These first few weeks we will be looking at reading and the various skills that good, insightful readers practice. The students will then apply those skills by reading and evaluating short selections chosen to illustrate one skill after another. The Reading Process is both active and challenging and provides the student with concrete questions to answer and steps to complete in order to comprehend what he/she is reading. These skills apply to all classes - not just mine - so if a student sees the benefits to making the Reading Process a daily guide, grades and subject area comprehension should improve, too!
I give very little nightly homework. If I do, it is usually to complete a handout related to the lesson I taught that day. When I give homework however, I take a completion grade as soon as the next class starts. This rewards a child who tries and corrects the child who does not. Of course we all forget from time to time, but "I forgot" must never become a routine answer! Sometimes a child forgets because he/she has trouble arriving at the right answer. This type of child is not penalized by a completion grade because he/she has simply been asked to try. Little by little we will also be working on confidence as a student and as an evaluatative reader!
An ongoing assignment will be the Accelerated Reader books and their Accelerated Reader Tests. The student will read 3 AR Books per quarter and take their associated AR Tests. This requirement counts for 30% of their final quarter grade. The students are well aware of their responsibility, but again I would encourage my child to keep up with the reading or it will get away from some of them. To that end, I do require the "Yellow Sheet" (The Reading Log) to be completed weekly and signed by the parent or guardian to be turned in every Friday for a grade. The grading is simple - 100% for completion and signature, 50% for completion - no signature, 0% for forgetting. It is amazing how quickly students begin to remember this assignment and how proud they are to present it every Friday. I require the parent/guardian's signature so that you will have opportunity to ask what he/she is reading and for the student to impress you with literary conversation! Do impress on the student that sometimes one must take a poorer grade because of a choice one made! If the child did not read, of course you should not sign the sheet! I'm sure he/she will be angry, but you and I are teaching more than academics. Next year your student will be in high school where everything counts toward college acceptance and their future plans, so this is the best year to learn tough lessons and to improve academically all the way around!
I provided you with my grading scale in the introductory letter the first day of school, but I will repeat it here. 1) Test/Projects - - - 30% 2) 3 AR Tests - - - 30% 3) Class Work - - - 20% 4) Reading Logs - - - 10% 5) Homework - - - 10% = 100%
Thanks again for your support! If you should ever want to contact me, my e-mail address at school is Linda.Reinecke @cobbk12.org. Please be sure to put your child's name in the e-mail title, so I'll be more apt to recognize that the e-mail concerns a student and not something else! You'd be surprised what makes it through the spam filter!
