8th Grade Language Arts and Social Studies Course Syllabus
Skyridge Middle School, 2017-2018
Contact Information:
Mrs. Alison Abney
Email: alison.abney@camas.wednet.edu
Web: http://mrsabney.weebly.com/
Phone: 833-5800 ext. 77168
Room 224
Course Overview
The integrated Language Arts/ Social Studies block is a broad survey of American history, which provides an authentic context for students to review, learn, practice, and hone crucial language arts skills. Students should expect challenging reading, writing, thinking, and speaking activities over the school year. The LA/SS block is taught as one integrated class with emphasis on US history content and language arts skills. We seek opportunities to enjoy literature that has historical connections. The curriculum allows students to explore areas of interest and gain both breadth and depth in their studies.
Please come to the 8th grade curriculum night for more specific information on major units of study, projects, and grade level assessments.
Communication
As students progress through school, parents often feel that they are out of touch with the happenings in their child’s academic lives.
Communication requires partnership. I will commit to:
I ask parents who desire more communication to do the following:
A student’s grade is a reflection of his/her progress in learning. To accurately reflect this progress, our class work is divided into two categories in Skyward: daily work and assessments.
A pencil pouch with:
Skyridge Middle School, 2017-2018
Contact Information:
Mrs. Alison Abney
Email: alison.abney@camas.wednet.edu
Web: http://mrsabney.weebly.com/
Phone: 833-5800 ext. 77168
Room 224
Course Overview
The integrated Language Arts/ Social Studies block is a broad survey of American history, which provides an authentic context for students to review, learn, practice, and hone crucial language arts skills. Students should expect challenging reading, writing, thinking, and speaking activities over the school year. The LA/SS block is taught as one integrated class with emphasis on US history content and language arts skills. We seek opportunities to enjoy literature that has historical connections. The curriculum allows students to explore areas of interest and gain both breadth and depth in their studies.
Please come to the 8th grade curriculum night for more specific information on major units of study, projects, and grade level assessments.
Communication
As students progress through school, parents often feel that they are out of touch with the happenings in their child’s academic lives.
Communication requires partnership. I will commit to:
- Updates on the Skyward grading system on a weekly basis
- Informational emails regarding major assignments or novel studies
- Useful information such as a daily listing of assignments posted on http://mrsabney.weebly.com/
- Return phone calls and email messages as promptly as possible
- Conference with parents as needed
I ask parents who desire more communication to do the following:
- Contact me if you are concerned or would like information about your student
- Feel free to email me; email is the quickest way to get in touch with me
- Let me know if there is a problem- we can work together to solve it
- Check in with me “for no reason”- I value parent contact
A student’s grade is a reflection of his/her progress in learning. To accurately reflect this progress, our class work is divided into two categories in Skyward: daily work and assessments.
- Daily work counts for 10% of a student’s grade. Daily work provides students opportunities to practice new skills, refine old skills, and learn new information. Daily work helps a student prepare for each new day of learning. Daily work also allows me to monitor how a student is progressing and plan learning activities that support each student's needs.
- Assessments count for 90% of a student’s grade. Each assessment grade is a reflection of student’s progress toward meeting specific learning standards in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language.
- Assessments are meant to show what a student is capable of doing on their own in relation to the standards. Most assessments will take place in class only. As students’ skills improve, they have the option to re-do some assignments for full credit once the required work to understand what was missed has been completed. In certain cases, I will not offer a re-do opportunity. One example of this is reading quizzes during historical fiction novel units. These quizzes are simply meant to assess whether the previous night's reading was completed or not. Social Studies tests are limited to two re-dos per trimester and tests cannot be redone when a student has already achieved an A on the first try.
- Because I provide students with multiple opportunities to master concepts, extra credit is not available.
- Grades are posted on the Skyward grading system. The grades for all assignments completed in this block class will be found in the Language Arts and Social Studies portions of Skyward. Parents are encouraged to check grades regularly. Please let the front office know if you need help with Skyward access.
- Google Classroom is an effective tool that I use for students to receive in-depth directions, video, handouts and other educational materials. In addition, I often ask students to turn in assignments via Google Classroom. This will always be true with regard to writing assignments.
A pencil pouch with:
- #2 pencils
- Scissors
- Post-it Notes
- Colored pencils
- Red pen or pencil
- One of each: blue, green, yellow, red/pink highlighters
- Two large glue sticks
- 4-5 Folders
- Two composition books
- Notebook paper - college ruled.