Warriors achieve dreams. Be a Warrior!
White County Middle School
6th Grade Language Arts
706-865-4060 ext. 6110
email lburgess@white.k12.ga.us
School website: white.k12.ga.us/wcms
Burgess Class Description
6th Grade Language Arts encompasses the following three areas: literature, writing, and grammar usage. Students
will be engaged in reading, class discussions, responding to literature, journaling, daily grammar practice, hands-on
projects, and group activities. We will not only enhance basic skills such as reading comprehension and vocabulary,
but we will also continually work to improve writing and grammar skills. We believe that reading and writing are
closely interrelated and will, therefore, strive to make writing an important part of the curriculum and integrate
writing assignments into the reading material.
Topics of Discussion
The curriculum in this course lends itself to class discussions. Each student in the course must cooperate so that the
class can discuss the assigned materials. Each class member must understand that all of us come from different
backgrounds and experiences and that those experiences are what we draw upon when we discuss any issue. It will
be necessary in this course to exercise good judgment and maturity during class discussions. Ridicule of a
classmate’s views or ideas is not acceptable behavior. Students who find that they are unable to discuss the material
within these guidelines should refrain from participating in class discussions.
Grading Procedures
Your grade will be determined from the following:
Daily Grades – 45% (includes homework)
Tests/Projects – 35%
Semester Exam – 20% (comprehensive)
All assignments are expected to be turned in on the assigned due date. If work is incomplete on the due date, partial
credit will be given for the completed portion. Points will be deducted for assignments that are turned in late. If you
are absent, work should be made up within 2-days upon returning to school. See the student agenda for further
information regarding make-up work.
Website and Infinite Campus
It is a service to parents, students, and teachers that White County Middle School offers the Middle School Website;
this is a terrific tool to help students navigate Infinite Campus and other sources of school information. I realize that
not all people have Internet access at home, but if you do have access, explore this school site. I will make regular
updates to inform students of current averages and assignment grades. Also, you will find information about my
credentials, the classes I teach, the class calendars for each class, the vocabulary for the classes I teach, and other
cool topics. I will make regular updates to inform students of class assignments or important announcements.
Discipline
Every student has the right to learn in a positive environment free from disruptive behavior. To create this
environment, all policies in the WCMS Handbook should be followed, as well as classroom rules. Minor classroom
disruptions (Level I) will be handled using the “step plan” for students and major disturbances (Level II) will be
referred to the office.
Warriors achieve dreams. Be a Warrior!
White County Middle School
6th Grade Language Arts
706-865-4060 ext. 6110
email lburgess@white.k12.ga.us
School website: white.k12.ga.us/wcms
Required Reading
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk Middle School. by Jack Canfield, Mark Hansen,
Madeline Clapps, and Valerie Howlett.
The stories in this book cover topics important to the 12 to 14-year-old age range, including regrets and lessons
learned, discovering the opposite sex, cliques and popularity, and new privileges and responsibilities such as jobs,
cell phones, and grades.
1. This is the first time that Chicken Soup has published separate books for younger teens and older teens, allowing
more focus on issues specific to each age group.
2. Parents can be more confident that the book their child is reading contains stories suitable for just that age.
3. The line is being updated with new covers, new interior layouts, excellent editing, and up-to-date stories. The line
is also returning to the core values of its heyday, delivering 101 stories in every book.
4. Chicken Soup for the Soul earned the Guinness World Record for having the most books on the New York Times
bestseller list at one time.
5. Last year, USA Today named Chicken Soup for the Soul #5 on its list of 25 books that left a legacy over the past
quarter century.
Anne Frank: A Diary of a Young Girl.
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that Anne Frank's diary is a singular, moving look at World War II from a young girl's
perspective. The Franks, along with another family, the Van Daans, hide in order to avoid capture during the
German occupation of Holland. Aided by friends on the outside, Anne and the others spend two years in the "secret
annex": several rooms enclosed in the warehouse of Anne's father's business. While war rages outside, Anne is a
normal teen, thinking at least as much about friends, and boyfriends, and how her parents annoy her, as she does
about issues of the day. She is a remarkably clever, thoughtful narrator, and her diary is as entertaining as it is a
significant historical document.
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl is required reading for many middle-schoolers, and it will be rightfully
upsetting to many of those readers. Though the events within the diary offer only a glimpse of the horrors inflicted
on Jewish people by the Nazis, there is a disturbing element of fear throughout. What we as readers know about
what happened to Jews outside the world of the book, and what happened to Anne after the book ends, is
inescapable in the experience of reading Anne's diary.
Many editions of Anne Frank's diary include an Afterword, explaining the events of World War II and the fate of
Anne and the other inmates of the secret annex.
What's the story?
In 1942, during the Nazi occupation of Holland, a Jewish girl named Anne Frank receives a blank diary for her 13th
birthday. Treating the empty book like an imaginary friend named "Kitty," Anne writes faithfully, describing her
fondest wishes and feelings. When her family is forced into hiding to avoid capture by the German police, the book
becomes like a lifeline for Anne, who describes the fear, hunger, longing, and boredom she experiences during two
years living in the place she calls the "secret annex." Trapped in cramped quarters with her parents and sister, three
members of the Van Daan family, and an elderly neighbor, Mr. Dussel, Anne begins to mature, even experiencing
her first love in the annex, and finds her greatest solace in the written word.
Warriors achieve dreams. Be a Warrior!
White County Middle School
6th Grade Language Arts
706-865-4060 ext. 6110
email lburgess@white.k12.ga.us
School website: white.k12.ga.us/wcms
Hatchet. Gary Paulsen
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this is an intense, fast, exciting read. The main character is a 13-year-old boy whose
parents are divorced. He survives a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness en route to visit his father and must use
the hatchet his mother once gave him to stay alive. Many kids report that this is the first school-assigned book they
fell in love with.
What's the story?
A city boy is stranded in the Canadian wilderness, equipped with nothing but a hatchet and the clothes on his back.
Readers get a riveting view of Brian's struggle to survive for the next two months, forever changing his attitude
toward the twentieth-century civilization to which he is eventually returned.
The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this story of peer pressure, rebellion, and identity centers on two rival groups of teens, the
lower-class "outsider" Greasers and the more well-heeled, popular Socs (short for Socials). It includes fighting,
underage drinking, delinquent behavior, a rumble, a fatal stabbing, and a suicide. But the indelible characters and
compelling story have consistently hooked middle school kids, teens, and reluctant readers since The Outsiders was
first published in 1967. This book appeals to preteens (many read it in sixth grade) because that's the time when kids
break into social cliques and life becomes tribal. The feelings of being ostracized are timeless -- which is why this
book is still so relevant more than 40 years after its original publication.
What's the story?
THE OUTISDERS has been one of the most popular book among teens and preteens since it came out in 1967.
Ponyboy and his Greaser gang fight rival gang the Socs (short for "Socials," the wealthier, more preppie kids) and
try to make a place for themselves in the world. The juvenile delinquent characters are fully and humanely
developed in this realistic look at life, death, and growing up, told from a teen's point of view. The book was based
on the author's high school experience in Tulsa, OK, in 1965, but the time and setting are not specified in the text.
Contact Information:
Please provide the way you prefer to be contacted below.
I have read and understand the requirements described in the syllabus for 6th Grade
English Language Arts.
Student signature:__________________________________
Date: __________
Parent Signature:___________________________________
Date: __________