Eighth Grade Language Arts Syllabus



NAME: ____________________________________ CLASS: ________________

Sixth Grade Language Arts Syllabus

Your Teacher:

Dr. Katy Shrout Phone: 678-753-5289

DeKalb Path Academy Please call or text any time. 3007 Hermance Drive Between 8 pm and 8 am it

Atlanta, GA 30319 will go to voice mail, so Email: kshrout@ you will not wake me.

Course Website

shrout.

Course Description

Language Arts is a course designed to help you become better writers, readers, thinkers and speakers. In this class we concentrate on four main areas: 1. reading, including learning about great ideas, respected literature and well-known authors; 2. writing, including critical thinking, in preparation for the rest of your educational/professional lives; 3. vocabulary, which will help you become better readers and writers; and 4. grammar / conventions. We will also study and practice performance and drama as a way to strengthen our understanding of the four areas above. This course will be based on the Georgia Standards of Excellence (otherwise known as the Common Core) for 8th grade Language Arts.

Class Themes

To help us to continue to become mature thinkers and writers, this year we will think about and explore big picture questions, following a theme that most of you began last year in Ms. Peyton’s class. We will continue to think about questions like: What is good? What is evil? What makes a person good or evil? What makes a society good or evil? Do we determine our own life course, or does fate play a role?

We will also be thinking about and exploring performance in person and on film. As part of this, we may recite poetry, act out scenes from plays, and practice making speeches. This theme will culminate in our end-of-the-year Shakespeare film festival, during which we’ll produce our own adaptations of plays by William Shakespeare. This will be the second part of PATH Academy’s two-year Shakespeare studies cycle.

Grading

Grades are awarded on a percentage system designed by DeKalb County.

Assessments During Learning (most quizzes, some homework): 25%

Guided, Independent or Group Practice (in-class projects, more complex homework, vocabulary quizzes): 45%

Summative or Post Assessment (major projects, compositions, tests, final exam): 30%

Supplies

Each student will need a three-ring binder, notebook paper, dividers, and pens or pencils. You may want a stack of 3x5 index cards to help with vocabulary words, but that is optional. You will need this all year long; if you run out of paper, for example, you need to come up with more. (Obviously!) In November every student will need a spiral notebook. I may ask you to bring a few other supplies throughout the year, but will give you advance warning.

Discipline Policy

I will follow the 8th grade discipline plan. Each 8th grader will receive their own copy of this plan. In general, please note that you will receive a warning before you receive a consequence – except, of course, in situations in which student behavior has been especially disruptive or disrespectful, or where it has represented a pattern over time.

Absences

If you are absent, it is your responsibility to make up your work. This means you must both (a) find out what work you will be responsible for and (b) turn it in on a timeline we agree upon. To find out what you’ve missed, you should first check the class web site, then ask classmates, and then speak to me directly. I will not necessarily seek you out to remind you or to update you on what you have missed: this is your job. If you have not turned in make-up work before the grading period ends, you will receive a zero. If you allow enough time to ask me, I will be happy to explain and help you with make-up work.

Typed Work

Papers in my class are to be set up in the following way:

• 12 point New Times Roman font

• Single-spaced heading in the upper right corner

• Indented paragraphs

• Double-spaced body

• One-inch margins all around

For a reminder of this format, you may visit the “Write. Write. Write.” section of shrout..

Class Policies

- Class library. I keep a library of books in my class for your convenience during silent reading and other times. Please treat these books respectfully and put them back when you are through with them. If you would like to take a book out of my classroom to read further, you need to sign it out in the silver binder I keep on my front table. If you have books you’ve already read that you’d like to donate to the library, please let me know! If you find a book around school with “Shrout” written on it, please return it to my classroom.

- Leaving the classroom. If you need to leave the classroom during class, you (obviously) need permission. You must also always sign out and in on the clip board near the class library. You should have your paycheck circled by a teacher. The one exception to this is if you are sick and it is an immediate emergency.

- Eating/drinking in the classroom. As a general rule there is no eating in the classroom and no drinking of anything but water. Breakfast or lunch always needs to be finished in the cafetorium. When you do have permission to eat in the classroom – snack during tutorial, occasional class celebrations, etc. – you must dispose of all trash and clean up all spills.

Good Scholarly Habits

You said to write a paragraph. How long is a paragraph?

In the 8th grade at PATH Academy, a paragraph is 5-7 sentences. A paragraph needs to include not only simple sentences, but also some compound, complex or compound-complex sentences. Please note that this is also required by Ms. Tinsley and other 8th grade teachers.

You said I need to “do my best work”in Language Arts. What does that mean?

Your best work doesn’t necessarily mean that your work is perfect. No one is perfect all the time. However, doing your best work means that you took your time, that you watched out for sloppy mistakes, that your work looks neat and attractive, that you referred to all possible class notes and made use of other resources available to you, and, perhaps most of all, that you demonstrate you thought carefully and creatively about your work before turning it in. Note that doing your best work applies to large and small assignments alike.

Will we have regular quizzes and tests?

We’ll have a vocabulary quiz and a binder quiz every Friday. Other quizzes and tests will be announced in advance and could be on any day.

What goes in my binder?What’s a binder quiz?

You will keep all paper associated with this class in your binder. This includes the syllabus, notes, warm-ups, worksheets, paper drafts, and handouts. From time to time I may tell you it’s okay to throw something out, but otherwise, please assume it goes in your binder. Binders should have four sections: Literature, Writing, Vocabulary, Grammar. You will have a “binder quiz” most Fridays following your vocabulary quiz. You will be asked to copy something down out of your binder, usually from your warm-up or from notes we’ve taken.

What do you mean by “take notes?”

When I am explaining a topic in class, or when I am lecturing on a subject, you will be expected to take notes. Good note taking is extremely important; it’s a crucial skill for high school and beyond. Sometimes this will mean copying down Power Point slides; sometimes it will mean listening to what I say and jotting down important ideas; sometimes I will give you prepared notes with blanks to fill in. If you miss class, be sure to ask to borrow and copy someone else’s notes. Important: good notes are essential for doing well on tests and quizzes. If you take good notes, keep them organized and in your binder, studying for tests should not be difficult.

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