 Check your child’s agenda or my website regularly to make sure assignments are being completed, and that test preparation is taking place.  Check your child’s backpack regularly for organization and materials.  Check to make sure your child has assignments completed, and they are in their backpack ready to turn in.  Look over spelling and vocabulary assignments for mistakes.  Give practice tests before regular Friday spelling and vocabulary tests.  Check your child’s grade through Power School regularly to make sure your child is not missing any work. A “0” means they did not turn it in, but it can be turned in with a late pass.

 Please avoid changing your child’s writing. Please guide them and give them some ideas and feedback, but all changes should be in their own words. If you change their writing, I will not know your child’s true abilities, and I will not be able to address their weaknesses.  Final copies can be typed. They should be 12 pt font, Times New Roman, double spaced, and in black ink.  Hand written final copies need to be in blue or black ink, skipping lines.  Most of our writing will be done in class, but the final copy writing will be done at home.

 Grades will be updated about twice per week.  If there is a zero, that means the assignment was not turned in.  Students were given 3 late passes the first week for the first trimester. Late work will not be accepted without a late pass.  If a student is absent, they have two days for each day absent to complete make up work or tests they missed.  It is the student’s responsibility to make up tests and complete work due to an absence.  Students are to write their assignments in their agenda daily, and homework is also posted on my website as it is assigned.

 SMS School Code: DRMT

 Skill Overview: › Think: support answers, ideas, opinions, claims with evidence – “prove it” › Express: effectively communicate thinking orally and in writing › Collaborate: work with others to broaden thinking › Innovate: apply thinking to a new challenge.  Developed Through: › Reading – navigate and use informational text; understand elements of fiction › Vocabulary – develop academic language, elevate expressive language, build comprehension of complex text › Writing- build on basic paragraph structure to construct narrative, informational, and argumentative essays using correct grammar and punctuation conventions.

 Reading and writing from the Holt Literature book.  Grammar from the Holt Handbook, and other sources.  Compare/Contrast Essay (Where the Red Fern Grows book and movie)  Expository Essay  Persuasive Essay  Novels – Reading and Analysis › Hatchet, Where the Red Fern Grows, Maroo of the Winter Caves

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