GRADING POLICY

We believe that daily work and homework is practice and students are responsible for giving their best effort on learning new skills. Daily work and homework will not be accepted for late credit towards the responsibility portion of the student’s grade.  Mastery of skills taught will be assessed weekly on a variety of quizzes, tests, essays, and projects.

 

Responsibility grade

Students will begin each quarter with a 100% for the responsibility grade. Points will be deducted from each category throughout the quarter.

 

Category:                                            Point deduction:

Preparedness                                       2 points

On-time content assignments              5 points

Folder organized/complete                5 points

Homework/reading log completion   2 points                       

 

Make-up Work

Any failing grade on a skills assessment may be brought up by completing the corrective assignment with a parent signature and taking the retest on the assigned date. Only students who return the corrective assignment form and do the corrective assignment will be given a retest. Retakes/redos will not be accepted during the last week of the grading period.

 

As determined by county policy (Section 6.200), all missed class work or tests from excused absences may be made up provided the student makes the request immediately upon returning to school, and provided class time is not taken from other students. Any work not made up within three days of the student’s return will be considered late and result in penalty on responsibility grade.

 

CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR

 

Positive behavior in the classroom is essential for learning.  Students and teacher will collaborate to create a social contract that will outline behavior expected from students.  “Strikes” will be assigned for infractions of the social contact.  Consequences may also include a loss of classroom privileges (ex: assigned seat). Positive behavior will be rewarded with PBS tickets and classroom privileges. Strikes will be recorded on a weekly basis from Tuesday to Monday.  Each Tuesday the student will have another chance to earn a PBS ticket by receiving zero strikes.

 

3 or more strikes in one week= call home and lunch detention

10 strikes in one quarter= call home, office referral, and further consequence

No strikes for the week= PBS ticket

 

Gum  

Any student chewing gum will receive a lunch detention. The office may assign further consequences for repeat violations.

 

Tardies. 

1st period tardies will be handled in the office. Students must be sent to the office and have a note from the office when they are late to school.

Students in periods 2-7 will be allowed 2 unexcused tardies with no consequence.  The third and fourth unexcused tardies will be a lunch detention.  Fifth and sixth tardies will be 2 lunch detentions.  This starts over each nine weeks. 

 

ASSIGNMENTS TO KNOW ABOUT

Language Arts	Reading
Spelling and vocabulary quiz (weekly) Expository essay (weekly)	2 hours of independent reading and log (weekly)

 

RESOURCES

Check the teacher homework pages online to verify assignment due dates and homework.  Calendars are updated on Mondays.

Go to (http://www.wcs.edu/fms) à Click on Teacher Web Pages à Seventh Grade à Teacher’s name

 

MATERIALS/SUPPLIES

Required daily supplies:

Agenda

Folders (one each for reading and language arts)

Pencil

Red pen

Blue/black pen

Highlighter

White, lined notebook paper

Textbooks

Independent reading material

 

Additional supplies needed:

2 packages of index cards (3 x 5)

Dictionary (for home)

Flashdrive/USB storage device (recommended)

Homeroom contributions of the following: tissue, paper towels, clorox wipes, dry erase markers, hand sanitizer

Learning Targets

Students’ first nine weeks grade will be based on evidence that they are able to do the following:

Spelling

• Demonstrate control of Standard English through the use of spelling grade-appropriate words
• Identify correctly spelled words

Writing

• Choose the supporting sentence that best fits the context and flow of ideas in a paragraph. 
• Select an appropriate concluding sentence for a well-developed paragraph. 
• Select an appropriate thesis statement from a writing sample. 
• Rearrange multi-paragraphed work in a logical and coherent order. 
• Complete a graphic organizer (e.g., clustering, listing, mapping, and webbing) with information from notes on a writing selection. 
•  Identify the purpose for writing (e.g., to inform, to describe, to explain, to persuade).
•  Select illustrations, explanations, anecdotes, descriptions, and/or facts to support key ideas. 

Grammar, Usage, Mechanics

• Identify the correct use of the following: nouns (common/proper, singular/plural, collective, compound, possessives, direct/indirect objects, and predicate nouns)
•  Identify the correct use of the following: verbs (action/linking, agreement with subject, verbs that take objects, linking verbs, verb phrases, regular/irregular verbs, three simple and three perfect tenses, and tense consistency).
•  Choose the correct use of quotation marks and commas (e.g., in direct quotations, with explanatory material within the quote, and proper use with end marks).

Literary/text Techniques

• Determine the common characteristics of short stories, novels, poetry, drama, and nonfiction.
• Analyze cause and effect relationships in a given passage.
• Identify the author’s purpose for writing and the reader’s purpose for reading.
• Recognize first person point of view.
• Identify individual written selections as technical, narrative, persuasive and/or descriptive in mood. 

Comprehension

• Make predictions about the outcome of a given passage. 
• Formulate clarifying questions for use before, during, or after reading.
• Draw inferences from selected passages.
• Identify the main idea/central element in a reading selection.

Vocabulary

• Recognize and use grade appropriate and/or content specific vocabulary within context.
• Determine the meaning of unknown words and/or multiple meaning words through the use of context clues.

Responsibility

• Bring all materials to class
• Complete skills assessments on time
• Maintain an organized folder with completed class work
• Complete accurate homework and reading logs on time

 Rules & Procedures

7^th Grade Language Arts/Reading

 

I have read and understand the rules and procedures for 7th grade language arts and reading.

 ___________________________________________________       ____/_____/_____

Parent’s signature                                                                    Date

___________________________________________________       ____/_____/_____

Student’s signature                                                                  Date

 

CONTACT INFO

Student Name: __________________________________________

 

Guardian #1’s Name _____________________________________   Relationship ___________

 

Email ____________________@_________________  

  

Daytime Phone# ____________________Cell Phone # ____________________ Home Phone #____________________

  

Guardian #2’s Name _____________________________________   Relationship ___________

 

Email ____________________@_________________  

  

Daytime Phone# ____________________Cell Phone # ____________________ Home Phone #____________________

  

Additional information about your child that would be helpful for us to know: