1st Term Syllabus: Language Arts



1st Term Language Arts Syllabus Name__________________

Teachers: Ms. Lindsey Monday, August 2, 2010

[pic]

Coursework: Throughout the first term, students will study a wide variety of material in the language arts classroom. At the beginning of the term, students will become familiar with the Eighth Grade Writing Assessment rubric. Students will understand the characteristics of an expository and persuasive essay and be able to produce an example of each. Throughout the first semester, students will keep an interactive notebook and use it each day in the language arts classroom. Students will also begin studying elements of a story: setting, plot, theme, and conflict. As for grammar, students will keep a DGP (Daily Grammar Practice) section in their notebooks and will complete this everyday after the warm-up. We will also be studying the different parts of speech.

Homework: Students will have homework during the week. Students receive vocabulary words every Monday. Students should study the vocabulary words every day in order to learn the words and do well on the quiz on Friday. Students will often have writing assignments and projects to complete at home. The student agenda is a very important tool for the students on our team. As a team, we require students to write down their homework everyday in their agendas. Please check your child’s agenda to make sure that he/she writes down a homework assignment everyday, even if it just says “study”.

The Organized Notebook: At the beginning of this year, students will organize their interactive language arts notebook by creating five different sections. Please make sure that your child has the following five segments in his or her interactive notebook:

• First Section: DGP and Warm-Ups – When students arrive to class, they should immediately begin the DGP (Daily Grammar Practice) or any other assigned warm-up that is on the board. Students will have a quiz over DGP every three weeks. Please make sure that your child completes the assigned warm-up everyday. The DGP sentence for the week should be kept on one page. All DGP quizzes will be glued into this section of the notebook. Beginning of the year information will be glued into the very front of the notebook.

• Second Section: Grammar—Students will keep notes in this section. It will consist of information covering parts of speech, punctuation, verbals, sentence structure, sentence types, complements, etc.

• Third Section: Vocabulary – Students receive a vocabulary/spelling list each week. The vocabulary list will grow by five words each week until thirty words are accumulated. Example—Students will be tested over five words the first week, and the second week, students will be tested over ten words (the old five words as well as the new five). After students complete the thirty word test, we will begin with a new set of five words. STUDENTS WILL HAVE A QUIZ EVERY FRIDAY OVER THE SPELLING AND DEFINITIONS OF THESE WORDS!

• Fourth Section: Literature –Students will keep notes over short stories, literary terms, reading comprehension questions, poetry, and figurative language in this section of the interactive notebook.

• Fifth Section: Writing—In this section, students will keep the following: 8th grade Georgia Writing rubric, expository and persuasive genre notes, drafts, journals, warm-ups, essays.  This section may be quite lengthy because of the element of writing essays; therefore, students will write their drafts in the notebook and then write their final copy on loose leaf notebook paper or type it into the computer program MyAccess.)

Make-up and Late Work: Students are expected to turn in all assignments on time; however, circumstances do arise; therefore, all late work should be placed in the Late Work Tray. Ten points will be deducted for each day an assignment is late.

Students are allowed three days to complete all missing work when absent. If the student is absent, he or she should check the “Have You Been Absent?” notebook when he or she returns to school. All classroom assignments are listed in this notebook. Worksheets and notes will be filed in the purple crate in the back of the classroom. Students should put all make-up work in the Make-Up Work Tray.

Grading Policy: As defined by a school wide grading policy, the final grades for each grading period will be calculated using the following percentages:

45% Tests, Quizzes, and Projects 40% Daily Work, Homework

15% Semester Exam

Extra Credit Opportunities: At times during the term, the student will have a chance to earn extra points in the language arts classroom. Students will be asked to study with a parent or older sibling for major quizzes and tests. If the parent signs the study guide, the student will receive an extra five points on the quiz or test.

Language Arts Webpage: Important information will be provided on our class webpage. Please check there periodically to view what we are studying and to access upcoming information. The webpage is:

. You can also access this page by going to the Ola Middle Homepage, click on the Teachers tab, and scroll down to Lindsey!

Teacher Availability: email: Jennifer.Lindsey@henry.k12.ga.us

phone: 770-288-2108

If you would like a conference during the year, our team is available Tuesdays-Fridays from 11:15-12:40.

I am looking forward to working with each of you this year!

Parent Signature:______________________ Date:_____________________

Student Signature:_______________________ Date:_____________________

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download