Mrs. Adam - Creative Writing/Grammar - Grade 6‑8
Saint Michael School Mission Statement
Saint Michael School is a Catholic Christian community serving children from early childhood through grade eight from our parish community and the Greater Merrimack Valley. Saint Michael School offers a solid academic foundation that will enable the students to succeed in the future. Promoting gospel values through prayer, religious instruction and community outreach, we strive to carry on the spirit of faith and love initiated by the Sisters of Charity of Halifax.
In accordance with the Mission Statement of Saint Michael School and the Core Knowledge Sequence Curriculum developed by E.D. Hirsch, the following goals have been established:
 | To develop in each child an understanding and knowledge our our Catholic faith and to give each child and opportunity to put their faith into action so that they may be of service to others. |
| To teach each child the value of discipline, develop a work ethic and above all to always act morally |
| To develop in each child a sense of responsibility for their own actions and to foster respect for others |
| To focus on providing a solid foundation of knowledge and skill in all the academic areas from Nursery through Grade 8 |
| To provide opportunities for students to participate in art and music activities and to develop an appreciation for the arts |
| To teach each child to take lifelong responsibility for the health of their bodies through physical education, good eating habits and hygiene. |
Saint Michael School Philosophy
Catholic education at Saint Michael School emphasizes the education of the whole student, including nurturing the soul and shaping character. Catholic tradition stands roundly and soundly in favor of critical reasoning and getting students to think for themselves. Education at Saint Michael School succeeds by focusing on seven R’s: reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic, reverence, respect, rhetoric and responsibility. Saint Michael’s atmosphere of growth and possibility persists because of its proactive philosophy of education and its ability to shape the moral and spiritual outlook of its students.
Saint Michael School Curriculum
Saint Michael School has incorporated the E. D. Hirsch Core Knowledge Curriculum. Our curriculum meets and exceeds all state and archdiocesan guidelines. The Core Knowledge Curriculum is a specific content guide that provides a solid, coherent foundation of learning for students in the elementary grades.
The Saint Michael School Curriculum gives all children a fair chance to make steady academic progress. Teachers focus on teaching a coherent, specific, and shared sequence of knowledge. They have clear, specific learning goals, as well as the sense of mutual accountability that comes from the shared commitment to help all children achieve those goals.
The curriculum ensures that each student who enters a class at the beginning of the year is ready to gain new knowledge and skills to be taught in the coming year. The students are prepared to be responsible citizens, productive workers, and successful lifelong learners because we help them acquire essential skills and a strong foundation of knowledge.
Our classroom doors continue to be open for you to find a mixture of high expectation and encouragement, care and intelligence, interpersonal and intellectual skill. Students and faculty connect excellence not only with test scores, but with curiosity, enjoyment, creativity, respect, growth, intellectual, civic and Christian virtue.
Massachusetts English Language Arts Curriculum Framework General Standards
Language Strand
Standard 1: Discussion - Students will use agreed-upon rules for informal and formal discussions in small and large groups.
Standard 2: Questioning, Listening, and Contributing - Students will pose question, listen to the ideas of others, and contribute their own information or ideas in group discussion or interviews in order to acquire new knowledge.
Standard 3: Oral Presentation - Students will make oral presentations that demonstrate appropriate consideration of audience, purpose, and the information to be conveyed.
Standard 4: Vocabulary and Concept Development - Students will understand and acquire new vocabulary and use it correctly in reading and writing.
Standard 5: Structure and Origins of Modern English - Students will analyze standard English grammar and usage and recognize how its vocabulary has developed and been influenced by other languages.
Standard 6: Formal and Informal English - Students will describe, analyze and use appropriately formal and informal English.
Reading and Literature Strand
Standard 8: Understanding a Text - Students will identify the basic facts and main ideas in a text and use them as the basis for interpretation.
Standard 9: Making Connections - Students will deepen their understanding of literary and of non‑literary work by relating it to its contemporary context or historical background.
Standard 10: Genre - Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the characteristics of different genres.
Standard 15: Style and Language - Students will identify and analyze how an author's words appeal to the sense, create imagery, suggest mood, and set tone, and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
Composition Strand
Standard 19: Writing - Students will write with a clear focus, coherent organization, and sufficient detail.
Standard 20: Consideration of Audience and Purpose - Students will write for different audiences and purposes.
Standard 21: Revising - Students will demonstrate improvement in organization, content, paragraph development, level of detail, style, tone, and word choice (diction) in their compositions after revising them.
Standard 22: Standard English Conventions - Students will use knowledge of standard English conventions their writing, revising, and editing.
Standard 23: Organizing Ideas in Writing - Students will organize ideas in writing in a way that makes sense for their purpose.
Standard 24: Research - Students will gather information from a variety of sources, analyze and evaluate the quality of the information they obtain, and use it to answer their own questions.
Standard 25: Evaluation Writing and Presentations - Students will develop and use appropriate rhetorical, logical, and stylistic criteria for assessing final version of the compositions or research projects before presenting them to varied audiences.
Materials:
To be considered "prepared for class" students must to come to class each day with:
· Text - Houghton Miffin English
· Portfolio (Writing Folder)
· Journal
· Notebook or Three‑ring Binder
· Pen and Pencil
· Assignment Notebook
Classroom Policies and Procedures
These rules, guidelines, expectations, and policies are in addition to those found in the Parent/Teacher Handbook and the Middle School Philosophy handout.
Instruction
I take the Language as Expression approach to teaching grammar and writing in order to incorporate real world application and students' interest into the curriculum. Grammar is taught as a part of writing and reading. The text used by the students for this course is Houghton Mifflin English. I use Nancy Atwell's In the Middle for my own references and I bring in a variety of outside materials to serve as models for the genres and the types of writing the students will be doing.
Writing assignments will be designed to cover a variety of genres‑fiction, nonfiction, persuasive, informative, etc. Students will also do a mandatory research paper. Each year, St. Michael School participates in the Irish Essay Contest. By participation in this contest we are able to fulfill the research paper required by the curriculum.
I teach writing using Nancy Atwell's approach, which includes writing workshops, journals, and portfolio tracking. The students keep journals and are required to write in them daily. The curriculum requires a minimum of one writing workshop a week. Students are not always at the same stage of writing. Students are, therefore, required to keep a writing portfolio where they log the date and the title of the piece they are writing. This portfolio is to never leave the classroom. In addition to showing student growth throughout the year, these portfolios will allow students to have samples of writing when they begin the high school application process. After drafting a piece of writing, students engage in peer-editing and teacher conferences. It is from the student-teacher conferences that I see what students are doing well and what they need to work on. The grammar instruction is directed by these conferences. In addition to covering Houghton Mifflin curriculum, mini-lessons are given to teach common grammar errors that come up in many of the students' writing.
Grading
A student's final average in Grammar will be calculated by averaging all papers, tests, and quizzes together.
· I will be very strict about enforcing the middle school policy for makeup tests. Any test, quiz, or paper not made up in the allotted time period will result in a zero.
· There is no extra‑credit.
· Please also be aware that there will be no opportunities to retake any tests. If students are not comfortable with the material they are encouraged to attend extra‑help sessions and seek individual help prior to the exam.
Papers will either be weighted as a test or quiz. The weight of the paper will be specified in the rubric that is handed out when the paper is assigned. Each paper will be graded according to the focus correction areas that will also be specified on the rubric. The focus correction areas will cover writing skills, vocabulary skills (spelling and usage), and grammar rules as we come across them in the curriculum.
Grammar skills will also be assessed using quizzes and tests. Each quiz counts one time. Each test is worth two quizzes. Any time a test is worth more that two weights students will be informed ahead of time. For example, if students were to have a midterm or a final this would count three times.
Student Signature Date
Signature of Parent/Guardian Date