysis skills.
Grading:
A lot of what we do in class is learning new skills and practicing them until kids are really ready to show proficiency. What you will see in IC are many assignments in the practice category and few in the assessment category. This is intentional. I aim to assess kids once I know they are ready for it. Some students will require more practice than others. Rubrics are used to score work using 0-4 and to provide feedback to both students and parents as to current competency level with a particular skill. For every summative (final) assessment I give, students always have a copy of clear descriptions for each level AHEAD of time. These descriptors relate very specifically to that particular assignment. In general though, you can think of the scores 4, 3, 2, 1, and 0 as such:
4= your child has exceed the standard by not only demonstrating understanding but also by being able to apply the skill in a detailed, unique or refined manner.
3=your child is demonstrating that he/she understands and can perform the skills involved in the assignment.
2= the skills are still being developed, but progress is being made. He/she is on the right track.
1= some misunderstandings or confusion is occuring. The student requires more instruction and/or practice with this skill.
0/M= Evidence of this skill is required but ythe student either has not completed or handed in the work. No evidence of the skill has been submitted or attempted.
If your child has not turned in an assignment on time, it will be marked as missing. If there simply isn't a score for that assignment, a few things could be happening: 1. If it's a formative/practice assignment, it most likely means your child no longer needs to continue practicing that skill and is ready for the summative (final) assessment. Check a similar titled assignment (like Time Line notes Ch. 2-3 and Time Line notes Ch.4-5) to be sure. If the score is a 3 or better, then he/she has met the standard, 2. I may have not yet graded it. With most assignments, I grade things within a week (usually just a couple days) of being turned in. The only exception to this is student research papers. Those take me a few weeks to get through all of them! I provide feed back on all practice assignments so that kids will know what they are doing well and what they need to fix or work on in order to meet the standard. If a student has struggled with a skill after a couple of practice assignments, I work with him/her on an individual or very small group basis. That being said, the quality of the work turned in is really in the hands of the creator (the student).
I also expect students to maintain an organized binder. I help them with this by: 1. hole punching everything, 2. telling them which section to put each assignment, 3. occasionally letting them know what they can get rid of and what they need to save in their portfolios.
Having their binder for class and keeping their work organized is a very important skill for students to developed before high school. Anything you can do at home to help facilitate this is MUCH appreciated. Please feel free to contact me if you'd like more information on how best to help your child.
Behavior:
I believe in my students and I trust them to generally be good. I also know that they can sometimes be off task, make foolish decisions or simply not think things through. This is middle school. I have a few simple rules that I expect all students to follow:
1. Everyone will come to class on time and be prepared
2. Everyone will be respectful to the other people in the room
3. Everyone will try their best
Should your child fall short on one of these expectations, I will follow up with reminders and adjustments in class, and if need be a phone call home.
One of the biggest issues I have had to deal with recently is the behavior of not completing work. I give class time for kids to get assignments started, I front load anything to be worked on at home with practice, examples and time to ask questions. Anything I expect to be completed outside of class should not take more than 20 minutes to complete (if the student has used class time appropriately). I also don't assign work that I don't believe to be truly valuable to learning new skills. With that being said, if a student does not turn in an assignment by the end of the next day it was due, I WILL expect him/her to stay after school until it is completed. For example, if I assigned a chapter to be read on Tuesday and it was due on Thursday, your child should hand it in on Thursday. If he/she does not, I would expect that assignment to be turned in no later than 2:20 on Friday, otherwise that child would be required to stay after school to finish it. I feel this is more than reasonable. Your child has MULTIPLE opportunities to complete his/her work: during class, during RAP work time, students are always welcome to work in my room during lunch, and then there's after school as well. If your child has not complete his/her work, you will see in JumpRope a missing assignment by the end of the date it was due. If they need to stay after to complete the assignment, you will receive a phone call from your child.
My goal is to guide and support all my students in their learning. I want to engage my students in fun and interesting activities, to help them feel safe and willing to take intellectual risks, and to develop good habits that they can carry with them into adulthood. I hope we can work together to make this possible.
THANK YOU for taking the time to learn about 8th Grade English, and please feel free to contact me at any time with questions, comments or concerns.
luetjel@sad44.org
824-2136x1111
A lot of what we do in class is learning new skills and practicing them until kids are really ready to show proficiency. What you will see in IC are many assignments in the practice category and few in the assessment category. This is intentional. I aim to assess kids once I know they are ready for it. Some students will require more practice than others. Rubrics are used to score work using 0-4 and to provide feedback to both students and parents as to current competency level with a particular skill. For every summative (final) assessment I give, students always have a copy of clear descriptions for each level AHEAD of time. These descriptors relate very specifically to that particular assignment. In general though, you can think of the scores 4, 3, 2, 1, and 0 as such:
4= your child has exceed the standard by not only demonstrating understanding but also by being able to apply the skill in a detailed, unique or refined manner.
3=your child is demonstrating that he/she understands and can perform the skills involved in the assignment.
2= the skills are still being developed, but progress is being made. He/she is on the right track.
1= some misunderstandings or confusion is occuring. The student requires more instruction and/or practice with this skill.
0/M= Evidence of this skill is required but ythe student either has not completed or handed in the work. No evidence of the skill has been submitted or attempted.
If your child has not turned in an assignment on time, it will be marked as missing. If there simply isn't a score for that assignment, a few things could be happening: 1. If it's a formative/practice assignment, it most likely means your child no longer needs to continue practicing that skill and is ready for the summative (final) assessment. Check a similar titled assignment (like Time Line notes Ch. 2-3 and Time Line notes Ch.4-5) to be sure. If the score is a 3 or better, then he/she has met the standard, 2. I may have not yet graded it. With most assignments, I grade things within a week (usually just a couple days) of being turned in. The only exception to this is student research papers. Those take me a few weeks to get through all of them! I provide feed back on all practice assignments so that kids will know what they are doing well and what they need to fix or work on in order to meet the standard. If a student has struggled with a skill after a couple of practice assignments, I work with him/her on an individual or very small group basis. That being said, the quality of the work turned in is really in the hands of the creator (the student).
I also expect students to maintain an organized binder. I help them with this by: 1. hole punching everything, 2. telling them which section to put each assignment, 3. occasionally letting them know what they can get rid of and what they need to save in their portfolios.
Having their binder for class and keeping their work organized is a very important skill for students to developed before high school. Anything you can do at home to help facilitate this is MUCH appreciated. Please feel free to contact me if you'd like more information on how best to help your child.
Behavior:
I believe in my students and I trust them to generally be good. I also know that they can sometimes be off task, make foolish decisions or simply not think things through. This is middle school. I have a few simple rules that I expect all students to follow:
1. Everyone will come to class on time and be prepared
2. Everyone will be respectful to the other people in the room
3. Everyone will try their best
Should your child fall short on one of these expectations, I will follow up with reminders and adjustments in class, and if need be a phone call home.
One of the biggest issues I have had to deal with recently is the behavior of not completing work. I give class time for kids to get assignments started, I front load anything to be worked on at home with practice, examples and time to ask questions. Anything I expect to be completed outside of class should not take more than 20 minutes to complete (if the student has used class time appropriately). I also don't assign work that I don't believe to be truly valuable to learning new skills. With that being said, if a student does not turn in an assignment by the end of the next day it was due, I WILL expect him/her to stay after school until it is completed. For example, if I assigned a chapter to be read on Tuesday and it was due on Thursday, your child should hand it in on Thursday. If he/she does not, I would expect that assignment to be turned in no later than 2:20 on Friday, otherwise that child would be required to stay after school to finish it. I feel this is more than reasonable. Your child has MULTIPLE opportunities to complete his/her work: during class, during RAP work time, students are always welcome to work in my room during lunch, and then there's after school as well. If your child has not complete his/her work, you will see in JumpRope a missing assignment by the end of the date it was due. If they need to stay after to complete the assignment, you will receive a phone call from your child.
My goal is to guide and support all my students in their learning. I want to engage my students in fun and interesting activities, to help them feel safe and willing to take intellectual risks, and to develop good habits that they can carry with them into adulthood. I hope we can work together to make this possible.
THANK YOU for taking the time to learn about 8th Grade English, and please feel free to contact me at any time with questions, comments or concerns.
luetjel@sad44.org
824-2136x1111
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