Advisory with Mrs. Fontana

Advisory Period: 2:41 – 3:15 Notes and office announcements

Role of Advisor Your child’s adult advocate at school Can assist with general questions and concerns

Specific class questions: ask teacher Specific administrative questions: contact the office directly

Advisory Periods Focus on team building, conflict resolution, leadership, bullying, setting goals Advisory will be every day through the first week of September Advisory periods will be on Monday and Thursday (starting September 8)

How to reach me: 847-853-3818 jfontana@kenilworth38.org

6th Grade ELA Grammar

Writing (on demand, literary responses and formal essays)

Literature Analysis

Word Study (vocabulary/spelling)

Independent Reading Reports

Grammar

Text: Elements of Language

Grammar lessons will emphasize sentence structure, parts of speech, verb tense and punctuation.

Students will take notes throughout our different grammar units using their LA spiral.

Additional grammar practice and review activities available online (through IXL).

Each student should have the grammar Holt Handbook textbook and should keep this at home to use as a resource for the year.

Writing The writing process: pre-write, draft, editing, revision and final copy

Six Focused Traits: idea, organization, word choice, sentence fluency, voice, and conventions

Writing instruction will focus on the following: Writing strong, focused paragraphs Written responses to our literary texts Cross curricular units to link with social studies and science Genre focus every month

descriptive narrative/personal narrative Informational/explanatory argumentative science fiction mythology research DBQs

Poetry

Informal to the Formal Write… Students will have an ongoing writing portfolio kept in class

6th Grade Literature Selections Short Stories

The Breadwinner Homeless Bird Boys Without Names Peak The Greek Myths Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” Poetry The Giver

Thematic Concepts: Finding Your Voice Discovery, Exploration and Perseverance A Hero by Name Challenging the past

Note: both fiction and non-fictional texts will be used to compliment the thematic concepts covered with each unit of study

Close Reading and Critical AnalysisWith each literature unit, students will be connecting

to the text on a higher level

Close Reading Activities:

Close reading means discovering the layers of meaning that lead to deep comprehension. To achieve this understanding, students need to reread deliberately

and reflect on the meaning of individual words, sentences and passages. In other words, there is a close connection between the author and the reader. 

Among the key concepts of close reading are the following: looking carefully and analytically at the text focusing attention on the central ideas and supporting details of the text monitoring one's thinking based on new information from the text rereading with a definite purpose learning to ask oneself text dependent questions--including craft and structure

questions as well as those that require integration of knowledge/ideas

Close Reading and Critical AnalysisWith each literature unit, students will be connecting

to the text through a variety of written responses across both fiction and nonfiction texts

 CREAC writing responses: The objective is to develop evidence-based explanations to questions posed from our

various literature units. Written responses will be focused on developing strong, well-organized literary responses through the following:

Claim – a position on a given topic. Reasons – logical points the support one’s claim. Evidence – the text evidence/data to defend one’s reasons and claim. Analysis – students further explain in their own words how the

evidence supports the claim using background knowledge, relevant connections and reasonable speculation.

Conclusion – a concluding sentence to summarize and conclude the claim of the paragraph.

Evidence-Based ExplanationCEAC Model Paragraph

 Based on our reading of The Cemetery Path, do Ivan’s character traits impact the final outcome of the story?

In Leonard Q. Ross’s short story “The Cemetery Path”, Ivan’s personal character traits clearly

impact the final outcome of the story.  Ivan, the main character in the story, was described as

being a timid, fearful man and therefore mocked endlessly by the people in his town.  After

much teasing from fellow soldiers, Ivan was given a challenge to cross the town’s cemetery in

the middle of one winter night in order to win a bet.  In the morning, the townspeople found

Ivan dead with “his face was not that of a frozen man’s, but of a man killed by some nameless

horror.”  The reader can infer that being the fearful man he was, Ivan’s terror of the unknown

ultimately led to his unfortunate demise. In this way, it is evident that Ivan’s timid and fearful

personality impacts the final outcome of the story.

Independent Reading Students will be assigned several independent reading reports over

the course of this year. They may choose any book they want to read. However, as the year progresses, we will explore different genres and students will be asked to choose a title from this genre of study.

Students need to choose a book with at least 175 pages. I encourage students to choose titles that will be challenging.

Students are required to complete a project for each book. Projects will include writing, artistic connections and oral presentations.

The central focus of the report is to follow directions and write clearly about the book.

Due dates for projects will be given when the report is assigned. Projects will be broken down into 2 or 3 sections to help students keep organized.

Each IRR assignment will be posted online on our new Canvas webpage.

English Assignments Students are required to use their HW planner.

Time will be given daily at the start of each class period to record assignments.

ELA homework will include a variety of reading and writing activities (grammar, reading assignments, writing responses/essays and long-term projects).

Long term assignments will be broken down into chunks and several due dates will be given to students at the start of each long term project.

Students may also refer to my webpage in order to check the HW assigned for our ELA class.

Work Expectations Grades will be reduced as follows for

major assignments that are late: 1 day late – 10% grade

reduction 2 days late – 20 % grade

reduction and parents are called

3 days late = 60% final score with HW completed in HW Center

Daily Homework Checks With grammar HW, literature packets, etc.,

students will receive 3 pts. (full credit) for completed assignments. No credit will be given if HW is not complete.

Students are expected to make up all late work.

Students will not be allowed to retake tests or create extra credit to boost grades.

Grading Scale Supplies 100-99: A+ 98-93: A 92-91: A- 90-89: B+ 88-83: B 82-81: B- 80-79: C+ 78-73: C 72-71: C- 70-69: D+ 68-63: D- 60-0: U

• Students are expected to have their supplies in class. These supplies include, but are not limited to, the following: writing utensils, spiral notebook, flashdrive, HW planner and novels.

Communication

Phone number: 847-853-3818

Email: jfontana@kenilworth38.org

I am looking forward to a great year!!