Belief Statement

I believe in helping each student develop a positive mindset for success. I believe expectations should be clear, relevant and challenging. I believe that school succeeds best when we create memories that our students carry with them for life. I believe that fairness, equity and justice are the foundations for a thriving community both in school and in adult life. I believe that standards are not the maximum that we should expect from ourselves as either teachers or students but benchmarks we should seek to master and exceed.so I will do my part to meet the student at their present level to challenge and encourage them to stretch their skills and abilities beyond what they thought possible to become a critical thinker and active participant in society.

Language Arts

Language Arts is an integrated literacy curriculum that mixes writing, reading, spelling, oral communication, critical thinking and visual literacy.

Student Expectations

All students will be expected to:

 Come to class ready to learn with daily work and homework completed prior to class

 Set their table for Language Arts prior to the beginning of class

 Practice active listening with all members of the class

 Practice active leadership and citizenship during every class (a can-do attitude!)

 Keep their Writing Notebooks organized, clean and ready for grading everyday

 Complete Sitton Spelling assignments and organize them inside their Spelling folder

 Complete Daily Language (grammar) sentence warm-up each day and organize their weekly sheets inside their Spelling Folder as directed

 Write multiple five-paragraph expository essays that incorporate persuasion, research, and description

 Become active readers using prior knowledge, the text, context clues, prior experience, graphic features, to predict, create meaning and to clarify meanings or concepts in reading

 Critically analyze reading novels

 Complete WASL practice tests, prompts, and assignments as given

 Practice all benchmark goals listed in the Camas Sixth Grade Curriculum guide

Writing Notebook and Spelling Folder

All students are required to keep a spiral Writing Notebook with numbered pages, a Title page, and Table of Contents that lists all contents as we include them. The writing notebook is organized so that all homework and students writing is on the left-hand even-numbered side of the notebook and so all classroom notes are on the facing right-hand odd-numbered page.

Spelling Folder Following their “No Excuse Word List” and the entire 6th grade word list, the Spelling Folder contains an evolving list of words that particular student has misspelled on Spelling assessments. These words are their “Words to Learn List.” Those are the words that should be studied each week in preparation for the spelling tests. All of the in-class work as well as the homework, tests, and daily language sentences are kept in the Spelling Folder until the end of the trimester when they are stapled together and kept in a folder pocket and the folder begins anew.

Grading Rubric

All writing essays assigned by Mr. Dewey will be graded according to the Six-Trait Model taught throughout the Camas School District. The Grading Rubric is attached to this syllabus. Each trait is scored on a scale of 1 to 4 with 4 being the highest score and a 3 meeting the minimum acceptable standard. The six-traits are: Ideas and Content, Organization, Voice, Sentence Fluency, Word Choice, and Writing Conventions and Mechanics (given a value of 10 as the highest possible and 5 and 0 as the lowest). Each Trait’s score is marked by the circled box on the grade matrix on the other side of this sheet. Each trait is graded and marked individually; however, their qualities do overlap and you need to be aware that if you work hard to improve one area it will carry over to help other areas also. For example, if you work hard to use transition words to improve your score In Word Choice you will likely raise your score in Voice, Fluency and Organization as well! The percentage grade for essays is created by adding together all 6 of your scores. Your final grade can then be found below:

An “A” Paper:

30- 100%

29- 97%

28- 95%

27- 92%

A “B” Paper

26- 89%

25- 87%

24- 84%

23- 82%

22- 80%

A “C” Paper

21- 79%

20- 77%

19- 75%

18- 73%

17- 70%

A “D” Paper

16- 68%

15- 66%

14- 64%

13- 62%

12- 60%

An “F” Paper

11- 59%

10- 50%

9- 45%

8- 40%

7- 35%

6- 30%

5- 25%

Trimester Grades

Trimester grades are based on 5 weighted categories: Essays, Homework/Notebook, Reading Comprehension, Tests and Quizzes, and Participation in class. The weighted categories are as follows:

Essays- 30%

Tests and Quizzes- 10%

Homework/ Notebook- 25%

Reading Comprehension- 20%

Daily Work/Class Assignments- 10%

Teamwork/Professionalism- 5%

The final grade follows the Camas District Standard for Middle and High School grades:

A 100- 92.5

A- 92.49-89.5

B+ 89.49-86.5

B 86.49-82.5

B- 82.49-79.5

C+ 79.49-76.5

C 76.49-72.5

C- 72.49-69.5

D+ 69.49-66.5

D 64.49- 59.5

F 59.49 and below

Late Policy

Any daily assignments whether homework or in-class assignment that are not turned in or reported as a grade when called for by the teacher will be made up in lunch TR that day and turned in by the next morning. If the assignment is not turned in then it will remain a grade of “0”. If the assignment is called for after lunch, the student has until the next morning to turn in the assignment or the assignment will remain a grade of “0”. Any late, accepted daily work will have a grade of 50% of its graded value. Big projects will have 10% deducted from their grade for each day it is late up to 50 %. A late project that is turned in after five days will have a grade no higher than 50% of its graded value.

Ancient History

History in 6th Grade takes a multidisciplinary integrated approach to encourage all students to make connections with the human past.

Major Units

The 6th grade curriculum covers:

 Early Humans and Pre-History

 Mesopotamia (Tigris and Euphrates River valley)

 Ancient Egypt

 Ancient China

 Ancient Greece

Student Expectations

All students will be expected to:

 Come to class ready to learn with homework or projects completed before class

 Keep an organized Interactive Student Notebook (ISN) with an up-to-date Table of Contents

 Set their table for history before the beginning of class

 Use color pencils to color their illustrations and diagrams within their ISN

 Practice active listening with all members of the class

 Practice active leadership and citizenship during every class (a can-do attitude!)

Possible Projects and Major Assignments

In addition to the above general expectations students will in the course of a year complete the following projects and assignments as organized by Social Studies Strand:

History

 Create a Hominid timeline

 Create a Mesopotamian timeline.

 Create a project comparing 2 Ancient Civilizations.

 Create a timeline of 11 Latin American Civilizations.

 Assume the role of an archeologist and excavate tomb artifacts from the Shang Dynasty.

 Creating Human Statues to honor great figures in Greek History

 Alexander: Hero or Villain Geography

 Create a thematic map of an Ancient Civilization’s region.

 Comparing Crete and Mycenae

 Touring Athens in the Golden Age Civics

 Present and interpret court cases using the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi.

 Create an illustrated journal as a spy reconnoitering Egyptian society.

 Apply Ancient Chinese philosophies to modern situations.

 Athens and the Delian League vs. Sparta and the Peloponnesian League Economics

 Create a cartoon illustrating the “Neolithic Revolution” and the change from hunter-gatherer society to an agriculturally-based society

 Assume the role of traders from Kush, Egypt and Central Africa and trade tokens representing goods from each region.  Examine the influence of cultural artifacts introduced to China via the Silk Road.

Geography

 Create a thematic map of an Ancient Civilization’s region.

 Comparing Crete and Mycenae

 Touring Athens in the Golden Age

Civics

 Present and interpret court cases using the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi.

 Create an illustrated journal as a spy reconnoitering Egyptian society.

 Apply Ancient Chinese philosophies to modern situations.

 Athens and the Delian League vs. Sparta and the Peloponnesian League

Economics

 Create a cartoon illustrating the “Neolithic Revolution” and the change from hunter-gatherer society to an agriculturally-based society

 Assume the role of traders from Kush, Egypt and Central Africa and trade tokens representing goods from each region.  Examine the influence of cultural artifacts introduced to China via the Silk Road.

The Interactive Student Notebook (ISN)

All students are required to keep an Interactive Notebook with a Table of Contents that lists all contents as we include them. The History Interactive Notebook is organized so that all homework and students writing is together in one place. Many of our notes require color illustrations or diagrams. Students need to carry color pencils in their tool boxes to be able to complete in-class work in color. Additional sheets for notes and assignments may be pasted into the ISN from time to time. Furthermore, certain pages will be removed from the ISN from units not assigned to provide room for greater in-depth work in those units that we cover in Camas. Some projects will be too big and involved for the ISN. Those projects and assignments will be carried separately when due.

Projects and Research Writing

Students will be required to complete several projects through out the year to show understanding of our major thematic units. Each project will have a rubric that will be available ahead of time on our Teacher Website: http://www.teacherweb.com/WA/LibertyMiddleSchool/DeweyRoberts/ as well as in our Friday Newsletter the Classroom Crier. All rubrics will be presented in class and a hard copy of the rubric will be given out as well either to paste into the Notebook or written by the student in the planner. Projects are an extremely important tool to assess student understanding and hence their value in the composition of the trimester grades reflect their importance. Additionally, in January students will begin work on a major writing project, the Classroom Based Assessment that integrates Language Arts and History in 3-parts consisting of a 5 paragraph Research Essay with a Bibliography, a 3-dimensional project or model, and a presentation style “Museum” card that describes the relationship of the 3-D project to the Research Essay. The practice CBA lasts through February as we guide students in the research and writing process. This prepares students for the Washington State Classroom Based Assessment now being implemented in our state to measure Social Studies awareness and success in all grade levels. In May, students will complete a CBA on their own as the final assessment.

Trimester Grades

Trimester grades are based on 4 weighted categories: Essays, Homework/Notebook, Tests and Quizzes, and Leadership in class. The weighted categories are as follows:

Activities and Projects 30%

Daily work/class assignments- 30%

Tests and Quizzes- 35%

Teamwork/Professionalism- 5%

Late Policy

Any daily assignments whether homework or in-class assignment that are not turned in or reported as a grade when called for by the teacher will be made up in lunch TR that day and turned in by the next morning. If the assignment is not turned in then it will remain a grade of “0”. If the assignment is called for after lunch, the student has until the next morning to turn in the assignment or the assignment will remain a grade of “0”. Any late daily work that is accepted will have a grade of 50% of its graded value. Big projects will have 10% deducted from their grade for each day it is late up to 50 %. A late project that is turned in after five days will have a grade no higher than 50% of its graded value.