New Marking Period, New Grades

Greetings,

Welcome to the Second Trimester!  Although it started last Monday, today I will be putting in the first grades of the marking period.  I'm a little disappointed, but  I think this will be a "wake up call" for those students who dragged their feet on this assignment. The assignment was pages 2,8, and 16 in the "The World's People" booklet.

We started this assignment on November 21, and worked on it, for the entire  class period, on November 25 and 26. Originally, it was due November 26; the the two hour delay threw a monkey wrench into the works.  So, I told the kids last week that if they weren't done it would be homework over Thanksgiving break.  Today, there were several kids in the hall completing the work.

This was a fairly straight-forward assignment, but I did require them to provide a page number with each answer for the Page 16 assignment.  I want the kids to get used to using the book as a source of information; I don't expect them to memorize all this information.  Much of it is abstract, so it would be difficult to memorize.  What I do want them to learn is how to use a book, or a website, to gather information.

Today, as we corrected the work in class, I explained how this publisher approaches work.  Each assignment is very linear; the publisher starts at the beginning of a section and works through the section page-by-page.  Every question follows a "right to left, top to bottom" pattern.  Several of the kids caught on to this pattern right away, and others are beginning to discover the pattern.

If you see a missing grade or a failing grade, please encourage your child to complete the work and turn it in tomorrow.  I told everyone at the beginning of the new marking period that everyone had an "A", but it would be their responsibility to maintain that grade.  I'd like to see everyone back at that level.

Thanks,
Cathy