1. Welcome to 9th Grade Honors English!
Please take this opportunity to explore the room. You will find your child’s poem hanging somewhere in the room.

2. Please take a notecard from the center of your table group and write down:
Your child’s name
Your name
One goal you have for your child as a reader/writer this year
One piece of advice you hope your child always carries at the front of his/her mind

3. Brittany Iatarola Education: Best Way to Reach Me:
Graduated from West Chester University in May, 2015
English Education Major
Creative Writing Minor
7th Grade (Unami)
8th Grade (Unami)
9th Grade (Unami)
10th Grade (Central Bucks West)
Best Way to Reach Me: By

4. Honors Classes and High School
Important to know:
This class is weighted .25 (what might be an A- becomes an A)
All grades earned this year count towards your student’s cumulative GPA upon graduation high school

5. How is this class more advanced than Academic 9th Grade English?
Our study of grammar is more intense and focused around use of grammar to develop style rather than using grammar correctly (we go beyond the “right” answer to the best answer)
We tackle longer/more difficult texts (we will be reading The Book Thief rather than The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and will be reading short stories from Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man in addition to our required studies)
We will complete more complicated and demanding projects within each unit, though we do share units with the academic level

6. Our Course of Study This Year:
We have four main focuses:
Personal Identity through History
Through the Eyes of a Child
Knowledge Comes at a Price
Ordinary People as Heroes
We have two main texts:
Romeo and Juliet
To Kill a Mockingbird
We have two secondary texts:
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Night

7. Skills we’re building this year:
Skills of focus:
Reading texts within a historical context and identifying theme within those texts
Creative nonfiction writing
Public speaking/presentation
Major assessments of these skills:
Thematic Essay (2nd marking period)
Personal Narrative (3rd marking period)
Monologue/Dialogue (4th marking period)

8. Weighting Scale Summative Assessments: 80% of marking period grade
Formative Assessments: 20% of marking period grade
Core Assessment One (Personal Narrative): 10% of 3rd marking period grade
Core Assessment Two (Monologue/Dialogue): 10% of 4th marking period grade

9. Second Chance Learning
Opportunities for second chance learning are available to any student who asks for it
These opportunities will vary on a case-to-case basis, as to be personalized to each individual case and circumstance
If a student fails a major assignment, I will approach that student about this opportunity. In all other instances, the student must come to me in person or reach out to me through an
I do not allow students to use their parents to ask for this opportunity

10. Homework Policy Above all, I want my students to be honest
If a student forgets a homework assignment there is a form to complete in replacement of that assignment. It asks:
The student’s name
The date of the assignment
The name of the assignment
The reason the assignment is missing
If that student turns in a completed form, he or she is granted an extension until the next day. The score is entered as a zero the first day, then replaced the second.
This only counts for homework assignments I collect (five point assignments). For assignments I check (1 point assignments), they can just show me the next day to get the point back.

11. Sick or Absent Policy
If your student is sick or absent, that student has two days to make up the work he or she missed (that is, two days for every day missed)
To make this easier, I suggest students access my website

12. My Website Updated each day by 5pm
This is your best at-home resource. It includes:
A summary of every class
A posting of the daily homework
Links to every PowerPoint, worksheet, or hand out from class
Links to all homework
Links to all rubrics
Major due dates
Resources for MLA Bibliography formatting and grammar

13. Making Up Missed Work
Students may come at resource to make up missed work. If students are unable to do this, they may choose to come at any of the following times if they schedule to do so with me:
Before school: 7:05-7:20am
After school: 3:00pm-6:00pm
No unscheduled visits please! I might have a faculty meeting or other professional responsibility on that day!

14. Office 365 Encourage your students to use this at home!
It automatically saves
It is accessible at school (no worries about forgetting a flashdrive or having it saved on another computer)
It has the entire office suite (in case you do not have it on your computer)
It provides your student with a CB account that he or she will be using to me major assignments
The student’s sign in is the same as it is on our computers here

15. Printer trouble?
If this is ever the case, I just need the student to send me an —I am very forgiving about forces beyond student control

16. Communication with me:
Please always be open with me about any questions or concerns you have
I am best reached through , but if you ever want to call or meet in person, I am happy to
When contacting me, be aware that my mother also works in this district—her name is Elizabeth Iatarola, and mine is Brittany Iatarola

17. Before you go!
Please write a suggestion on the back of the notecard for our “Role Models” wall— I’d be happy to make your values part of my classroom by displaying educated figures you’d like your student to look up to
I’ll try to find a picture of that role model reading a book and post it under the quote!