Course Information
It is my pleasure to welcome you and your DSST student to 6th grade writing at the Byers Middle School campus. I am truly excited to push your student to reach a high level of proficiency in writing and to prepare him/her for success in all of his/herfuture writing classes.
In order to achieve the ambitious goals I have for your children, I am going to need your help. Feel free to reach out to your child’s advisor with any questions that you may have regarding your child’s writing class; they will pass on the message to me! Additionally, you can monitor your child’s progress in class using Infinite Campus. If you have questions about accessing Infinite Campus, please contact the front desk. They should be able to help you with anything you need in regards to Infinite Campus.
Here at DSST, we are a community that works very hard to live by our core values every single day: respect, responsibility, curiosity, courage, integrity, and doing your best. How they specifically apply to writing class is outlined on the next page.
To ensure the academic success of all students, I will have a tutoring sign-up sheet in class that will ask for the student’s name and the content with which they are struggling. I will hold tutoring for students that sign up in room 33 on Mondays from 4:15-5:00pm. *Tutoring will be assigned and considered mandatory for any student that has to re-take or make up a test or assignment.*
Outcomes:
Students will be proficient or advanced in the core writing areas (informative, argumentative, and narrative writing) in order to prepare them to be successful writers and future college graduates.
DSST Core Values in Writing:
- Respect:
Treating others in the writing classroom with dignity. - Responsibility:
Being on time and prepared with all class materials every day. - Doing Your Best:
Never giving up on assignments, tests, and assessments. - Courage:
Recognizing that the writing classroom is a safe environment where everyone’s ideas are valued. - Curiosity:
Asking questions about our writing and the world around us. - Integrity:
Always using your own work and helping others when necessary.
Units
- Personal Narratives
- Informative Essays/ Literary Analysis
- Fiction/Narrative
- Argumentative Essays
- Poetry
- Research through Informative Essays
Materials:
- NEWSELA articles
- All notes will be stored in OneNote (once laptops are provided) OneNote is essentially a digital binder. It will contain all of your child's notes and assignments, and is organized by unit and day.
- All essay assignments will be turned in via Google Classroom (once laptops are provided.)
- In the event of absences or tardies, make up work will be placed in folders located in the classroom labeled by the day of the week. These will be available for 1 week before being replaced by the next week’s materials.
Grading:
25% Class work and Participation
- Do Nows
- Mastery Checks on Engrade
- Guided Practices
- Quizzes through Engrade
- Spelling Quizzes
- Short writing assignments
30% Summative Assessments (Given at the end of each Unit)
- Final Essays or Projects
- Grammar Summative Tests on Engrade
- All summative assessments MUST be completed in order to receive a grade. If there are incomplete summative assessments at the end of a Trimester, students will receive an irreversible 0 for that grade. Missing assignments can be seen on the parent portal in Infinite Campus.
10% Homework
Grading Standards:
90% to 100% = A
80% to 89% = B
70% to 79% = C
Below 70% = F