| October 17, 2006
I have purposefully left the previous note on my website so that you all
know there was indeed a due date for the 8th grade research paper and had
been a due date since they chose their topics in August. Again, this was a
6 week process which many students decided they could fit into 3 weeks or
less. If they did make the deadline, the corrected papers from students who
did them in the 3 or less weeks reflect the effort they put into them. The
students who followed the process, got moving in the first week, and had
ample time to write, edit, and rewrite are getting the grades that reflect
their effort.
We are now starting back in grammar and hope to stay there through
December. My goal is to get through grammar before Christmas break so that
we can get a full 2 semesters of writing done. This goal all depends on the
class as they dictate how fast we move with grammar. We have gone through a
week of probes which are just tests to find out how much grammar they
retained over the summer. They are not graded and the information is used
so that I can format what I teach and what there is no need to teach.
One further thought on the research papers... As it takes me a long time to
correct them and the marks for first quarter close next week, the grades for
the final papers will not appear in the first quarter marks but in the
second quarter. The marks for everything up to the completed paper will,
however, appear in the first quarter grade.
Jean Zanotti
(September 13, 2006
Just a reminder for everyone, the research papers are due on October 6.
There will be no extentions to this date. That is in a little over 3
weeks. There are 12 steps to this process, and most students are at only
step 3. The students have known the steps and the due date since they chose
their topics. They are late starters this year. This is a very involved
process with a lot of teacher conferencing. There is only so much time I
have to devote to conferencing, so if your child has delayed getting busy
with this project, they will not have the benefit of my input. Further, I
will be deducting 2 points per day for each school day they are late with
their papers, and they know this.)
Mrs. Zanotti
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