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Georgina Castilleja
(713)295-5240 ext. 383
Cluster 8-3
Pershing Middle School Language Arts 2008-2009
Welcome to the 8th grade. This is your final year as a Pershing Panda, and I would like to wish you the best of luck and much success during this year. If you or your parent(s) or guardian(s) ever have any questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to contact me at any time. You are the veterans of the school, so I expect to see you shine as readers and writers and set a good example for the underclassmen.
Below you will find an overview of the Language Art department’s expectation as well as an explanation of the grading policy, the curriculum and the materials needed for this class. Please read carefully with your parents. Discuss all of the information and if something is unsettling for you, talk to me and I will make sure you will leave with a better understanding. Once you have read the information with your parents and you all understand it, please keep it as your guide.
Overview of the LA expectations
This year we will embark our learning in Reader Writer Workshop, a very successful program founded at Teachers College of Columbia University. This program will help you to become a lifelong reader and writer. The LA department expects you to enhance your reading life. We want you to select and read a variety of texts: fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, classics, mystery, young adult, horror, best-sellers. These are genres that readers actually read, therefore we expect for you to read them all.
Additionally, we expect you to write EVERYTHING in your writer’s notebook: thoughts, things you want to remember, sad moments, happy moments, anything that inspires you, and the list goes on… You will take a tour through you notebook at times and find a piece that you would want to develop and actually make it a published piece. We want to see this process in your notebook. We expect you to embrace your thoughts and capture them onto paper and understand as well as celebrate your published pieces.
We are teaching you strategies to be able to read all types of text as well as be able to make a piece of literature become a mentor piece and inspire you to craft and publish your very own writing project. I know that you will be invested and accept our expectation as becoming a lifelong reader and writer.
Curriculum
This year I will teach you reading and writing. I have broken down the curriculum for the two so that you can understand what you will be taught in both contents.
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Students will learn how to choose books, conquer through challenging books, build stamina, inferences, characterization, and study the big idea of some text. Throughout different books that you choose, you will be taught strategies that will show you how to master these concepts. There are no textbooks; there are no assigned novels. You choose the books you will read. That means you need to make sure that you bring your current book to class everyday to practice strategies that will be taught. All strategies taught will be located in your literacy notebook.
Ø Accelerated
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v Writing/English
You will first work on building your writing stamina. You wind topics you can write about and learn the process of a writer. From there, you will study and practice the process of writing through different genres: non-fiction, poetry, the essay, etc. Throughout these studies you will study and practice conventions of writing. All of this work will be located in your writer’s notebook.
Grading
You will be assessed rather than just receiving a grade. Your assessments will be produced from rubrics. You will be assessed on your writer’s notebook (WNB), literacy notebook, conferences, AR, reading logs, drafting packets and your writing projects. These rubrics will be given to you and placed inside your WNB and your literacy notebook. These rubrics will actually allow me to learn who you are as a reader and a writer.
Materials
You will need the following:
2 3 subject spirals (WNB and literacy notebook)
2 filing folders with your name on them
Post-its (different sizes and colors)
You may need additional spirals throughout the school year, so may want to get a few extras.
Book policy
Since the administrative team has embraced this type of work with the LA department, we have to show our appreciation to them. They have purchased the books that you will be reading for all of the LA classes. With that being said, it is important that we keep up with the books, return them and keep them in the best shape. We want them to know that we appreciate their support and effort in making this successful. You must follow the check out process for my class. If at any time a book that has been checked out under your name is lost or extremely damaged, be prepared for the conversation of how you will solve that problem. Two options I can say for now will be to replace the book from another bookstore or submit $5 so that I can re-purchase the book. However how you solve the problem of coming up with the book is up to you; I only want the book back on the shelf for another student to experience that book. We need to maintain a wide variety on the shelves for you and your classmates to choose from.
If you or your parents have any questions about Reader Writer Workshop, or my specific class, please don’t hesitate to contact me via telephone or e-mail .
