Monday, February 3, 2020

Today, all classes will be participating in a two-day activity.

General (2nd, 4th, and 5th period): You will be working in small groups of 4 to create a One-Pager Poster that looks at the important elements of Animal Farm, including character development, key quotes, themes, symbolism, and rhetoric. These need to be detailed and creative and should show me that you and your groupmates understood not just the basic story of Animal Farm, but all of the components that influenced George Orwell to write it, as well as how that aspects of the novel influenced you as the reader. All you need today is something to write with and the PDF text of Animal Farm opened on one person's laptop; everyone else can have their laptops put away.

To see some really good examples of really well-done One-Pager Posters, click this link and look through the album of pictures.

Honors/STEM (1st, 3rd, and 6th period): Today is day 1 of the Socratic Seminar. Side A (closest to the windows) will be asking the questions and Side B (closest to the door) will be answering. Remember, you are being graded on the quality of the questions you ask and the answers you give. It's okay to elaborate on or disagree with another student's answer as long as you can support it with an explanation and some kind of evidence from the story. Everyone on Side A must ask at least 1 question today, and everyone on Side B must answer at least 1 question today.

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Gradebook Explained

My grade book is on Power School for you to view. There are some things you need to know.

If you have a blank score that is not bad. Often scores are left blank when I do not grade an assignment right away. Sometimes blanks mean a student was absent for an in class experience. The point is do not panic about blank scores.

Zeros however, are a real problem. Students get zeros when they do not turn in an assignment that they should have done. Zeros appear after an assignment is due. If it is an assignment that they can still turn in late, the grade will also be noted as “missing” with an orange symbol. Students have 1 week from the original due date to turn in the work late; however, they are losing points from their grade on the assignment for every day it’s late.

Often I do not enter many assignments until the end of the grading period when projects we have been working on for a few weeks become due. Please understand that I have a family and a life outside of school, and roughly 165 student assignments to grade, so sometimes grading takes longer for larger assignments/projects. Please be patient in waiting for these grades to be entered.

Student grades are based on meeting grade-level standard proficiencies. This is not a points or numbers game. There is rarely extra credit offered, and typically is only offered to students who have done the original assigned work – you must show you can do the minimum in order to receive a chance to go above and beyond (extra credit).

Speaking and Listening points are your daily participation points for a total of 10 points per week; this totals around 100 points for each grading period. This can make-or-break your grade, so participating in class activities and discussion, staying awake, and actively working on-task are encouraged to earn these points every day.

I hope this will resolve some confusion. Of course if you have questions about grades please e-mail me.

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