English 7 Syllabus 2014-2015 Instructor Information: Teacher: Room: Contact: Website: Required Text: Additional Resources: Mrs. Carol Aten Frow Belle Vernon Area Middle School, Room 120 Phone: 724-808-2500; ext. 3120 Email: Carol.AtenFrow@bellevernonarea.net http://www.bellevernonarea.net/bvams Elements of Language, First Course; Vocabulary Workshop, Level B Notebook, Writing Utensils, DLP/Grammar Folder, Journal Flash drive (Optional) Course Description: English 7 focuses on grammar, writing, usage, and vocabulary. Course Objectives: By the end of this course, the successful student will be able to: 1. Use the parts of speech accurately. 2. Integrate new vocabulary into speech and writing. 3. Recognize and apply correct word usage to improve speaking and writing. 4. Develop a writing topic through various techniques of pre-writing. 5. Create rough drafts. 6. Apply revision techniques to a piece of writing to improve upon sentence structure, word usage, content, and organization. 7. Apply a series of editing techniques to a piece of writing to improve upon capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and sentence structure. 8. Produce polished pieces of writing. 9. Create interesting introductory paragraphs and conclusions. 10. Develop five paragraph responses in the modes of narrative, informational, and persuasive essays. 11. Conduct research. 12. Speak clearly while following an organized outline in a presentation. 13. Create poetry. 14. Read and respond to literature. Academic Honesty: Any work submitted by the student shall be his/her own. Work taken from others shall be deemed as unacceptable. Any doubts will initiate the completion of an alternative assignment or a zero on the required effort, depending on the severity of the infraction. Class Policies and Expectations: 1. Students are expected to arrive on time to class with the proper materials. Failure to bring materials will be treated like incomplete homework assignments. Students are expected to complete homework assignments. All students will begin with a homework grade of one hundred points. Each missed assignment will cause that 100 to be lowered by five points. Homework is not checked for accuracy but for completion since its purpose is to practice skills. Students who need additional help or support are expected to seek the teacher’s assistance prior to a test. The teacher can assist students during homeroom, ketchup, or after school by appointment. Review materials are posted on both the Seventh and Eighth Grade Pages on Schoolwires. These materials include vocabulary lists, DLP pages, review games, instructional Power Points, and video links. Students are expected to acquire their assignments if they are absent and to make up work in a timely fashion. Students are expected to conduct themselves as ladies and gentlemen in the classroom and to be respectful to everyone around them. Students are not permitted to use cell phones, iPods, or other electronic media in class. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Course Grading Criteria: All quizzes, tests, and projects will be graded according to the Belle Vernon Area School District grading policy. Total points will be accumulated for all evaluated efforts in this class rather than having letter grades per each effort. The grading scale is as follows: A B C D F - 90-100 80-89 70-79 60-69 0-59 Emphasis will be on formal assessments. Therefore grades will be weighted in this course. Formal Assessments will account for 90% of a student’s grade (quizzes, tests, projects, performance-based rubrics, essays, graded homework, etc.) Informal Assessments will account for 10% of a student’s grade (homework for completion, class participation, exit tickets, etc.) Assignments per Quarter: Students will have a homework grade. It will be the first score on Edline and will be updated biweekly. This is an informal assessment. Students will have formal assessment grades on grammar tests, DLP tests, vocabulary tests, projects, and writings. The journal is also a formal assessment. Check the teacher website to see the dates for these formal assignments. Students will be creating at least one piece of writing per quarter. Bonus points will be offered quarterly in the form of poetry writing. Academic Standards: Students will be reacquainted with the Pennsylvania Academic Standards that have been adopted by the Department of Education, along with the Common Core Standards that are in the process of being implemented nationwide. Students will be made aware of the importance of the standards and the efforts to meet them. Edline: If Grades will be updated weekly on Edline. If you lost or cannot remember log in information, please contact our Child Accounting Department at 724-808-2500 ext. 1108. Schoolwires (Website): My website will be updated every Friday. Course Topics, Assignments, and Quizzes and Tests are also posted weekly. Go to www.bellevernonarea.net. Choose the middle school and teachers. Once my name has been selected, click on the tab for Assignments and Tests to keep informed about these items. In addition, I have a page dedicated to materials to be used in the class. There, vocabulary words, DLP, grammar reviews, and writing helpers can be found. Course Outline: 1st Quarter DLP WOD Grammar Journal 2nd Quarter DLP WOD Grammar Journal 3rd Quarter DLP WOD Grammar Journal 4th Quarter DLP WOD Grammar Journal Informational Essay-Cause and Effect Persuasive Essay Research Project Creative Narrative Essay The following signatures state that all parties are aware of the preceding syllabus. Student Signature____________________Date_______________ Parent Signature_____________________Date_______________ Method the parent prefers to be contacted: E-mail address-_________________________________________ Phone number-_________________________________________