Hello and welcome to a new school year! I am very excited about the upcoming year and am looking forward to working with my students. Here are a few things that will help the school year proceed smoothly:
Communication: I want to maintain open lines of communication with my students and their adults. In order to help the communication process, I will be updating my Webaloo site regularly. Please keep checking to find out what is happening in our Language Arts class. Also, I will be keeping my gradebook as current as possible. Sign up to be on the Parent Portal if you haven't already! And, most importantly, if you ever have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at kkoerner@isd622.org or at 651-748-6663.
Student responsibility: I will do everything I can to help my students have a successful school year. In return, I expect my students to be prepared and responsible learners. A responsible student should:
-Bring all required materials to class
-Engage in the class discussions and activities
-Complete all assignments on time
-Ask for help when needed
-Use all available resources (agenda, Webaloo, Parent Portal, classmates, teacher)
Missing worksheets: If a student is absent, I will provide any assignments that were missed. If a student loses a worksheet, I expect him/her to be responsible for solving this problem. Some good ideas might be:
-Look for the worksheet. Look really, really hard! Lost sheets often show up in folders, books, agendas, or lockers.
*Download the worksheet from Webaloo. You can click on any assignments that are in blue and then make a new copy for yourself.
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER:
Tuesday, September 2: First day of school
Tuesday, September 16: Magazine fundraiser kick-off
Friday, September 19: First magazine sales turn-in
Tuesday, September 30: Second magazine sales turn-in
Friday, October 3: Magazine fundraiser ends
Thursday, October 9: Conferences 4-8 p.m.
Friday, October 10: No school for students, conferences 7:30-10:30 a.m.
Monday, October 13: Conferences 4-8 p.m.
Thursday, October 16: No school
Friday, October 17: No school
Tuesday, November 25: End of trimester one
November 26-28: No school
WEEKLY AGENDA: * Denotes homework
Week of September 2:
Tuesday: Names/seating charts
Materials
Hand out textbooks
*Textbook scavenger hunt - due Friday, 9/5
*Cover your textbook - due Friday, 9/5
Wednesday: Introductory paper - Write a paragraph introducing yourself to me
Get-to-know bingo
Thursday: Introduction of Ms. Koerner
Classroom ABC scavenger hunt
*Classroom expectations
Friday: Finish talking about classroom expectations
Check textbook covers
Correct/collect textbook scavenger hunt
Finish Get-to-know bingo
VOCABULARY PROGRAM:
Every week, students will be learning ten new vocabulary words as part of the Holt vocabulary program. The words and assignments are found in the green vocabulary workbook. For every lesson during Trimester One, the students will be expected to:
1) Complete Exercise One on a separare sheet of paper. Instructions will be given in class.
2) Complete Exercises Two and Three for the lesson - found in the green workbook (We will correct the spelling of the words
in lesson two)
3) On Fridays we will correct the lessons, take a vocabulary test, and start working on next week's lesson.
Students who have a modified word list should do the above work for words 1-5 of the lesson.
READING PROGRAM:
Every trimester, students will be required to independently read three books. The students should think about the reading of their books as one book per month.
Two of the independent reading books must be books which are on our Reading Counts! quiz list. This list can be accessed by going to the Maplewood Middle School home page at http://maplewoodmiddleschool.webaloo.com/, clicking on Reading Counts on the left-hand side of the page, and then clicking on the list of books which qualify for the Reading Counts! program.
A book report will be assigned every trimester for the third independent reading book.
MORE ABOUT READING COUNTS!
As an assessment of the students' reading comprehension, Maplewood Middle School uses a computer program called Reading Counts!. In the Reading Counts! program, an introductory reading comprehension test assigns each student a lexile number, which is an indicator of the student's reading level. (We will actually be getting the lexile numbers when we take the fall MAP reading test.) Then, students select reading books based on their lexile numbers. After reading a book, a student is required to take a ten-point multiple choice comprehension test. In order to pass the test, the student must correctly answer a minimum of seven questions. Students who do not pass the test will have the opportunity to retake a different form of the test two more times. The tests are difficult, and students will find that they have to read a book carefully in order to pass!
