Mohonasen Central School District
Draper Middle School
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Parent Information

 

WHAT WE DO IN LANGUAGE ARTS CLASS
English Language Arts Skills: Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking
Novels: Quarter 1--The Twenty-One Balloons; Quarter 2--"Belonging" literature circle book (Pictures of Hollis Woods, Everything on a Waffle, The Great Gilly Hopkins, OR Bud, Not Buddy); Quarter 3--Tuck Everlasting; Quarter 4--The Cay.
Independent Reading: Students will be required to read one free choice novel each quarter.  Students will respond to the book in reading journals and give a book talk presentation. 
Major Writing Assignments: Students will produce at least one major writing assignment per quarter.  In Quarter 1, students will write a response to The Twenty-One Balloons.  During the beginning of Quarter 2, students will compose a "multigenre" response to their literature circle novel, and at the end of Quarter 2, students will write an athlete research paper.  In Quarter 3, students will develop children's books to be donated to disadvantaged young people around the world.  Finally, in Quarter 4, students will develop a poetry collection.
Grammar: We study one grammar unit per quarter.  The units are as follows: Quarter 1--Sentence Structure; Quarter 2--Capitalization and Punctuation; Quarter 3--Nouns (Plurals and Possessives); Quarter 4--Verbs.  You can find specific information about the grammar rules we are studying and online games that relate to the lessons here.
Vocabulary: We will cover two to three vocabulary units per quarter.  The words are from students' Vocabulary Workshop workbooks.  Units will typically last two weeks, with words introduced on a Monday, practice throughout that week and the next, and a unit quiz on the second Friday.  Your child can play online games related to each vocabulary unit here.
New York State ELA Test Preparation: Throughout the year, we will practice reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and writing skills in preparation for the sixth grade New York State English Language Arts examination in January. 

 

WAYS TO HELP YOUR CHILD SUCCEED IN LANGUAGE ARTS
bulletCheck your child's agenda every night.  Your child should be writing down his or her homework for every class in the agenda.  If you find that your child forgot to write down an assignment, you can find the assignments on Draper's Homework Hotline site.  You can also find the language arts assignments here.
bulletLook through your child's binder.  It's very important that your child's binder stays organized.  You can find a list outlining binder organization here.  Also, you can download extra copies of most handouts. 
bulletEncourage your child to make up "Incompletes."  If you know that your child received an "INC" (incomplete) on a progress report or report card, your child can find the necessary information to make up this work on Draper's Essential Task page.

 

WHAT TO DO IF YOU HAVE A CONCERN ABOUT YOUR CHILD AND SCHOOL
bulletIf you have a concern about your child's performance in language arts or a question about our class, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.  The easiest way to contact me is by email.  You can also call the school and ask to be put through to my voicemail.  I will return your call as soon as possible.
bulletIf you have a concern about your child's overall school performance and/or would like to request a conference, please contact Mr. Dieckmann, your child's guidance counselor. 

 

 

 

Maintained according to Mohonasen Central School District Web Publishing Regulations by Rebecca Kirschman, Sixth Grade Language Arts Teacher, Draper Middle School, 2072 Curry Road, Schenectady, NY 12303, (518) 356-8350.
©2004 Mohonasen Central School District--All rights reserved.
Last modified on 06/27/2007 .