Grading Scale
A 95-100
A- 90-94
B+ 87-89
B 83-86
B- 80-82
C+ 77-79
C 73-76
C- 70-72
D+ 67-69
D 66-63
D- 60 - 62
F 59 and below
Vocabulary Doodle- This is our "bell ringer" which means it is something we do after we write in our planners. Each day the students will get a new vocabulary word with the definition and the part of speech that it is. The students will then answer a question and then "doodle" the word. Along with the doodling, they will add the word to the glossary with the definition, part of speech, and a sentence using the new vocabulary word. The students will also create a cheat sheet for the vocabulary quizzes.
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Each day the students will have 5-7 minutes to complete the doodle. Every other Friday, we will have a vocabulary quiz over the past two weeks of words. Also, I will periodically check the students' glossaries to make sure they are filling them in. This will also count as a quiz.
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The reason we do the Vocabulary Doodle is that it exposes the students to different vocabulary words each day and ones that could potentially be on MAP or Iowa Assessments. This is also an opportunity for students to see and use words they might not know or use.
What are we Learning this year?
Interactive Grammar Notebook (INB) - This is a resource notebook that we are creating to help us throughout the year and going forward in middle school and potentially high school.
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Now my second year of teaching Language Arts, I have noticed that many rules and concepts are hard for students to remember. There are also lots of rules for all types of punctuation, plurals, parts of speech, etc. The goal for the INB is to be a place where students can check for a rule or concept they are unsure about. So far, we have completed our hard and fast rules for capitalization, commas, apostrophes, numbers, quotation marks, commonly confused words, and plurals.
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We will continue to add new skills and concepts throughout the year. Periodically, I will do notebook checks and what I am looking for is to see that students have all concepts and skill templates colored, glued, and filled out correctly.
Papers - This will be the biggest portion of your child's grade, approximately 40%. We have three major writing types to continue learning and mastering.
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Narratives - real or imagined experiences with descriptive details, event sequencing, and effective techniques (dialogue, transition words, etc.)
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Argumentative - writing arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
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Explanatory/Informative - writing to investigate a topic and being able to share the information clearly
We will work through the writing process: brainstorm/prewrite, rough draft, revise, edit, and publish.
Homework (Daily)- We will periodically have homework to practice skills and concepts that we are working on.
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Quizzes and Tests - Throughout the school year, we will have pop quizzes, quizzes, and tests. I don't have many of these because we focus a lot on the students writing and mastering the skills.