Welcome to Sixth Grade!

Literature and Language Arts

Core Literature - Mythology, The Lightning Thief, and The Bronze Bow. These are excellent books relating directly to the social studies curriculum.
Spelling/Vocabulary - Spelling and vocabulary words come from the books we read. Spelling/vocabulary tests are given once a week.
Writing Curriculum - I have created a standards-based writing curriculum to teach students grammar, mechanics, creative writing, and formal writing. It is in packet form and should be kept in your child's binder at all times. This work will be done in class and at home.
Book Report - Your child will do one book report this year.

Social Studies

History Alive - The Ancient World. We will be studying world history from early prehistoric time to the fall of the Roman Republic.
Alexander the Great (a thematic approach) - I teach history in a somewhat unusual way. After going through the prehistoric period to the dawn of civilization, we shift gears and jump ahead to the Hellenistic age. From then on, we pretend to be members of the great Macedonian army under Alexander the Great. Our mission is to conquer the ancient world. To do so, we must learn everything about the civilizations we encounter. This includes a civilization's culture, history, military, government, religion, economy, etc. Students will learn all this from my lectures, research projects, and from the history textbook.
After studying India, we start practicing the "What if…?" genre of history. Alexander never made it past northwest India, but what if he had? What if he had tried to take on the Chinese? What if he were alive after the Second Punic War, and decided to take on Rome? Students will explore these exciting questions using the same approach as before.
I teach history in this way because I truly love history and want to impart this upon my students. I want them to learn what a wonderfully exciting story history is, and begin to try to imagine what it must have been like to have lived during the periods we study. Every Friday, we play the game Conquest to further immerse ourselves into the history we study.

Expectations

Homework

Homework is generally assigned Monday through Thursday. Some assignments are due the next day; others are due days, weeks, or even a month ahead. Students are expected to manage their time. Being able to manage time is an essential skill needed for middle school. Therefore, students who have not managed their time wisely may have homework on Fridays or over the weekend. Please help your child manage his/her time.
Assignments must be recorded daily, in full, in the student planner. A parent or guardian should look over his/her child's planner daily.
Students learn on Monday all the assignments they will do for the week. They must plan their time accordingly to finish these assignments. Most assignments are started in class. Assignments out of the Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics workbook are the only assignments done on a daily basis. Our district policy is for sixth graders to do no more than 30-40 minutes of homework a night for his/her Core class. If your child is regularly doing more than 40 minutes of homework for Core, either his/her time isn't being managed properly (in the classroom or at home), or there is some other problem that needs to be addressed.
According to White Team policy, if a student does not have a homework assignment completed by the due date, the assignment will receive half credit. If a homework assignment is over five school days late, it will receive an automatic zero. Long term homework assignments that are not completed by the due date receive 70% credit, and if the assignment is over five school days late, it too will receive a zero. Of course, this policy does not apply to a student who comes to class with a note from his/her parents stating a legitimate reason for the work being late (email works, too). Any time a student receives a zero on an assignment, his/her parents will be notified on his/her Thursday envelope.
In order to cut down on the amount of homework students do, I usually do not assign literature homework.

Planners, Binders, Thursday Envelopes

I randomly check planners and binders to make sure they are properly maintained. If planners are incomplete or binders not maintained, students are fined four tickets. If the problem is habitual, he/she will get a note home that is due back signed the following day. If the note is not returned, signed, and the problem not fixed by the following day, I call home.
Thursday Envelopes are sent home Thursday and must be brought back signed and dated by Friday. Students with Thursday Envelopes that are not returned or signed and dated will be fined four tickets. If the problem is habitual, he/she will get an automatic note home.

Tutoring

Starting next week, every Thursday (except when a meeting interferes) from 3:05 to 4:00 I offer after school tutoring. I do this because it is difficult to give students one-on-one attention during the school day, and I want to reach all my students who need help. It is not mandatory to attend. However, I often write " tutoring" on returned assignments when I feel a student needs extra help. I recommend you check to see if I wrote this on returned assignments and motivate your child to go.
This is a free service. We work on Core assignments, and I do not assign additional work. The only request I make is that if your child stays for tutoring you pick him or her up exactly at 4:00. Also, please help me convey that tutoring time is for serious work, and not for fooling around. Students who misbehave during tutoring will lose the privilege to attend.

Grading

Finally, a word on how I grade. I grade on a percentage basis. Assignments are worth points. I divide the amount of points a student earns by the points possible and that is their grade for a particular assignment.
Total grades are weighted. In each subject, homework is worth five percent of the total grade. Quizzes and tests count between seventy to eighty percent of a student's total grade - depending the on the subject. The rest comes from projects, essays, stories, and poems.
However, in the first quarter of the first semester there are few to no projects, essays, stories, and poems. Therefore, quizzes and tests will be worth between ninety and ninety-five percent of a student's total grade. It is extremely important that a student do his homework well, and use the studying techniques I teach at the beginning of the school year.

100%			=	A+
93%	-	99%	=	A
90%	-	92%	=	A-
87%	-	89%	=	B+
83%	-	86%	=	B
80%	-	82%	=	B-
77%	-	79%	=	C+
73%	-	76%	=	C
70%	-	72%	=	C-
67%	-	69%	=	D+
63%	-	66%	=	D
60%	-	62%	=	D-
59% and below			=	F