Beginning Grammar and World Literature

Ms. Richardson’s class

Course Description

This Course Addresses the standards and requirements of the UC/CSU system. There are four benchmark writing assignments covered in this class. Response to literature, Personal Narrative, Persuasive Business Letter, and Technical Document. Each of the essay assignments addresses specific grade level standards that need to be mastered prior to the CAHSEE. In addition to these standards, other applicable standards will be addressed either using literature from the adopted text or using supplemental literature.

Classroom Rules

Come to class prepared every day.

Upon entering the classroom, immediately sit in your seat and prepare for that day’s lesson.

Respect yourself and others.

Speak only when asked or addressed.

Keep all body parts and foreign objects to yourself.

Do not plagiarize!!!

Consequences

Failure to follow the rules will result in a teacher detention or an administrative punishment depending on the severity!!!!

Be prepared- Bring the following

An organized binder

6 binder tabs

Notes, Projects, Literature Response Questions,Writing, Vocabulary, Novels

A pen or pencil

Colored Pencils

Highlighter

Paper

Notebook

Key Assignments

Response to literature essay

Personal narrative

Life map presentation

Persuasive Business letter

Of Mice and Men

Romeo and Juliet Presentation

Technical Document Writing

Group Presentations and Projects

Late Assignments

Assignments are due at the beginning of the class period

All assignments turned in after the original collection are considered late and will be docked 5 pts.

Assignments turned in later than a day will be docked 10 pts.

If you are absent, no late points will be deducted.

If you are going to be absent, please let me know ahead of time.

Absences

If you are absent, there will be a binder in the back of the classroom that you can check to find out assignments missed.

If there are handouts that were given, you will also be able to find those in the absence binder.

There will be a sign in sheet in the front of the binder that you will need to sign, so I know that you checked the binder to find your assignments.

Warm-ups and Daily Activities

Every day, there will be some warm up or activity on the board.

Warm ups and Activities range from journal writing/free writes, correcting sentences (grammar, punctuation, capitalization), CST English Language Arts test prep questions, or short reading and response passages.

The Activities and Warm ups are to be started when you walk into the classroom.

They will be reviewed and stamped then collected on Friday’s.

Daily Concluding Questions

Every day, following each lesson, you will be asked to answer the following questions on your notes pages. You must answer each question using complete sentences and they must be well thought out.

What did I learn How do I know?

How can I apply what I learned?

Why or How is this relevant to my life/work/success?

Literature Book Assignments

We will be reading various stories from the Literature Book.

You must participate in class when reading stories.

Students may be asked to read with a partner, read independently, read aloud, or listen while I read the story.

Questions will be asked during reading to check for comprehension.

Continued

Before beginning reading, you will write and define the vocabulary found in the story.

The Vocabulary and definitions will be placed in the Vocabulary section of your binder.

At the conclusion of the story, there will be a vocabulary test which could include spelling and defining the words.

Continued

At the conclusion of each story, there will be Response questions that you will answer about the story.

When answering the response questions, you must always use complete sentences.

Failure to answer in complete sentences will result in a deduction of points.

The response questions will be placed in your binders and checked at the completion of each story.

Binder checks

You will need to keep all of your work in each binder.

I will be doing binder checks to make sure you have your work, have been taking notes, and completing assignments.

Each Binder check will be worth 50 points.

Block Schedule Activities

This year we have a block schedule.

During Block Schedule days, we will be working on integrated curriculum between classes, group projects, and writing workshops.

Extra Credit

Extra Credit will be made available at various times throughout the year!!