Academic and Behavior Syllabus

Mr. Ruff

Senior English

2015-2016

By the end of this year, you will be able to:

Write sentences, paragraphs, and papers at the collegiate level

Read and understand non-fiction, fiction, and poetry at the collegiate level

Learn to use new, collegiate level vocabulary

Learn skills that will improve performance:

  • in all classes
  • on tests like the ACTs or SATs or ADSVABs
  • in college
  • and in the real world.

Accomplishing these goals will require cooperation!

I played basketball in high school and college, and although I worked hard independently to succeed, I needed to work effectively with my teammates on the court. Similarly, you will need to work hard independently, but also work well with your classmates.

Guidelines for Success:

Those that succeed (or, in a sport, those that win) know that their future is in their own hands. Until you believe that, you will have a tough time in the world. Therefore, I want to help you take your life into your own hands and help to instill some PRIDE within you. If you have some: 1. Preparation; 2. Responsibility and Respect; 3. Integrity; 4. Dedication; 5. Effort, you will succeed in my class and life!

What is something that you take PRIDE in or that you like to do and do it well?

Classroom Rules:

You have to know the rules and follow them in order to succeed.

  1. Absolutely no cell phones, MP3 players, or other electronic devices (INCLUDING CAMERAS)
  2. Come to class prepared and on time. (You will not be allowed to go to your locker!)
  3. Keep hands, feet, and objects to yourself.
  4. Follow all of the teacher’s (or any adult’s) directives.
  5. Follow all of the classroom procedures and routines.
  6. Obey all school-wide norms and rules.

Consequences for Classroom Rule Violations:

Nobody’s perfect, so it’s okay if you occasionally (i.e. rarely) do not meet the expectations of a rule. However, you must make it up to me and your classmates if you do not follow a rule

Depending on the frequency and severity of the misbehavior, youmay receive one or more of the following consequences.

  • Warning (consider yourself very lucky if you get a warning, because the State Police officer didn’t give me a warning for doing 80 mph in a 65! Warnings are the exception, not the expectation!)
  • Stay after class
  • Parental Contact
  • Teacher Detention
  • Office Referral

***NOTE: Due to the fact that they cause more lost instruction time and safety issues than any other rule violation, cell phone / electronic devise violations will automatically result in confiscation.

Grades:

You have to know how to keep score to win!

  • Every assignment is given a point value.
  • Points earned by a student can be divided by the total point value of an assignment to get the percentage and / or letter grade of each assignment
  • All points a student earns for a marking period will be divided by the total possible points one could earn to get the final marking period grades

Grading papers:

  • A significant part of this year will be writing essays. You will not receive specific rubrics for each assignment laying out exactly what you need to write. Those days are past. In college and life, you have no rubrics. However there are criteria for which I am looking:

Focus / Content / Organization / Style / Conventions / Research
The single
controlling
point made
with an
awareness of
task (mode)
about a
specific topic / The presence ofideas developed
through facts;
examples,
anecdotes,
details, opinions,
statistics,
reasons, and/or
explanations / The order
developed and
sustained within
and across
paragraphs using
transitional
devices and
including
introduction and
conclusion / The choice, use and
arrangement of words
and
sentence
structures that
create tone and
voice / Grammar,
mechanics,
spelling, usage
and sentence
formation / The use of proper MLA citation strategies (according to the 7th edition) including parenthetical citations and a Works Cited page
  • Failure to proficiently meet any one of these criteria could result in a low grade. For example, if you fail to cite information that is researched, then you fail the paper. Similarly, if you do not read your own papers to edit for grammar and mechanical mistakes, and it becomes unreadable, then you will most likely receive a D or F score.
  • All papers are given a letter grade first, which has a corresponding percentage grade. If papers are worth fewer or more points than 100, the appropriate percentage of points will be awarded. Below I have included the percentage scores to correspond with letter grades:

A+ =100% / A= 96% / A- =93%
B+ = 91% / B = 88% / B- = 86%
C+ =84 % / C = 81 % / C- = 78%
D+ = 76% / D = 73 % / D- = 70%
F grades (Failures) can be any grade 69% or lower depending on effort and amount of assignment complete.

Late Work

Except in cases of absence (see policy below), there will be no acceptance of late work for small assignments (less than 50 points). For larger assignments (50 points or more…i.e. essays and projects) you can only earn 50% of THE POINTS YOU EARN! if you go to RST within three days to complete the work. If you don’t go to RST, no late credit.Don’t test me on this…I’ve given Honors students zeros for not handing in work.

Classroom Procedures

Entering the Classroom:

  1. Be in the room before the bell rings.
  2. Get out your binder, notebook, DLP (Daily Language Practice) Journal, pen / pencil, book, and / or anything else you’ll need for class.
  3. Begin work on the DLP.
  4. Quietly work on the DLP until I signal for your attention.

Attention Getting Signal:

When I want to get your attention, I will raise my hand up from 9 o’clock to 12 o’clock and say “Class, your attention, please.” If I can get everyone’s attention within 10 seconds, you will not have to repeat the hand signal. If I do not get everyone’s attention within 10 seconds, I will repeat the attention getting signal, and then you all will have to repeat the hand signal. If I still do not get everyone’s attention, I will begin to assign consequences to those that are interrupting the education of others.

Tardy to class:

If your entire body has passed through the plane of the door before the bell has rung, then you are on time to class. If you enter after the bell is finished ringing you’re late. (And that means if you’retwo steps, one step, half-a-step, etc., away from the door you’re still late—no argument.)

If you are late, you must sign the “Tardy Tally,” get to your seat, and begin to work on the DLP—quietly!

YOU MAY NOT GET A PASS FROM A TEACHER THAT IS NOT THE TEACHER OF YOUR PREVIOUS PERIOD CLASS! If you have to see another teacher, do it on your free time.

Class Materials:

If you forget your binder, notebook, DLP journal, pen / pencil, book, and / or anything else you’ll need for class, you will NOT be permitted to go to your locker. Instead, you will need to get notebook paper from the basket by the windows and copy the work by hand for you to later transfer to your binder, notebook, DLP journal, etc.

If you forget a pen / pencil, I will have spares that you can borrow, but you will need to put up 5 Ruff Bucks as collateral (or other collateral…NO SHOES!). You will get your Ruff Bucks back when you return the pencil.

Agenda, and Homework Recording:

You will need a notebook for this class. Every day, after you are finished with the DLP assignment, you should write down the agenda and the homework assignment. This may be periodically graded with binder checks.

Homework:

Homework will be graded on a “Complete” or “Incomplete” basis. If a student has their homework complete, he or she will receive a “Ruff Buck” for each point the homework was worth. If you are absent, you must show me your homework upon the day of your return to get Ruff Bucks (NOT THE FOLLOWING WEEK). At the end of the marking period, students will hand in their “Ruff Bucks” for their homework grade.Sometimes I will collect homework for an accuracy grade, and then those assignments will not be given Ruff Bucks. You probably will not get every Ruff Buck every quarter, so don’t freak out and don’t think Mr. Ruff is a jerk because you forgot to show me homework or you just forgot to do it.

Binder Checks:

This may be a way that I grade assignments that only were given Ruff Bucks. I also may grade individual assignments, but the Binder Check is a way for me to grade a whole unit or more worth of work and to check up on your DLP status.

Your Responsibilities After an Absence:

Anytime you are absent:

  1. You have as many days as you were absent to hand in work THAT WAS ASSIGNED THAT DAY THAT YOU WERE ABSENT.
  2. If an assignment was due the day you were absent, you must hand it upon your return.
  3. If you are in school, but are not going to be in class (for field trip or special excuse) you must see me before you leave or after you return. If you don’t, I will not give you a chance to make up the work you miss, any assignments that were due will be considered late, and you cannot get Ruff Bucks for homework.
  4. You must get the notes and assignments from a fellow classmate; IT IS NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY TO MAKE SURE YOU MAKE UP WORK…IT’S YOURS!
  5. ***NOTE: Long-term project due dates will not be changed due to absence. If you are absent when a long-term project is due, you must hand it in on the day of your return if you want full credit.***
  6. TESTS AND QUIZZES MISSED DUE TO AN ABSENCE: If you miss a test or quiz due to an absence but missed no instructional time leading up to said quiz, you must—ABSOLUTELY MUST—make it up the day of your return or you will get a zero. Students who were present for the day of the exam didn’t get to choose when they took it, so neither do you.
  7. You will not be given class time to make up the exam.
  8. If you do not have a study hall, then you will have to take the test or quiz in Discovery or schedule yourself for RST.
  9. If you leave early for co-op or an internship, you must make arrangements to take the test or quiz before school, before you leave for your job, or to come back after work and take the test or quiz.

Going to the Restroom:

During appropriate activities (see CHAMPs plans for appropriate activities), raise your hand and ask to go to the restroom. Only one person may go to restroom at a time. You must completely fill out your pass (with name, date, time, and destination), or I will not sign it. After I sign your passbook, you must sign out with the time you leave and upon return, sign in with the time.

Using Tissues:

You can use a tissue at anytime during the class without having to ask (except during tests and quizzes). YOU MAY NOT STEP OUT INTO THE HALL TO BLOW YOUR NOSE!

Ending of Class:

One minute before the end of class, I will ask you to return to your assigned seats for final announcements and review / summarizing activity.Students will stay in their seats until the bell rings. If any students are out of their seats and begin to hover around the door, the entire class will remain until everyone is seated.

CHAMPs Plans:

For every classroom activity, you will have a CHAMPs plan that will clearly outline the behavioral expectations for that activity. There are five (5) different types of activities that we will have CHAMPs plans for in the classroom:

  1. Beginning of Class DLP activity / Individual Seatwork
  2. Lecture / Teacher-led instruction / In-class reading
  3. Cooperative pairs / Group work
  4. Tests or quizzes
  5. Library / Computer Lab

Each CHAMPs plan will clearly describe how you can act in the following areas:

  1. Conversation
  2. Help
  3. Activity
  4. Movement
  5. Particpation

Each CHAMPs plan is provided for you in the front of the classroom, and we will fill out a CHAMPs matrix for you to keep.

MyHalifax email accounts: You have / will be receiving an email account from the school. You will use this email address to contact me if you need anything outside of class. My email address is .

Turnitin.com:

Another website that we will be using a lot is turnitin.com. We will be handing in every paper that you do to this website for two reasons: 1) because it saves everything you turn in and creates a portfolio; and 2) it checks everything you write for plagiarism.We may also be using turnitin.com to do blogs.

To create an account at turnitin.com, follow these steps:

  1. Go to
  2. In the upper right hand corner, click on “New Users”
  3. Follow the instructions as you go through the set up
  4. Class IDs are as follows:

Class ID / Class name
10467661 / 2015-2016: Period 1: General English 12
10467702 / 2015-2016: Period 2: AP English Composition and Li...
10467802 / 2015-2016: Period 3: HACC: English 101: Compositio...
10467877 / 2015-2016: Period 4: Academic English 12
10467938 / 2015-2016: Period 5: Academic English 12
10467977 / 2015-2016: Period 6: HACC: English 101: Compositio..
  1. Your enrollment password for all classes is: Ruff1
  2. Use yourMyHalifax email account as your email for Turnitin.com
  3. Use the same password as you did for your MyHalifax email account.

Once you’ve created your account with turnitin.com, turn in your job shadow paper.