Pre-AP Language-Arts Students Must Exhibit the Following Qualities

1. Pre-Advanced Placement Language Arts is a course that is designed to prepare students for the rigors of future advanced placement English courses. Students will be challenged to perform, think, and behave at an advanced level.
2. Pre-AP language-arts students must exhibit the following qualities:

1. An understanding that advanced grades must be earned through superior effort and in-depth thinking
2. Respectfulness to others and attentiveness in class
3. A desire to read daily and analyze difficult texts
4. A willingness to be punctual to class and to arrive with a positive attitude
5. A belief that homework and other assignments must be completed on time

1. Pre-AP language-arts students will not be allowed to display the following qualities:

1. A feeling that advanced grades should be easy to obtain—without superior effort and in-depth thinking
2. Disrespectfulness to others, which robs others of their education; inattentiveness in class
3. A tendency to read infrequently or to read texts at a superficial level
4. Tardiness to class and negative attitudes

1. After gathering class materials, using the restroom, and taking care of hydration needs, enter class, sit down, and silently begin the bell-work assignment.
2. Raise your hand whenever you desire to contribute to class discussions or need to get up from your seat. Wait for the teacher to acknowledge you (call on you) and grant you permission before shouting out answers or rising from your seat.
3. The sound of the bell is simply a reminder that class is near an end. The teacher will dismiss you after books, desks, and other class materials are back where they belong.

1. Respect: Treat others as you want to be treated
2. Responsibility: Be on time and prepared for class. Take ownership of your actions.
3. Effort: A person really can control only one thing in his life—how much effort he puts forth. Live a life marked by excellence—not by laziness.
4. Courtesy: Do not rob your classmates of a proper education by interrupting the lesson.

• Note: Above all, behave as a reasonable person would act, and refer to the MWJH student handbook for all other expectations.

• MWJH Agenda
• Library book
• 1-inch, 3-ring binder
• Four dividers
• Wide-ruled notebook paper (enough to last throughout the year for notes, assignments, etc.)
• 1 pocket folder
• Blue or black ink pens

• Kleenex (2 boxes)
• 1 package of blue or black ink pens

• 2 packages of yellow or green highlighters
• 1 package of blue or black ink pens

• 2 packages of blue, purple, or pink highlighters
• 1 package of glue sticks

• Plagiarism—trying to steal someone else’s ideas and presenting them as your own—will result in a failing grade and disciplinary actions.
• Late work—work submitted beyond deadlines—will receive a thirty-percent reduction in grade and will be accepted until the end of a quarter. Late work will not receive any credit after the end of a quarter.

Course Description

This course is designed to equip students with the listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills that are critical to the development of literate citizens who can communicate effectively. With an emphasis on literature and the analysis thereof, the course will challenge students to explicate texts of various genres—poetry, drama, fiction, nonfiction, media, mythology, etc. Students will daily interact with and explore the intricacies of American Standard English; will learn to organize ideas and argue theses in formal, written essays, verbal debates, and various other research-oriented and self-expressive modes of articulation; will study test strategies that will prepare them for MPS benchmark and OK reading assessments, and for future ACT, SAT, and EOI exams. In short, this course will help students acquire Priority Academic Student Skills (PASS) and will satisfy Oklahoma Core Curriculum standards: http://ok.gov/sde/oklahoma-c3-priority-academic-student-skills

Mr. Miller’s Seventh-Grade Pre-AP Language-Arts

Supply List

• MWJH Agenda
• Library book
• 1-inch, 3-ring binder
• Four dividers
• Wide-ruled notebook paper (enough to last throughout the year for notes, assignments, etc.)
• 1 pocket folder
• Blue or black ink pens

• Kleenex (2 boxes)
• 1 package of blue or black ink pens

• 2 packages of yellow or green highlighters
• 1 package of blue or black ink pens

• 2 packages of blue, purple, or pink highlighters
• 1 package of glue sticks

Mr. Miller’s Seventh-Grade Language Arts

Grading Information

*Note: Student comprehension in this language-arts class will be assessed according to an A through F grading system: mastery through introductory levels. Mastery level means that students not only have acquired the necessary skills, but they can demonstrate mastery without further help from the instructor and can teach the concepts to their peers. Practice level indicates that students often still need help from the instructor and peers in order to demonstrate understanding of the concepts. Introductory level means that the students have only a superficial knowledge of the concept and need much more practice in order to acquire the necessary skills.

Important Reader’s Notebook Information

MWJH 2014-2015

Dear Parents:

You’re probably accustomed to hearing your children say that they have no homework—only to find out later (maybe at parent-teacher conferences, from a phone call, or from progress reports) that they did, indeed, have homework. With that in mind, I want you to be aware—here at the beginning of the year—what your children should be doing each night.

At the beginning of the year, my students will put together a reader’s notebook. For this reader’s notebook, students will have daily reading and writing assignments. In fact, this reader’s notebook will be the primary form of homework that your children will have for my Pre-AP Language Arts classes. Below, I have outlined what tasks my students should be completing each night. Moreover, students should copy into their MWJH agendas each day the assignments they complete for each class, along with the homework they have. I encourage you to check their agendas each night and match them up to the 2014-2015 lesson-plans/assignments document on my webpage:

I typically have a conference with each student on Friday in order to check the reader’s notebooks and to ensure that my students do understand the process. Consequently, a week of reader’s notebook tasks ranges from Friday of one week to Thursday of the next. Students are required to read for at least thirty minutes each night (for at least five days of the week), and a parent or guardian must sign each day and indicate that the child did, indeed, read. As mentioned, students will also complete various vocabulary and writing tasks throughout the week. *These reader’s notebook tasks are a significant part of my students’ grades, so they must be taken seriously by both the student and the parent(s).

Reader’s Notebook Tasks

1. I will check (for a significant grade) the previous week’s reader’s notebook tasks on this day.
2. Complete any incomplete assignments from the class today.
3. Read your library book for at least 30 minutes; get parent signature.

1. Complete any incomplete assignments from the class today.
2. Read your library book for at least 30 minutes; get parent signature.
3. Find a “buzzword” from your book and complete square 1 just as you did for bell work in class today.

1. Complete any incomplete assignments from the class today.
2. Read your library book for at least 30 minutes; get parent signature.
3. Complete buzz word square 2, just as you did for bell work in class today, for your reader’s notebook.
4. Begin the written-response activity for your reader’s notebook. Refer to the example we did together in class.

1. Complete any incomplete assignments from the class today.
2. Read your library book for at least 30 minutes; get parent signature.
3. Complete buzz word square 3, just as you did for bell work in class today, for your reader’s notebook.

1. Complete any incomplete assignments from the class today.
2. Read your library book for at least 30 minutes; get parent signature.
3. Complete buzz word square 4, just as you did for bell work in class today, for your reader’s notebook.
4. Complete the written-response activity for your reader’s notebook. Refer to the example we did together in class.

Parents and students, by signing below, you acknowledge that you understand the information written in this syllabus and that you agree to work together in order to ensure that this year is successful. If you do not agree with the information above or are not willing to meet the expectations, then you should withdraw from the course as soon as possible and enroll in the regular language-arts course.

Student printed name: ______Student signature: ______

Parent printed name: ______Parent e-mail address: ______

Parent phone number: ______Parent signature: ______