This course is designed to give students the added support they need to improve their language literacy skills. We will be concentrating on reading and writing fluency by developing vocabulary as well grammatical skills. Monsieur Joyet is also available to provide students with additional support for work they have in their regular English classes.
We use an Interactive Notebook, a 200 pages composition notebook designed for this class; in which, students place all of their work. Parents, please take the time each week to review their work and not only sign the contract contained within (pg. 3), but review your student’s weekly progress on The Course’s Core Assignments (pg. 7), as well write your initial on the Parent’s Verification Page (pg. 6) each week.
Students have homework in my class every night. One is expected to be reading an hour plus every evening, and reflecting in writing on the reading in my Reading Log. Sometimes these forms get misplaced by adolescents; so, I have conveniently placed a template on the Templates page that can be downloaded at anytime.
We have four main areas we focus on in Strategic Literacy. These are: Grammar, Vocabulary, Reading and Writing.
Each day, as a warm-up exercise, students will work on a couple of sentences to fine tune their grammar skills. Each Monday students will take a Vocabulary Quiz and hand-in a week's worth of recorded reading in their Reading Log. In addition we will be working on Exposition, Persuasive and Literary Analysis as we delve deeper into the writing process.
A thorough survey of various textbooks, assignments, content area standards, and examinations yields the following list of words. You cannot expect to succeed on assignments if you do not understand the directions. The words fall into several categories, which are not identified on this sheet: nouns (e.g., What you read or create); verbs (e.g., What the assignment asks you to do); adjectives (e.g., specific details about what you must do); and adverbs, which provide very important information about how to do the assignment. Each Monday we will conduct a Quiz on these words. The quizzes are cumulative, meaning you are expected to build your vocabulary as the year progresses. To help you memorize the meaning of each word start by making flash-cards.
26. assess
52. coherent
65. conditions
118. draw
130. evaluate
143. extract
169. illustrate
182. intent
247. preclude
260. profile
272. rare
284. report
