Davis Essential
Skills and Knowledge (DESK)
Attendance/Citizenship
Supplies
Needed for Class
Classroom
Policy
Life's Great
Equations
Homework
Grading
Book
List
Movie
List
Late
Work/Extra Credit
Davis Essential Skills and
Knowledge
The school
district used to send home a color-coded pamphlet
that outlined the skills and knowledge students in this class (and all
classes) would work
to acquire during the year.
Well, the money to send home those pamphlets (which very few people had
time to read) ran out, so now the information is on the Internet at this address:
http://www.davis.k12.ut.us/curric/desk/7-9English03.pdf
. End-of-level tests are now mandated by the state.
Students who master the concepts outlined in the pamphlet will be prepared
for the test.
The school tardy/absence
policies will be followed in this class.
Students must be in their
assigned seats when the bell rings; otherwise, they will be marked late.
Excessive absence and/or
tardiness will result in loss of citizenship credit; however, a student may make
up citizenship credit lost due to absence and tardiness if s/he meets with me
at least one week before the end of the grading period and completes extra
work.
Students who come to
class prepared (Supplies Needed for English) and follow the
Classroom Policy will receive full
citizenship credit.
Writing Paper (with
lines)
Notebook/Folder
Blue or Black Pen
Personal Reading Book
Textbook (when assigned)
Homework (when assigned)
A Positive Attitude
These items must be brought to
class every day!
Personal
Responsibility
Students
will be responsible for their own work, their own behavior, and their own
interactions with others. This
requires three things:
Respect
Cooperation
Honesty
Students will be expected to exhibit these qualities while in English class.
Freedom =
Responsibility
Choice =
Consequence
With Freedom
comes Responsibility, and with Choice comes Consequence. Those who accept responsibility for
their freedom and accept the consequences of their choices will do very well in
this class.
Students
will have homework in this class.
On average, homework will be required two or three times per week, but
there will be some weeks when none is assigned and others (if s/he has
procrastinated on a big project) when the student will have homework every
night. The amount of homework
depends on what we are working on in class at the time and on how much of the
work the student finishes during class.
BUT Reading is an
ongoing assignment!
Students should carry a
reading book all the time, and Accelerated Reader
test scores will count in students’ final grades. So, even if no homework has been
assigned, students in this class still have a certain amount of reading to
complete on their own time.
A student’s grade is calculated based on what
percentage of the total
Assignments that weigh heavily into students’
grades include core writing
A =
95-100%
A- = 90-94%
B+ = 85-89%
B = 80-84%
B- = 75-79%
C+
= 70-74%
C = 65-69%
C- = 60-64%
D+ = 58-59%
D = 55-57%
D-
= 50-54%
F
= below 50%
These are the readings available for the 9th grade English classes at Fairfield. We won’t read them all, but these are the ones we choose from.
Mythology by
Edith Hamilton
The Odyssey by Homer
Romeo
and Juliet by William Shakespeare
The Taming of the
Shrew by Shakespeare
Great
Expectations
by Charles Dickens
Call of the Wild by Jack London
Fahrenheit
451 by Ray Bradbury
Anthem
by Ayn Rand
Animal Farm by George Orwell
To Kill a
Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Something Wicked This Way
Comes by Bradbury
Stargirl by Jerry
Spinelli
Seedfolks by Paul Fleisman
These books are in-class readings, and they will not count toward term Accelerated Reader points
These movies (or short clips thereof) may be shown in class this year.
The Odyssey
Clash of the
Titans
Cask of Amontillado
Miracle Worker
Romeo
and Juliet
Taming of the Shrew
Shakespeare:
Biography
Great Expectations (G-rated version)
Citizen
Kane
Shakespeare
by Mirimax
Shakespeare: District Video Clips
Animal Farm
To Kill a Mockingbird
Taming of the Shrew
Assignments not turned in on the due date are late. Late credit is ½ of the total points for the first week, and it drops after that amount of time, depending on the assignment. If the student was legitimately absent on the due date and the assignment is turned in within two days of the student’s return, the lateness will be excused and full credit given, but it is the student’s responsibility to get and complete assignments missed due to absence. Extra credit may be offered only to students who have completed all the regular class work. If a student’s grade is suffering because s/he failed to turn in assignments, s/he must complete the missing work (which will receive no more than late credit) before requesting extra credit work.
Thompson’s Class on the Web
All of the major projects students will complete for this class as well as many of the in-class assignments, spelling lists, helpful hints, and research links are available on the Internet at this web address (URL):
http://ffjh.davis.k12.ut.us/thompson/
Have a great year! *<%^)
We
have made every reasonable attempt to insure that our web pages are
educationally sound and do not contain links to any questionable material or
anything that can be deemed in violation of the DSD Acceptable Use
Policy.
This page is maintained according to the
DSD Internet
Publishing Guidelines
by Mike Thompson
©2003 Mike Thompson - All rights reserved.
Last update: 08/25/2003 *<%^)