1. Welcome to English with Mrs. Lagan! Please use a card on your desk and complete the following: 1. Your child’s name 2. Strengths you’d like me to note 3. Areas you’d like your child to improve 4. Any questions you may have 5. Best e-mail address to reach you.

2. Overview This course essentially aims to encourage students to become effective communicators in the areas of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Additionally, students are challenged to use critical thinking.

3. Assessment: Grades are calculated as a percentage of total points for the term, with larger assignments being worth more points. So, if there are 1,000 points available and a student earns 900, then the student will have 90% average.

4. Grading Policies: Homework Starts at 100% Drops 5% for each missed assignment No make-ups because we review it in class, and the student needs to be learning to be responsible for themselves.

5. Major Assessments Tests, essays and large projects Typically = ~100pts

6. Minor Assessments Quizzes: vocabulary, grammar, and reading Graded classwork Typically = 10-50 pts. Absent= next day

7. Late work - points each day. There will be a final cut-off date. Detention possible if it is imperative that the assignment be completed.

8. Plagiarism No tolerance policy All or part= zero No graded re-do

9. Class Reading/Novels (On-level) Short Stories Chernowitz! The Outsiders Old Yeller Poetry

10. Class reading/Novels (Above Level) Short Stories Non-fiction stories Tom Sawyer The Outsiders Poetry

11. Independent (“silent”) Reading Marking Period 1: Realistic and historical fiction Marking Period 2: Autobiographies and biographies Marking Period 3: Science fiction, adventure, fantasy, or mystery Marking Period 4: Free Choice

12. Writing Open Ended Responses Explanatory Essay Expository Essay Narrative/Speculative Essay Persuasive/Argumentative Essay Poetry

13. Literary Elements Elements of Plot Imagery Personification Conflict Foreshadowing Flashbacks Moral and theme

14. Grammar Through Reading/Writing Writing descriptively/Showing not telling o adjectives, adverbs, verbs o prepositional phrases Sentence Parts o nouns and verbs Sound Sentences o nouns and verbs o prepositional phrases Varying Sentences o Punctuation o Complex and compound Word Choice o vocabulary building

15. Contact llagan@veronaschools.org (973) 571-6751 Website: http://www.veronaschools.org//Domain/244