Advisory with Mrs. Fontana
Advisory
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Notes and office announcements
Role
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of Advisor
Your child’s adult advocate at school
Can assist with general questions and concerns
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Specific class questions: ask teacher
Specific administrative questions: contact the office directly
Advisory
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How
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Period: 2:41 – 3:15
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)
to reach me:
847-853-3818
jfontana@kenilworth38.org
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6
Grade ELA
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Grammar
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Writing
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Literature Analysis
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Word Study (vocabulary/spelling)
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Independent Reading Reports
(on demand, literary responses and formal essays)
Grammar
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Text: Elements of Language
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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
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The writing process: pre-write, draft, editing, revision and final copy
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Six Focused Traits: idea, organization, word choice, sentence fluency, voice,
and conventions
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Writing instruction will focus on the following:
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Writing strong, focused paragraphs
Written responses to our literary texts
Cross curricular units to link with social studies and science
Genre focus every month
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descriptive
narrative/personal narrative
Informational/explanatory
argumentative
science fiction
mythology
research
DBQs
Poetry
Informal to the Formal Write…
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Students will have an ongoing writing portfolio kept in class
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6
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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 Analysis
With each literature unit, students will be connecting
to the text on a higher level
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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.
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Among the key concepts of close reading are the following:
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looking carefully and analytically at the text
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focusing attention on the central ideas and supporting details of the text
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monitoring one's thinking based on new information from the text
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rereading with a definite purpose
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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 Analysis
With each literature unit, students will be connecting
to the text through a variety of written responses across both
fiction and nonfiction texts
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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, wellorganized literary responses through the following:
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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.
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Conclusion – a concluding sentence to summarize and conclude the
claim of the paragraph.
Evidence-Based Explanation
CEAC 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
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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.
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Students need to choose a book with at least 175 pages. I
encourage students to choose titles that will be challenging.
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Students are required to complete a project for each book. Projects
will include writing, artistic connections and oral presentations.
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The central focus of the report is to follow directions and write
clearly about the book.
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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.
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Each IRR assignment will be posted online on our new Canvas
webpage.
English Assignments
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Students are required to use their HW planner.
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Time will be given daily at the start of each class period to
record assignments.
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ELA homework will include a variety of reading and writing
activities (grammar, reading assignments, writing
responses/essays and long-term projects).
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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.
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Students may also refer to my webpage in order to check the
HW assigned for our ELA class.
Work Expectations
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Grades will be reduced as follows for
major assignments that are late:
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1 day late – 10% grade
reduction
2 days late – 20 % grade
reduction and parents are
called
3 days late = 60% final score
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Students are expected to
make up all late work.
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Students will not be allowed
to retake tests or create
extra credit to boost grades.
with HW completed in HW Center
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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.
Grading Scale
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100-99: A+
98-93: A
92-91: A90-89: B+
88-83: B
82-81: B80-79: C+
78-73: C
72-71: C70-69: D+
68-63: D60-0: U
Supplies
• 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
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Phone number: 847-853-3818
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Email: jfontana@kenilworth38.org
I am looking forward to a great year!!