What can parents do at home to help your child academically?

• Read to your child (or have them read independently) every night for 20 minutes.  How can you be sure they are reading?  Don't just expect that they will if sent to their room.  Ask them about what they are reading!!  Questions to ask:  What happened?  Why do you think the author did that? Did anything or anybody in the story remind you of anything that's happened to you, anything you know, or anything you've read or seen before?  Oh, doesn't that remind you of the time we.../you.../your cousin...? What do you think will happen next? What was good / bad about what you read last night (and WHY)?  What did you picture in your head while you were reading?
• Help your child study for vocabulary quizzes every night for 10 minutes by going through the words with them. 
• Ask them about their book projects.  Every 1 1/2 months or so, students will use the books they are reading at home to complete a book project.  If they finish reading before the deadline, they should start working on their book projects early so they don't end up procrastinating until the night before the due date.  Book Projects are very important, and they are worth much, so neglecting them will greatly hurt your child's evaluation in Literature class.

If there are questions about daily homework, please check your child's assignment notebook in which they write daily homework.  This is their "ticket out the door," so they write in this book every day.

• A debate on a current issue in society using research and prior knowledge,
• A business letter either praising or complaining about a business' services,
• A newsletter about current events at and around Jerling students' lives
• A news broadcast about current events and issues.

This week in Communications, we are....

• Writing letters to various businesses of choice.
• Typing the letters, addressing envelopes, and mailing them to the business.

Communications worksheets you may need: 

• Course Schedule
• Business Letter Rubric
• Debate Research Rubric
• Debate Performance Rubric
• News Broadcast Procedure
• Newsletter 
• News Broadcast Rubric 

Language Arts- Grade 6

Class Goals

• Students will learn and analyze the meaning of words and phrases in context.  They will learn new words through reading, writing, and through the vocabulary textbook, Words to Go.
• Students will review the parts of speech and practice using the parts of speech correctly in writing and speech.
• Students will write a variety of grammatically correct, developed, creative texts.  These will include narrative, persuasive, and expository.

This week in Language Arts, we are... 

• Learning procedures of the classroom and hallways,
• Writing autobiography poems,
• Taking pre-assessments (of our learning style, grammar knowledge, vocabulary skills, and writing skills) so that Mrs. Slattery learns what we already know and what we need to learn more.
• Beginning to study parts of a story using our favorite children's book.

Language Arts Worksheets you may need:

Language Arts games & activities & extra practice:

Class Goals

• Students will read a variety of texts.  In doing this, they will practice using effective reading strategies, making predictions, asking questions, making connections, visualizing, inferring, summarizing, and evaluating.  They will do this individually, cooperatively, and/or as a whole class, depending on assignment and story.
• Students will study text structures using comparison and prior knowledge.
• Students will study the elements of a story (characterization, plot, theme, conflict, point of view, etc) by identifying them and completing graphic organizers and using other reading strategies.

This week in Literature, we are...  

• Learning procedures of the classroom and hallways,
• Writing autobiography poems,
• Taking pre-assessments (of our learning style and reading skills) so that Mrs. Slattery learns what we already know and what we need to learn more.
• Beginning to study parts of a story using our favorite children's book.