August 25, 2009
A synonym for "overwhelming" is "crush" which seems appropriate for how we
all felt last year with English. The amount of points was overwhelming for
the kids in the amount of work, parents in trying to keep up with all the
work, and for me in entering the grades in edline. I felt I was a slave to
edline and had little time for anything else other than correcting writing
papers. So, over the summer, I have come up with some changes to make
everyone's lives much easier.
Vocabualry
There will be no vocab worksheets, only the two tests for each unit, part A
and B of 10 words each, vocab cards each Monday, and the work book which is
due the Monday after the B test. The kids can turn in the workbook as soon
as they have it done. It is usually returned the next day. The workbook
grades are not entered into edline until after that final B test, however.
Research paper
The final grade is just 84 points this year. I have streamlined the marking
rubric as far as the final paper is concerned.
The rubric itself is made moreso for the kids as a check-off sheet than it
is for me as a marking rubric. That is why it is so specific. Research
paper writing if much different that expository writing as you know.
In 8th grade, the kids do it all themselves. I am here if they have
questions, but there is no formal conferencing or marking after the initial
narrowed topic. The final paper will be due September 25.
Thank you for letting them do this process entirely on their own.
Grammar
The only changes in grammar are that the first of the two quizzes will be a
pre-quiz and I will not take marks from that quiz but only from the second
quiz. There will still be the outline, and I hope to give them time in
class to begin that as well as their homework. We will have a week of
review tests during which they will have their texts to study. We will
cover just two units this year, clauses and verbals, and there will be no
writing tests with either unit.
Writing
They will be doing several essays in opinion, descritptive, and personal
writing. I usually give them some choices of topics.
Poetry
Again, May is our month for poetry. They will have all non-rhyming poetry
this year.
Shakespeare
This is new this year, and I am very excited about it. We will be taking
three months after we finish grammar to study Shakespeare's "A Midsummers
Night's Dream". (That should have been underlined, but my computer would not
let me do so.) Their text will have both the old English and modern
English. It should be a fun unit for them.
I am hoping to keep the trimester grade points to under 1000 which should be
easier for us all to manage.
If you have any questions, please e-mail me at jzanotti@stmarygostyn.org.
Thank you.
Jean Zanotti
