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Mrs. Green's English Class
Hello, and welcome to my webpage.
If this is the first time you have visited my site, I'd like to direct you to the section entitled "About Middle School English." It will give you an overview of what the MS English students and I will be doing in the classroom this year.
Also notice the other sections I have on my site and think about how you might use them during the school year. I intend to keep my web page updated and available for students and parents to keep tabs on what has been assigned and when it is due.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Green
===================================HOMEWORK====================================
NOTE: ALL HOMEWORK IS DUE THE FOLLOWING SCHOOL DAY UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE.
LAST UPDATED: March 25, 2009
6TH GRADE:
7TH GRADE:
8TH GRADE:
ALL GRADES: Interested in extra credit for 4th quarter? It is due Wednesday, May 20th. Scroll down for details.
````````````````````OBJECTIVES FOR 3/30-4/8```````````````
6th grade objectives
check back
7th grade objectives
check back
8th grade objectives
check back
****GUIDELINES FOR ALL COMPUTER GENERATED WORK IN ENGLISH****
1. Name is in upper left hand corner
2. Double Spaced - no extra spaces between paragraphs
3. Font: New Times Roman or Courier New
4. Size: 12
5. Black ink
6. 1 inch margins all the way around
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>EXTRA CREDIT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
BEFORE ANY EXTRA CREDIT IS ACCEPTED, STUDENTS MUST HAVE ALL OF THEIR WORK IN - NO EXTRA CREDIT WILL BE COUNTED IF A STUDENT IS MISSING WORK.
BEFORE ANY EXTRA CREDIT IS ACCEPTED, STUDENTS WITH A GRADE LOWER THAN A 90% ON A TEST OR QUIZ MUST RETAKE THAT TEST OR QUIZ.
THIS PROJECT WILL BE ACCEPTED BEFORE OR ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2009
Write a journal documenting your thoughts, observations, questions and ideas on any ONE topic of your choice. Choose one topic that you can write about for several days. It should be one of interest to you, one you choose to talk about, read about, and otherwise explore. Write at least one paragraph for each entry about at least one of the following:
> new information you have recently found out about this topic and your response to this information (i.e., I was (excited, surprised, angry) about this because...)
> conversations you have had with another person about this topic,
> questions you have had on this topic along with ideas of how those questions might be answered,
> a detailed description or explanation of some element of this topic, or
> a response to anything you have read or seen concerning this topic.
You should have at least 5 dated entries over a two week period. These entries must be at least one day apart, but no more than three days apart. In other words, you may not write more than one per day. This is a record of your thoughts over a period of time, not everything you know about something all at once. These entries may be hand written, but they must be legible. One journal may count per quarter.
This journal will not be graded, but it will be given points, up to twenty, that will be added on to your overall semester grade. Keep in mind, extra credit can only do so much. To seriously improve your grade, retake tests and redo assignments that are not acceptable. These count for much more than extra credit.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^WEBGRADER^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In English, students do a large amount of practice. Students are expected to make corrections on their own papers when we go over them in class. I grade these practices based on whether they are done on time, complete, and corrected. Usually, one point is given for each thing, for a total of 3 points. It is most efficient for me to record these grades on Webgrader in groups. Therefore, there aren't as many individual grades as there are assignments.
Also, writing projects are often broken down into steps. Each step completed will receive a certain number of points. The points for each step are also grouped together. On webgrader this will show one grade for what was actually several assignments. This is why there are seemingly so few grades for English on Webgrader.
===============CRITERIA FOR SOURCE CARDS & NOTE CARDS================
Source cards
- at least 5 source cards
- source card number in upper right corner
- correct publishing information for each source (see pp. 491, 662-669 in text)
Note cards (see page 492 in text)
- at least 25 note cards
- source card number matching its source in upper right corner
- heading (each card has one, with no more than seven separate headings, no vague headings such as "interesting facts", or "other information").
- one item of information per card
- page number if source is a book, magazine, or newspaper
- quotation marks around anything copied word for word.
==================OUTLINE CHECKLIST & GRADE SHEET=====================
> Correct punctuation
> Correct indentation
> Correct capitalization
> Correct labels for each category
> At least two entries for each category used
> Parallel structures for each category
INFORMATION FOUND ON PAGE 527 OF 8TH GRADE ENGLISH BOOK
``````````````````````````Grammar Websites``````````````````````````````
englishplus.com/grammar
owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar
www.grammarbook.co
www.dailygrammar.com
cctc.commnet.edu/grammar
www.chompchomp.com
www.studyspanish.com/tutorial.htm
www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar
www.dailygrammar.com/archive.shtml
www.smic.be/smic5022/exercisesgrammar.htm
www.grammarstation.com
www.grammarbook.com/grammar/cnt_gram.asp
grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index2.htm
http://members.tripod.com/~lklivingston/essay/
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/grammar.html
web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/index.htm
*********************ABOUT MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH*********************
GRAMMAR
As I teach the structure of our language, I strive to impress upon students that practicing grammar skills is a means to an end and not the end itself. The end is the effective and efficient use of language to communicate their thoughts in writing and speaking.
In 6th grade, students study single word sentence elements and several simple sentence structures.
In 7th grade, students learn to use compound sentence elements and are introduced to clauses and phrases as sentence elements. They also continue to study more complicated sentence structures.
In 8th grade, students build on the skills they have acquired before to begin to recognize and use sentence elements that are absent but understood, and they learn to avoid common problems with writing more complicated sentences.
WRITING
Nearly all the students who enter middle school at Christ King know how to construct a sentence, a paragraph, and an essay or report. However, they find it difficult to improve upon their original writing beyond finding spelling errors and missing punctuation.
In middle school, I focus on improving the writing they already know how to do. One tool I use is a program called "6 Traits Writing." This program breaks down the elements of good writing into six traits. Each trait is studied and further broken down into small steps students can follow to recognize and correct weaknesses in their work. Students are given a rubric for each trait at the beginning of sixth grade and the rubrics are kept in their binders throughout middle school. I will be happy to provide a copy of these rubrics to anyone for whom it would be helpful.
VOCABULARY AND SPELLING
Students learn the meanings of word bases, roots and prefixes to discover how knowing word parts can assist in understanding and spelling unfamiliar words. Occasionally, they will be given vocabulary words to study and eventually use in writing. These spelling and vocabulary lessons may be combined with another class's vocabulary words or a writing assignment to give them a more meaningful context.
GRADES
Tests, quizzes, and project grades count for 50% of the quarter grade. Daily classroom work and homework count for another 40% of the quarter grade. Extra credit counts for the final 10% of the grade. Extra credit questions are often on tests or quizzes. The points gained from answering these questions correctly are not added to the test grade, but recorded as extra credit points on Webgrader. The number of extra credit points available for each quarter varies.
Tests and quizzes can always be re-taken. Both grades will count on the quarter average, however I will not count a re-take grade if it brings down the average.
Test, quiz and project grades are posted on web-grader, therefore they do not need to be signed and returned to me. However, I will require any student to show me a signed test if a parent asks me to. I realize that sometimes this is more helpful to parents in teaching their child accountability.
Missing homework assignments can be turned in late, however 10% may be taken off the grade.
COMMUNICATION
Feel free to e-mail me with any questions or comments. A link to my address is listed below.
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HOW, WHEN, AND WHERE TO CITE YOUR SOURCES
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HOW
An explanation of parenthetical documentation is in each text-
6th - page # 428
7th - page # 484
8th - page # 496
WHEN
Most of the information in these research papers will be cited, because most of it will come from other sources. Even if information is paraphrased or summarized from the original text, it must be cited. This has been made clear in every class.
WHERE
Appropriate documentation of sources is required for all research papers in grades 6, 7, and 8.
SOME PUBLICATION GUIDELINES:
Font - New Times Roman or Courier, 12 pt.
Margins - 1" all around
Spacing - double spaced with no extra spaces
Indenting - 5 spaces
Page numbers - at the top right, following your last name
A LINK TO THE MLA SITE, WHICH EXPLAINS THE PUBLICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR RESEARCH PAPERS, IS LISTED BELOW.
webgrader
Christ King School
MLA guidelines for research papers
Mcdougal Littell
Send E-Mail to: greenl@christkingparish.org
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