8^th Grade ELAR Syllabus

Course Description:

 The 8^th grade ELAR curriculum at JSTEM is an accelerated Pre-AP curriculum that covers both reading and writing concepts throughout different genres.  We will be utilizing the SpringBoard© online curriculum via the Google classroom as a guide through our units. 

According to Springboard, English 8 Pre-AP curriculum, “Students are consistently exposed to higher-order thinking skills & behaviors demanded of college-level work. Students practice close analysis w/ Pre-AP reading strategies, leading to an ability to independently analyze any new text. Students are confronted w/ increasingly challenging texts, both canonical & contemporary, fiction & non-fiction. Students are challenged by complex writing tasks in persuasion, argumentation, literary analysis, & synthesis in order to build capacity to write effectively in these rhetorical modes. With exposure to AP strategies, prompts, nonfiction texts, & varied writing tasks, students will exit the program equipped w/ the kind of higher-order thinking skills, knowledge, & behaviors necessary to be successful in AP classes and post-secondary education”

 Calculation of Nine Weeks Average:

All nine-week averages shall be calculated on a percentage system for each type (category) of assignment.

Major Grade:

Tests/Projects will count for 40% of your nine-week average.

 Daily Assignment:

Daily assignments and quizzes will count for 60% of your nine-week average.

 Make Up Work:

• Students will be given one day to make up work for each day they are absent.

Late Work:

• Late assignments not submitted on the due date will result in a 10 point reduction per day off the final grade and no assignment will be accepted after the 5th day.

Retests

• Students will only be allowed to retest on tests and major grades. They may only retest if they received less than a 70% and may only earn up to a 70% in the gradebook. Students must communicate with me in advance that they would like to retest so I can prepare material. Students will be taking a different test or different assignment than the one they failed.