welcome class of 2019
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Dear Student,
I am your English Language Arts/Literature teacher, Mrs. Spence. I’m am so excited to be at St. Jerome’s School this year. I wanted to let each of you know that you are a Scholar and as such will be reading, writing and exploring ideas to find your passion, deepen your critical thinking skills, and expand your view of the world. We will focus this around California’s Common Core Curriculum for Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening. Our class will be organized around four styles of writing: Narrative, Opinion, Poetry, and Informative. We will look at a one large piece of literature (a Novel/Book) as well as smaller excerpts for each style of writing. These texts will be our mentor texts, instructing us in the keys to writing. You will also be reading. As a class we will read texts, but we will also read individually and keep a reader’s response journal. We will each decide what type of books to read based on the Lexile level system. Our classroom has a library from which you are free to check books out. We also have access to a scholastic book fair, and school library. You may also explore your local library or buy from a vendor. Please have a paper book to read in class, Kindle’s or other E-readers will not be allowed. When looking for a book, explore its lexile level through the 5 finger rule (pick a page, if there are more than 5 words you don’t understand or can not determine their meaning it may not be the correct choice for you) or the lexile level. You may use the following website to find a text’s lexile level: https://fab.lexile.com/ We will also increase our vocabulary through a focused daily study of Greek and Latin roots/prefixes/suffixes. Please find my contact information below if you wish to schedule a meeting. Amber Spence aspence@stjeromewestchester.org I look forward to growing as readers, authors and scholars together this year. Amber Spence MS ELA/Literature St. Jerome School |
Ms. Spence8th Grade Teacher, Middle School ELA
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Service hours formGrade Breakdown
ELA Writing Assignments (Quick Writes, Grammar, Drafts, ETC)- 40% Finished Essays- 60% Spelling Vocabulary Notebook-50% Vocabulary Tests-30% Spelling Tests- 20% Literature Reading Response Notebook-15% Discussion Participation- 15% Novel Quizzes- 20% Novel Tests- 25% Literary Analysis Essays/Novel Projects- 25% Conduct/Work Habits Grades O- Outstanding- No incidents noted in Gradelink G- Good- 1-3 incidents noted in Gradelink S- Average- 4-5 incidents noted in Gradelink NI- Needs improvement 6+ incidents noted in Gradelink | ||||||