E-Mail: [email protected] @williston.k12.sc.uskmcdonald@williston. th k12.sc.us 7 ELA Honors Phone: (803) 266-3430 Ex. 8076 Williston-Elko Middle School Hours Available: 12:05 – 1 PM, after Keely McDonald school, and always by e-mail

Overview Materials

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the advanced 7th grade ELA course! I’m looking  1 – 1” (or larger) 3-ring binder forward to this school year, and I hope you all are as well. We will stay rather busy  Section dividers this year. Students will be authentically responding to novels, short stories, non-  1 – 2-pocket folder w/ prongs fiction text, poems, dramas, folktales, and children’s books. We will be using a sticky  Red AND black ink pens note system for independent reading cycles and whole novel studies. Please note, the  Pencils new South Carolina College- and Career-Ready Standards for English Language Arts  A minimum of 750 3x3 in. sticky will be implemented this school year. notes A large emphasis will be placed on reading along with grammar and composition.  Notebook paper We will be focusing on two major themes: our sense of belonging and our differences. What makes you belong? How are we connected? Should we exclude Classroom Rules those different from us? What gives us strength when we embrace all that reside in 1. Be on-time, on-task, and prepared our community? Each of these factors will be examined in different units to help to learn EVERYDAY. students gain a better understanding of themselves and the world around them. 2. Keep all personal electronics PUT Expectations for this class are very high. I have high expectations for myself; AWAY. therefore, I have high expectations of my students. 3. BE RESPONSIBLE for your own Goals/Objectives learning.

The student will: 4. RESPECT the teacher, the n Respond in discussions and in writing, using personal, literal, interpretative, classroom, and other students. and evaluative stances, to works of fiction and/or non-fiction. n Read and critique literary work from a variety of texts. 5. Trash goes in the trashcan. #NOTYOURMAID n Recognize, evaluate, and demonstrate variations in intent, purpose, and audience in written texts. Consequences n Participate in, and report in, small groups and small-group activities. 1st Warning – Verbal Warning

n Compose in a variety of forms such as: personal writing, stories, poems, 2nd Warning – Lunch Detention skits, expository texts, letters, and persuasive pieces. 3rd Warning – LD & Parent Contact n Critique peer writing. 4th Warning – After-School Detention & n Research, collect, evaluate, and organize information to produce reports and Parent Contact papers. 5th Warning – Referral to Grading Percentages Administration n Sticky notes & whole novel discussions 30% Late Work Policy n Writing projects 25% There will be a deduction of 10 points for each day that an assignment is late. “Late” n Tests 20% refers to anything turned in after the n Mini-projects 15% assignment has been taken up.

n Quizzes 10% Make-up Work Policy Major Units/Reading The student is responsible for making up any missed assignments. The teacher will The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier not remind the student. The list of absent students will be written on the classroom’s Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan calendar each day. Beside the calendar, The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton there is a separate folder for each class. The student’s work will be in the student’s class Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli folder with his or her name written on the missed handout(s)/work. Tests may be made Double Dutch by Sharon Draper up before or after school—not during class! Also, if the student has been given the Monster by Walter Dean Myers assignments for days that he or she has Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare missed, the student will be responsible for taking exams that could occur on the day he Short stories, poetry, and non-fiction texts in the textbook and printed materials or she returns to class. For all other assignments, the student will be given one *Please read “Mrs. McDonald’s Reading Policy” handout. day per each day that he or she was absent to make up the work. So, if the student was Communication via Internet absent two days, he or she has two days to Every student is expected to join the class’ Edmodo page. Parents/guardians, I make up the assignment. encourage you to create a parent Edmodo account through your child’s account. Edmodo has a phone app where you (the guardian) can stay updated on the child’s Research and Projects/Papers assignments and assessments. PowerSchool Parent Portal is another wonderful The students will be asked to research resource to use to stay updated with your student’s grades and assignments. (See several different topics in small and large Mrs. Widener to receive your login information.) The class webpage will provide settings, whether it’s for a mini-project or each unit’s overview along with the documents used in class throughout the school major research paper. DISCUS should be year. The webpage can be found via the school website. Lastly, I will be using the main research tool. Students are ClassDojo this year to manage classroom behavior; it will allow me to encourage my expected to use the MLA format for projects students and track student progress. I will be sending home an invitation with a and papers that involved any type of student account code and a parent account code for all of my students and research. parents/guardians to sign up to receive messages, important updates, and much more! Plagiarism Plagiarism is not tolerated. The students will be held accountable for their actions and severe consequences will be enforced without delay. In the event that cheating does occur, the first offense will result in a zero grade for the assignment and parents/guardians will be contacted. Any other instances will be forwarded to the office for further action.