Barbara Desai - Welcome to My Classroom: 2014

We are going to read some great writing; we are going to write with our minds wide open; we are going to play with words and their connotations. We are going to see what our brains are doing behind our backs. Shh... you have to sneak up on them.

We'll spend our first day getting to know each other and coming up with how we'd like our classroom to run. (I do have veto power, though, sorry ya'll.)

If you're really desperate to read a syllabus, it's included below (in addition to the one I'm sending home with you).

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7^th Grade English Syllabus

Term I

Unit One: “One” - James Barry, “I’m Nobody Who Are You” - Emily Dickinson

various poetry, “The Jacket” - Gary Soto

Unit Two: This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie - Elizabeth Partridge, Excerpts from Out of the Dust - Karen Hess, “This Land is Your Land” - Woody Guthrie

Unit Three: “Seventh Grade” Gary Soto, “Melting Pot” Anna Quindlan, “Exile” Julia Alvarez

Assignments

Denotation/connotation, diction, poem analysis, vocabulary, sentence building, independent reading and writing, dialectical journals, essays, and research.

Scoring

Homework – 10 percent

You will have homework Monday through Thursday.

Independent reading – 6 percent

You will read and review six books per term.

You will read independently on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for 20 minutes.

Participation – 20 percent

Participation includes participating in group work, going to the board, answering questions (and asking thoughtful ones), and being prepared (bringing your agenda, pens/pencils, necessary books, and binders to class).

Writing and projects – 24 percent

You will write short works – poems and stories – and longer works like essays. You will do research and other projects.

Benchmarks – 20 percent

Classwork – 20 percent

Classwork includes in-class work like dialectical journals and brainstorming and writing on Tuesdays and Thursdays (15 minutes)

A Few Notes

At the beginning of each class, you should get your writing/reading notebook from the bin, take your seat, and have your completed homework out and ready for me to pick up. You will take out your agenda and write in that days’ homework from the board.

Late work may be turned in up to two days late for half-credit. Better to get it in on-time, but if you forget it or lose it, you still can recover a little bit.

I do not give extra credit at the end of the term to help you pass. Take extra-credit opportunities as they come throughout the term and do your work every day.

Come to class. Every day.

If you do miss class due to illness, be sure to see me when I’m not otherwise occupied and find out what you missed. Handouts will be available in the area labeled “handouts.”

If you copy others work, you will receive a zero. If someone let you copy, they may receive a zero also.

How Parents Can Help