Page Summary
Here, across grade level assignment sheets will be posted for student access. If you ever forget an assignment sheet in class, feel free to come to this page to search for a copy of the assignment. Individual assignment requirements might vary depending on grade level, so please contact me or your peers to ensure that you receive the correct assignment.
Handouts and Power Points
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Assignment Descriptions and Categories
The following descriptions provide an overview of different assignments types and their purposes. ALWAYS check individual assignment sheets, rubrics, and class calendars before asking Ms. Peel about specific variations on individual assignments. DO NOT assume that the overview of an assignment on the syllabus encompasses the specifics of every assignment. You will be held to every standard on a rubric and assignment sheet, so please read them carefully. You will be able to find individual assignment sheets on Ms. Peel’s website.
- INDEPENDENT READING is time provided in class to read what you like. Like, seriously, anything, from comic books to cookbooks, as long as you have a hard copy. Ideally, this will allow you some choice in reading so that you might enjoy it instead of simply shoving books that you don’t like down your throat. You will be provided one or two 30-min independent reading opportunities per week and they will be checked with a quick-write or exit ticket.
- LITERATURE CIRCLES allow students to choose from list of pre-selected novels for a unit and read your assigned novel with a group of 3-5 peers. These will be checked with class annotation notebooks, reflections, journals, and the final unit assessment.
- 4 CORNERS EXERCISES provide you with an opportunity to listen to others, voice your opinion, and evaluate your understanding with the help of your peers. In each corner of the classroom, a single “strongly disagree,” “disagree,” “agree,” or “strongly agree” sign will be placed. You will be asked a question and will move based on your opinion. These will be classwork grades on the Check-Plus system based on participation and individuality (don’t cluster with your friends :) )
- PAIDEIA DISCUSSIONS are prepared discussions that ask you to think deeply about group readings or controversial topics. Not only to they teach you how to support your opinions with research and evidence, but they also teach you how to communicate and grow your ideas by agreeing with, contradicting, building on, and questioning others. You must have completed the readings and question sheets to participate (which will be graded as classwork grades). The discussion itself will be graded as a quiz after the first practice discussion. Please see Paideia Rubric for further details.
- ANNOTATION NOTEBOOKS are a great way to keep track of your thoughts while reading as well as your reading checks. Instead of quizzes to check for reading, you will be asked to keep track of analysis and interpretations. While a Google Doc shared with Ms. Peel is preferred, you may keep notes in a 3-ring notebook, composition notebook, stapled stack of notebook paper, sticky notes in your book, notes on a PDF, or in the margins of your personal owned copy. If you choose to keep hard copies of your notes, you must leave them in Ms. Peel’s classroom for two days so that she can check them. Annotation notebooks will be graded for quality of analysis and interpretation, not quantity, and will be a classwork grade on the Check-Plus Grading scale even though it will be completed at home.
- JOURNALS will be completed in the first ten minutes of every class and will be due every two weeks on Saturday at midnight via Google Docs or Google Classroom. Journals are designed to activate prior knowledge, get you interested in the class, or get you asking questions about the upcoming class. If you do not complete them in the required class time, you might have to do them for homework. Different grades will have different length requirements. A two-week set will be graded as a Classwork grade on the Check-Plus Grading Scale.
- QUICK-WRITES are two paragraph responses to something covered in class. These are often impromptu and informal, but are designed to show Ms. Peel how your skills are growing or your thoughts on a matter. Because of the length required and the depth requested, these are classwork grades that will be checked on Check-Plus Scale. (When absent, check with Ms. Peel to see if specific Quick-Writes can be exempted)
- EXIT TICKETS are final questions that, like quick-writes, help Ms. Peel assess your understanding at the end of a class. Because exit tickets are shorter and require less depth, these will be checked as a process grade.
- CLASSWORK, such as Classroom Maps, Plot Pictures, Comparison Charts, Venn Diagrams, and Character Sheets, is work completed in class individually or in groups. These are designed to help you better understand the text that we are reading as a class, and you might sometimes keep it in your notes for your benefit. If collected, classwork will checked on the Check-Plus Scale.
- ROUGH DRAFTS are beginning attempts at a paper or project. Each final unit assessment will require anywhere from one to three rough drafts before turning in the final assessment. Drafting makes the final project fine-tuned and makes you accountable for doing work along the way. Rough drafts will be checked as a process grade.
- PEER REVIEWS are assignments that allow students to evaluate one another in order to learn together and to better understand the requirements of the final assessment. Peer reviews will be graded on the check-plus scale as they are classwork grades.
- EDITS and REVISIONS are the changes you make on a rough draft. You will annotate your draft and comment on the changes you will make. Completing these assignments keeps you accountable throughout the final project process. They will be checked on a check-plus scale.
- REFLECTIONS are self-evaluations that take place at the end of every unit and final assessment. Not only do they teach self-awareness and allow Ms. Peel to see into the brains of students, but they also provide students opportunity to set goals for the next unit and communicate any concerns about the current unit with Ms. Peel in writing. Reflections will be graded on the check-plus scale.
- GROUP EVALUATIONS are much like reflections, but allow students to be honest with Ms. Peel about who worked well together in a group project. Group evaluations will be keep confidential and will affect the final group participation grade on the final project, which is graded on a check-plus scale.
- LITERARY ANALYSIS PAPERS are comprehensive persuasive essays that will sometimes be assigned as a final unit assessment. Literary analysis papers require you to provide an interpretation of a work as a whole, a character, a cultural representation, a main theme, etc., and provide evidence of your claims using literary devices. These will be graded using assessment specific rubrics that will provided to students and will be posted to Ms. Peel’s website.
- RESEARCH PAPERS present information on a topic that you have researched and will sometimes be assigned as a final unit assessment. Requirements will vary depending on grade level and the purpose of the assessment
- MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATIONS present information in multiple formats using light, color, sound, transitions, and other aspects. Students may use video, Power Point, Prezi, Google Docs, and other forms of multimedia presenters. Multimedia presentations will sometimes be assigned as final unit assessments.
- FINAL UNIT ASSESSMENTS are projects that show Ms. Peel different levels of your understanding that serve as a replacement for multiple choice tests that allow you to memorize and forget. Not only do final unit assessments show what you know, they also show how you can apply what you know to analysis and creation. Some descriptions of different final unit assessments can be found on this document, but others will be more creative, informal, or reflective of the genre we are studying. Final unit assessments can be completed individually, in pairs, or in a group depending on the assignment sheet and rubric. These grades will be entered twice into the Final Assessments, Tests, and Quizzes category.