Ms. McKee's Literacy & Writing Class Information for Parents

1. Welcome Parents & Guardians! Please fill out the “Back-to-School Night” form to the best of your knowledge!

2. Ms. McKee’s E-mail address The best and fastest way to reach me is by e-mail: cmckee@mtps.org

3. Ms. McKee’s Literacy Class District Grading Expectations: • Tests: 40% • Quizzes: 25% • Supplemental: 20% • Independent Practice: 5% • Online Programs (Achieve 3000): 5% • District Common Assessments: 5%

4. What will we be reading? • Fiction • (short stories, novels, myths, etc.) • Non-fiction • (autobiographies, biographies, essays, informational text, etc.) • Poetry

5. Literacy Goals • Promote close reading to provide the skills students need to be successful throughout their lifetime. • Cite several sources of evidence within text to support opinions. • Analyze literature for elements of plot, such as character, setting, and theme.

6. Literacy Goals • Examine text for differing points of view among authors. • Utilize a balanced literacy approach that encourages students to think critically and creatively. • Promote the inner joy that comes with reading.

7. Literacy Goals • How will we work toward achieving these goals? • literary elements • active reading strategies • main idea • sequence of events • compare and contrast • cause and effect • inference skills • logical predictions • context clues to identify vocabulary • developing a rich vocabulary of complex and sophisticated words

8. Ms. McKee’s Literacy Class Vocabulary: -Root Words/Prefixes -Novel Vocabulary -Vocabulary Study: Do Nows and practice in class

9. Ms. McKee’s Literacy Class Independent Reading: • Given every marking period. • In the form of Book Club starting at the end of Marking Period 1 • Assigned books based on Lexile and Interest (surveyed)

10. Ms. McKee’s Literacy Class Book Club Meetings: • Given an assigned book and group, and a calendar • Group breaks the novel into 6-7 sections • Responsible for Signposts

11. Ms. McKee’s Literacy Class Book Club Meetings: • On meeting days, students transfer Signposts into writing. • Signposts then become discussion point for the group. • Signposts and Discussions are graded. • Literary Analysis of Choice

12. Ms. McKee’s Literacy Class Common Assessments(Both in Literacy & Written Expression) • Will be given Skills and Standards guide. • The entire grade takes the same test, on the same date. • Based on skills covered in class.

13. Ms. McKee’s Written Expression Class District Grading Expectations: • Tests: 40% • Quizzes: 25% • Supplemental: 25% • Independent Practice: 5% • District Writing Tasks: 5%

14. Ms. McKee’s Written Expression Class Marking Period 1: Narrative Focus Marking Period 2: Expository Essays Marking Period 3: Argumentative Writing Marking Period 4: Research-Based Writing ***Literary Analysis (throughout the year)

15. Ms. McKee’s Written Expression Class • Most assignments will be done on Google Classroom. • “Do Now” and Grammar in notebooks • Students need to have their charged chromebooks with them every day.

16. Written Expressions Goals • Improve grammar, usage, and mechanics -Sentence Structure -Capitalization Rules -Punctuation Rules -Subject/Verb Agreement -Modifiers • Do Nows: Correct the sentence using proper proofreading marks • Notebooks kept in classroom • New grammar rules each day • Checked and graded after every 10

17. Written Expressions Goals • Writing for specific purposes • Essay writing • (Persuasive, Argumentative, and Expository) • 1. Organizing and focusing writing • 2. Including reliable evidence to support a thesis • 3. Citing sources within writing to avoid plagiarism • 4. Writing conclusions that tie together various claims, findings, and opinions. • Narrative and descriptive writing will be done throughout the year through Free Writing sessions.

18. Written Expression • Research Paper and Presentation • In order to achieve these goals, we will focus on the following: • writing a variety of strong sentences • writing paragraphs that support the central idea • writing argumentative essays that support a debatable thesis • writing explanatory essays to explain a topic or theme • participating in class discussions and debates • presenting information to the class

19. Google Classroom (Docs., Excel, Slides, Forms, etc.) • Achieve 3000 • ActivelyLearn • Study Island (for both literacy and writing) • Quizlet for Vocabulary • Pear Deck, Kahoot, IXL, Quizizz Online Programs for ELA

20. Extra Help A & E Days Room 135

21. Teacher Page and Google Calendar

22. Subscribing to Class Google Calendars Click this to add the Google Calendar to yours. Repeat for each class/subject calendar. Important Clarification: Must have a Gmail account to subscribe to a Google Calendar • Pro Tip: Create a new Gmail account to only see this info when signed into the account. • I.e. Something fun - “My_Kids_Calendars@Gmail.com”

23. Step 1:Click the 3 vertical dots (or “snowman” icon). Use Color to Differentiate Class/Subject Calendars Step 2:Choose a color! Another Useful Tool: Google Keep • Ideal for goal setting and organizing tasks • Link Google Docs, Slides, Images, etc. • Easily copy Google Keep notes to Google Docs • Effortlessly Set reminders linked to Google Calendar Tip: Sync Google Calendar with Apple iCal