6th Grade English Language Arts Class Syllabus
Welcome to Sixth Grade English Language Arts! This year we will cover the power standards that are a subset of the learning standards that Ann Arbor Public Schools has determined to be the highest priority or most important for students to learn. As a class we will grow in the areas of reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. We will do this in a way that meets the needs of all students no matter their learning level. During the course of the year students will be reading literature in the form of novels, plays, short stories, and poetry, partaking in classroom discussions, and presenting creative projects. 6th Grade English Language Arts Units that we will cover this year:
6th Grade English Language Arts Power Standards:
Suggested Student Materials
Suggested Classroom Donations TBD--Once it is safe to go back into the classroom we can always use the following:
Expectation of All Students
Expectations of the Teacher
Parent and Caregiver Expectations
I am looking forward to a challenging, informative, and enjoyable year. Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns. Respectfully, Mrs. Rebecca Lee Tappan Middle School 6th and 8th Grade English Language Arts [email protected]
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Hello Awesome ELA Students, Parents, and Caregivers!
A few notes to prepare for Monday's new learning format as outlined by the district. * All of my ELA classes will now use Google Classroom. My website will be maintained with much less frequency after this week. PowerSchool will not be used. If you want to track your child's work and the feedback they receive from me, you can do this in their class hour's Google Classroom. * Beginning on MONDAY, April 13th, lessons will be shared at 8AM just TWICE a week. The lessons will be "forward instruction in curriculum" (aka: mostly new content) and should take 30-45 minutes of work to read, watch, do and complete. Students can complete the lessons at any time throughout the week. ***** 1st, 3rd, and 6th hours: Lessons posted on MON and WED in Google Classroom ***** 2nd and 5th hours: Lessons posted on TUE and THURS in Google Classroom * Every Friday at 8AM, every student will receive a "Check for Understanding" form in Google Classroom. **** This form will assess their learning from the week and is due by 4pm the following Tuesday. * Office hours will be DailyI from 8-9a.m. and 2:30-3:30...feel free to email me during that time for instant responses. Otherwise, I will continue to reply within 24 hours. THANK YOU! Parent/Caregiver/ Family Responsibilities
Thank you! Stay Magical, Mrs. Lee Good Morning Students, Parents, and Caregivers,
Welcome back from Spring Break! I hope you were able to rest and relax a little. I can't put into words or express enough how upsetting this has made me feel after hearing the Governor's decision about keeping buildings closed. As you can probably guess, I certainly have been holding on to the idea that we would be together again before the end of the school year. To be honest, I'm still holding onto hope as she did state that if things change with this disease, she could adjust the school timeline. I can't imagine not seeing you in person over the next two months, but I understand safety should be our #1 concern and that we all need to do our part in helping in this battle. Parents, you deserve a big thank you.Thank you so very much for all you are doing to keep your children learning and working on keeping their brains active. I know many of you are working from home, trying to be the teacher and parent all at once. You truly are amazing. Please, give your child a big hug, high five, fist bump, or a cool kid head nod from me. I miss their personalities, smiling faces, questions, discussions with one another. I even miss being called Mrs. Lee, Lee, Mrs, Teacher, and even Ms. Spiess, ...whatever it was that they would accidentally call me. Their smiling faces and laughter kept me going and I want them to know I think about them daily. In the coming days and weeks, I plan on continuing my podcasts and will work to move into video recordings too. While my intention was to start this week with Zoom classroom meetings, for the time being I am choosing not to set up a zoom for right now. I have heard many hackers are finding their ways into the chat meetings, I do not feel comfortable at this time but will keep you updated if things change. In an effort to keep your inboxes as open as possible I will communicate mostly through Google Classroom. Here I will post messages, enrichment opportunities, and students will submit work for feedback. I am aware that this may be overwhelming, as I have felt it both as a teacher and as a parent. I don’t have all the answers right now about how this will all work as the weeks and months go on, but I promise to keep you updated as new information becomes available. My thoughts are with all of you. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. With cheers, Mrs. Lee This week we will continue to wrap up our poem books, or novel projects, and Tuck Everlasting. Due Dates: 1. April 10--Poem Books You will need to submit this by taking photos of each page and submitting me your poems IN GOOGLE CLASSROOM, or you can record a video of yourself reading each poem and email me your video. 2. April 14--Novel Project You will need to submit this by taking photos of each page and submitting me your projects IN GOOGLE CLASSROOM, or you can record a video of yourself explaining your project and email me your video. 3. Tuck Everlasting--There is not a due date for this packet yet. We will not complete reading the novel until next week. Please be on the lookout for learning opportunities this week in Google Classroom. Good Morning Smart Humans!!!! It's SPRING BREAK!!! Which means, that is it okay and acceptable to ignore this post. If that's the case, have a wonderful day and I will talk you on Monday :) Stay magical, Mrs. Lee . . . If you decide to keep on reading, HELLO! Welcome to your Spring Break Challenge. While my son is not on spring break until next week I am trying to find balance between enjoying my week off, and working with Max and being his teacher, his mom, his bff, his house keeper, personal chef, well the list goes on. To help with the balance, I created this challenge. It's a photo scavenger hunt! Again, completely optional. Here's how it will work: Mrs. Lee’s Spring Break OPTIONAL Family Scavenger Photo Creation Hunt!!!!! Happy Spring Break! I don’t know about you, but there are only so many days that I am able to go on a walk around the block in a row. The same houses, trees, and cars. Not that it’s boring, but I think we can change it up a little. Here’s an at home, while social distancing, photo scavenger hunt. Take a look at the list, grab a family member and have some fun! Take photos of you and your fam taking on these different challenges. Collect points for each photo and challenge completed and put it together in an epic google slide presentation. Submit your presentations to Me by Sunday evening. Again, this is all optional and you should know the points don’t really matter, unless you want to challenge a family member to see who can make a better google slide show. Happy Challenging! +4 Chalk Art - create an epic mural with chalk and positive messages around the outside of your house. The Inside Out design below was created by one of my neighbors. You all have seen my artistic ability--I'm stick figure good, not 3-d good :) +3 Build a house--a FAIRY house! Use sticks, leaves, stones, and any materials you can find outside. Must all be created from nature. +10 Lego (HOME) masters - select a build model, grab a pile a legos (or other build materials), and challenge your household to all create the same build. +11 Air Guitar Hero - Take a photo or photos of your family air-instrumenting a song cover of your favorite rock band. Bonus points for costumes! +2 Portrait Sitting - Draw a one-minute portrait of one member on your family and take a photo of the completed artwork! +1 Squirrel Selfie--Try and take a (SOCIAL DISTANCING) selfie with a squirrel. The more squirrels, the more points earned :). DO NOT TRY AND TOUCH THE SQUIRRELS! +5 Chopped: Kitchen Edition! - Prepare your most impressive take on a meal that includes 3-5 ingredients found in the shelf in your refrigerator that no one reaches for. You know the ketchup from 2012, the orange that has spots from January, or even the capers that are more for looks than for eating. Take a photo of your master chef presenting and explaining your creation. Bonus if you eat it :) +1 The Art of Paper Folding - Have one of your family members learn and fold an Origami creation and take a photo of it. Bonus points for the most intricate submission! +1 Light and Shadow – Create a hand puppet show take a photo of your most impressive hand shadow puppet. +3 Living Art - Take a photo of a member of your team next to and imitating your favorite statue or painting from the DIA (Detroit Institute of Arts)—Use the internet to take a virtual tour of the museum. +10 How’s this look? - Go to your closet and try to create your best Mrs. Lee outfit. Bonus points if you create an army of look-a-likes. Be gorgeous! +2 Biggest Fans - Find as many pieces of apparel of favorite local sports team (The Tampa Bay Rays) and fit them into one photo with your teammates (family/housemates). Bonus points for each item! Bonus points for Rays gear :) +5 Jump Around—You know that I love a good, no GREAT jumping photo. Have a family member or all attempt a mid-air creation with you. The trick is to master a pose, smile, and get off the ground as a group. Be safe, no jumping off of things like couches, tables, steps, etc. You must all start on the ground. Happy jumping. +10 Fake-Cation—stage a fake vacation using items in your house. For example, if you have mouse ears, you should make a Lego castle and pretend you’re at Disney, or if you have a beach towel and chair, make it look like you’re at the beach. +7 Movie Magic—use toys or other items in your house to make a stop motion movie—think Lego Movie, or Toy Story. (My son is going to make Baby Yoda, Private Eye—stay tuned for his masterpiece.) Whether you go on this photo challenge scavenger hunt, read, relax, watch tv, or help organize your basement I wish you all an amazing break. Be kind to one another and stay magical! Cheers, Mrs. Lee P.S. Here is Max already starting the challenge. While he took a very nice photo of a squirrel in the Arb, no points were earned (the points do not matter anyway), but it is a very nice squirrel. Good Morning, and happy Friday eve!
Yesterday turned out to be beautiful out in the afternoon. Who else spent time outside? We took our daily walk and scooter ride around the neighborhood, but this time we added music. It made our walk go by as fast as a wink, and turned into a karaoke session of our Disney favs. Here is your learning experience for today: Thursday 26 1. T.E. Ch. 17 2. Novel Projects Thanks everyone! Stay magical, Mrs. Lee Happy Wednesday, or as Winnie the Pooh would say, Happy Windsday!
Thank you to everyone who has already submitted their sonnets. I am so impressed with the attention to detail and creativity. Keep up the awesome work. As a reminder, it is okay to write your poem in your notebook and click to submit. We will talk about and celebrate everything when we return to school. Here is your learning experience for today: Wednesday 25 1. T.E. Ch. 16 2. Sonnet Due--Can be written in notebook or submitted through google docs 3. The weather is supposed to be nice today--maybe have some fun with chalk :). Max and I created a stain glass mural, I added some happy thoughts, and he invented a dino-corn (it's a unicorn and a dinosaur :) ) Thanks everyone! Stay Magical, Mrs. Lee Happy Monday, Smart Humans!
Today marks the start of week two that we are away from each other. I miss you all and look forward to being able to come back to Tappan in April. Just like last week I will post tasks for you to complete. You always have choice: 1. Write all work in your notebooks--We will look at it when we return to Tappan or 2. Write work in a google doc and then share it with me **Whatever you decide to complete, please know that we will share, celebrate, and discuss all work completed out of the classroom when we return to Tappan. Suggested learning experiences for the week (**work at your own pace--there is no right or wrong amount of time **): Monday 23 1. Tuck Everlasting Ch. 13 and 14 2. Poem--Write a sonnet 3. Read Novels Tuesday 24 1. T.E. Ch. 15 2. Poem-- Continue Sonnet *finish by Wednesday 3. Novel Projects Wednesday 25 1. T.E. Ch. 16 2. Sonnet Due--Can be written in notebook or submitted through google docs Thursday 26 1. T.E. Ch. 17 2. Novel Projects Friday 27 1. T.E. Ch. 18 2. Poem--Free Verse Reminder--Here is the youtube link to another teacher's recorded version if mine are not working: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnQNKWqtacY&list=PLA851kM7zdAq0_azod9_-gk2NZRsa5nTm&disable_polymer=true Stay Magical, Mrs. Lee Happy Friday, Smart Humans!
Just like yesterday, today is a catch up day. Please take a moment to click "turn in" once you have completed writing your poems for the week--The Lie and Colors. It is okay to only have your work in your notebooks and still turn it in. Remember, we will discuss, celebrate, and share all of our poems when we return to school. Look for one quick question to respond to later in our Google Classroom. Here is the youtube link to another teacher's recorded version if mine are not working: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnQNKWqtacY&list=PLA851kM7zdAq0_azod9_-gk2NZRsa5nTm&disable_polymer=true For today, nothing new. Here are some things you could work on: Novel project Poems: The Lie and Colors (new poems on Monday) Catch up on Tuck Everlasting--we have read up to Ch. 12. Play a board game Make something out of legos--New Challenge coming soon! Build a fort Doodle with Mo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmzjCPQv3y8 He has taught pigeon, Gerald, and the Pig or Paint with Bob: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLWEXRAnQd0 Stay Magical, Mrs. Lee Good Morning, Smart Humans!
I am so excited with the hard work that everyone is putting into their learning. Thank you to everyone, you and your families, for the continued support and understanding. I hope that you are enjoying the recording the Tuck Everlasting and making the connection to the genre of fantasy. We will continue with the recordings tomorrow or Monday. Here is the youtube link to another teacher's recorded version if mine are not working: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnQNKWqtacY&list=PLA851kM7zdAq0_azod9_-gk2NZRsa5nTm&disable_polymer=true For today, nothing new. Here are some things you could work on: Novel project Poems: The Lie and Colors (new poems on Monday) Catch up on Tuck Everlasting Play a boardgame Make something out of legos Build a fort Doodle with Mo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmzjCPQv3y8 Write a new pigeon book: Don't let the pigeon write a poem :) Wishing everyone a magical day. Cheers, Mrs. Lee P.S. Max says, "hello." Here he is working on his Pigeon painting, and getting ready for "school with teacher mommy." What have you been up to? Post something fun below :) Good Morning Smart Humans!
Here is the link for Ch. 11 and 12 of Tuck Everlasting. Remember that this is also available on our google classroom page. Also, there is a quick quiz that has been posted on our classroom site. Take a moment to reflect on the novel and answer the multiple choice questions. Thanks! Happy reading and stay magical, Mrs. Lee |