Sjoberg, Kathryn

Welcome to Mrs. Sjoberg's 8^th grade English class and the 2017/2018 school year at Barrett Middle School! 

We will be focusing on mastery of the Common Core State Standards. These standards will be broken down into learning targets that we will tackle in multiple units throughout the year. In these units, we will examine, create, and respond to different genres of text (personal narrative, short story, poetry, expository, persuasive, and literary essay).

 
  Required Materials:
 Please come prepared with the following to class each day

·       Pencil(s)

·       Pen(s)

·       Pencil lead

·       Highlighter(s)

·       Reader's Notebook

·       IR book

Academic Grade:
Standards Based Grading (SBG) will be used to communicate and improve student achievement by focusing instruction and the alignment of curriculum and assessment with the essential standards. SBG measures the mastery of the learning objectives, or how well students understand the material in class. It is based on the specific set of standards that students need to meet for the grade level. In this way, grading and reporting will provide better communication on what each student knows and is able to do as they make progress towards proficiency in the standards.

 Absences:
· When absent, it is YOUR responsibility to check the board and to get any necessary materials from the handout crate.  Always ask a classmate (or two!!) “What did we do in class yesterday?” before asking me the same question.
· Turn in any work that was due while you were out when you return to class.  Write ABSENT on the top of your paper, if it is not there it won’t be accepted.
· Assignments due while you were absent will not be considered late unless it is NOT turned in upon your return. It is YOUR responsibility to get your work turned in!

Methods of Evaluation

·      Formative Assessment
Students will be required to participate in individual classwork, partner work, peer/teacher conferences, group discussions, and/or practice quizzes on a daily basis. These activities are formative because they literally form our learning—it’s where we build our knowledge and understanding of whatever learning targets and standards we are working on. Occasionally, we will have homework in addition to your independent reading (AR) requirement of 2-4 hours per week. This work is designed to reinforce or extend activities and concepts we learn in class together. Students are expected to write any homework in their binder reminder. You can also sign up for Remind to get homework reminders.
Formative activities and assignments are an important part of the students learning and practice. These assignments will be reflected in a student’s effort grade.* 


Completing work—whether its classwork or homework—in a timely matter will be part of a student’s effort grade. 

·      Summative Assessment: Students’ academic grades will be based on summative, or final, assessments. This will include tests, essays and projects. Unit Plans with Learning Targets will be given to students at the beginning of each unit. Rubrics will also be used for projects and assignments so that students know what is expected and how it will be measured. 
 Students have the ability to retest on any assessment to show their new level of understanding. Students are also asked to demonstrate the effort that they have invested in learning the
content prior to retesting.

I am really looking forward to an engaging, productive, and fun filled year with you!  If you have any questions the preferred method to reach me is via my email katy.sjoberg@sanjuan.edu. 

Thank you,

Katy Sjoberg
 
**This document may be amended at my discretion.**