Herget Middle School
Team 6W Syllabus
2008-2009

Mr. Kuhn Mrs. Kluber
S.S./Lit./L.A./REACH Math/Lit./L.A./REACH
School Phone: 301-5765 School Phone: 301-5766
Email: kkuhn@sd129.org Email: pkluber@sd129.org

Mrs. Ewen Mrs. Kowalewski
Science/Lit./L.A./REACH Math
School Phone: 301-5767 School Phone: 301-5768
Email: kewen@sd129.org Email: skowalewski@sd129.org

Mrs. Garcia
L.A./Lit./REACH
School Phone: 301-5764
Email: JGarcia@sd129.org

Homework Policy
Assignments

A. Student Planners
The student planners, which are required by the school, are to be used daily in the prescribed manner. Daily assignments will be written on the board and discussed at the end of each class period.

B. Late, Incomplete, or Missing Work
All homework should be turned in at the time it is due. If you fail to turn in your homework at the time that it is due, you will receive a zero for the assignment.

C. Work Missed Due to Absence
After a short absence, you will be given adequate time to make up any work that you have missed. For longer absences, arrangements for making up work will be made on an individual basis. It may be necessary to make up some assignments, such as tests, before or after school. It is the student’s responsibility to ask teachers for his/her missed work.

D. Cheating, Plagiarism, Copying
Any student involved in cheating, plagiarism, and/or copying will receive zeros for those assignments, along with disciplinary consequences.








Homework
In general, homework will be given for the following reasons:
1. Work assigned during the day has not been finished.
2. Extra practice in a certain skill is needed.
3. Work has been missed due to an absence.
4. A major project requiring supplies from home has been
assigned.
In addition, it is expected that all students read for at least thirty minutes each day.
Student Planners must be completed in each class. Parents/Guardians should expect to sign the student planner and review homework each evening.
IDs must be worn at all times at school.


To view homework assignments online, go to www.sd129.org Click For Parents. Click on Herget M.S. Go to Teacher Web Pages. Select the teacher. Go to Calendar.


Letter Grades
Depending on the assignment, grades will be based on some or all of the
following criteria:
1. How well the directions have been followed
2. The general quality and accuracy of the work
3. Creativity
4. Demonstration of insights or understanding of the material
5. Completeness or depth of answers
6. Neatness
7. Proper format
8. Promptness

Grading Scale
A 90-100
B 80-89
C 70-79
D 60-69
F 0-59
Student effort will determine whether a grade is rounded up or down. Final grades at the
end of the year are determined by a combination of letter grades and percentages.

Effort Grades

A “one” in effort usually reflects that:
1. All assignments have been turned in on time.
2. A consistent effort to do well during classroom time and on daily
assignments has been made.



Progress Reports and Grade Reports
Progress Reports (Midterms) are sent home with the students at each mid-quarter. Parents/Guardians are required to sign the reports and return them to school the next day. Grade Reports are sent home at the end of each quarter. Parents/Guardians may request a progress report at any time.



Conduct

All members of our school community have the right to learn, the right to teach, and the right to share in a safe and courteous environment. Herget Middle School is a “Character Counts” school and promotes the development of the six pillars of character.

Trustworthiness
Respect
Responsibility
Fairness
Caring
Citizenship

Students not demonstrating the pillars of character may be removed from class, excluded from field trips, assigned a detention (before or after school), in-school suspension, Saturday School, or out-of-school suspension. Repeated tardies will result in a teacher detention.

PBIS – Positive Behavioral Interventions & Support is used school-wide. Students will participate in training sessions during REACH.



















Reading and Language Arts
Mrs. Ewen, Mr. Kuhn, Mrs. Kluber, & Mrs. Garcia

Course Goals: All students will meet or exceed District 129 Reading and Language Arts Priority Learning Targets, which include Illinois State Goals 1-5.

Materials/Resources:

Reading
Literature Text: Elements of Literature, Introductory Course, Holt, Rinehart, Winston Publishers; Copyright 2000

We will continue to work on the reading strategies taught in elementary school;
 Connecting
 Imaging
 Predicting
 Questioning
 Vocabulary Acquisition
 Inferring
 Summarizing

Novel Studies
 Example: Boy of the Painted Cave by Justin Denzel
This novel is about a teenage boy in the Stone Age and connects very well with our social studies Stone Age Unit.

Accelerated Reader – required points may vary with reading level

Language Arts
Spelling: Houghton Mifflin Spelling, Level F, Copyright, 1988
Grammar: Daily Language Review, Evan-Moor Educational Publishers; Copyright 2004
Writing Assignments
Various Teacher-selected Materials

Grading
Literature Language Arts
Accelerated Reader (AR) 20% Daily Language/Grammar 20%
Literature Assignments 80% Spelling 40%
Writing 40%




Mathematics
Mrs. Kluber and Mrs. Kowalewsi
Course Goals:
All students will meet or exceed District 129 Math Priority Learning Targets, which include Illinois State Goals 6-10.

Materials/Resources:
Math Textbooks: Middle School Math, Course 1, Scott Foresman – Addison Wesley Publishers; Copyright 2002
or
Glencoe Mathematics, Applications and Connections, Course 2, Glencoe, McGraw-Hill Publishers; Copyright 2001
Math Extended Response & Short Response Problems – Illinois State Board of Education
Pre-AP Exercises – College Board
STAR Math
Otter Creek Math Fact Acquisition Program
Additional teacher-developed activities and assessments

Units of Study:
Problem Solving Strategies (Extended Response & Short Response) – Statistics – Algebra -
Decimals – Measurement - Number Theory - Fractions – Geometry - Integers & Coordinate Plane -
Ratio, Proportion, & Percent - Solids & Measurement - Probability

Grading Student participation in class discussions is also considered when grades
are finalized each quarter. Extra credit is occasionally offered.

Mrs. Kluber’s Classes
50% Tests
30% Quizzes (Spiral of notes taken in class counts as a quiz grade)
20% Homework Completion – Points are averaged at end of each quarter
Point System
3 pts. - Assignment completed to the best of the student’s ability and in class on time
2 pts. - Assignment is late; some work not finished
1 pt. - Assignment is several days late; directions for assignment not followed
0 pts. - Assignment not turned in

Mrs. Kowalewski’s Classes
Grades for this course will be based on daily homework, projects, quizzes, and tests. Each item is worth a certain number of points. Homework will be graded on a completion point scale. The quarter grade will be determined by the number of points a student has earned compared to the total points possible. This is very similar to Mrs. Kluber’s grading percentages.

Students may request before or after-school tutoring. Transportation arrangements must be arranged ahead of time with parents/guardians. Available days each week may vary.


Social Studies Course Syllabus Mr. Kuhn, Team 6W
Herget Middle School #301-5765 kkuhn@sd129.org


Course Goals: All students will meet or exceed District 129 Social Studies “Priority Learning Targets,” which include portions of Illinois State Goals 14-18, for the 6th grade.

Example of Priority Learning Target:

“History/Social Trends: Students will explain the various roles of men, women, and children in the family, at work, and in the community in various times and places.”

Example from textbook for Ancient Mexico unit:
“although the upper classes had the most power, most Maya belonged to the lower classes as farming families.” (p. 440)

Materials/Resources:

Social Studies Text: World History, Ancient Civilizations, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston; Copyright 2006.

Units of Study:
 Geography Skills
 Human Evolution
 The Stone Age/Early Cultures
 Ancient Mesopotamia/Fertile Crescent
 Ancient Egypt
 Ancient Mexico/Mayans
 Ancient India
 World Religions
 Ancient China
 Ancient Greece
 Ancient Rome
 Europe’s Middle Ages and Renaissance

Grading Information:
80% In-class work and homework; 20% quizzes and tests









Science
Mrs. Ewen
Goals:
1. Students will be able to interpret and represent data; support or refute hypothesis; recognize discrepancies in data; and propose explanations for discrepancies in data.
2. Students will be able to communicate the results of data;, write a lab write-up; and prove or refute a hypothesis.
3. Students will be able to recognize the changes of matter and understand differences between physical and chemical changes.
4. Students will be able to apply scientific inquiries and/or technological designs; identify and describe interrelationships in an ecosystem; identify variables that affect populations; and identify Illinois niches.
5. Students will be able to demonstrate interactions of energy forms; explain how interactions of matter and energy affect the changes of state; trace electrical currents; and diagram energy forms.
6. Students will be able to apply scientific inquiries to features of the universe; apply technological designs to features of the universe; recognize the scale of the universe (light year); describe star groupings; identify characteristics of our sun; and compare capabilities of imaging technologies.
7. Students will be able to apply scientific habits; generate questions/strategies; test science concepts; research valid and faulty hypotheses; contrast scientific methods; and propose possible conclusions.
8. Students will be able to research the interactions of technology in science and society; explain ways ecosystems have changed by technological innovations; infer technological impact; and explain location of economic activities.


Units of Study:
1. Scientific Process
2. Illinois Habitat
3. Change of Matter
4. Introduction to Atoms, Elements, and the Periodic Table
5. Interactions of Matter
6. Energy Forms
7. Weathering and Erosion
8. Features of the Universe
9. Introduction to Cells and Genetics


Materials and Resources:
Text: Science-Level Red
Textbook Website: http://red.msscience.com
This website provides resources that correspond to the science textbook this year. Some of these
resources include an online Student Edition of the textbook, websites that correspond to chapter
content, and activities & quizzes for chapter review. This is a wonderful resource, CHECK IT OUT!
Students will also, at times, use supplementary materials such as trade books, magazines, library books, articles, and handouts.

Grading
65% Homework / Lab Write-Ups
35% Tests & Quizzes


REACH
Mrs. Ewen, Mr. Kuhn, Mrs. Kluber, Ms. Garcia

Course Goals: Students may receive enrichment and/or remediation in the content areas of reading, math, science, and social studies, including ISAT preparation. Organizational skills will be stressed, as well as study skills. Students will also understand the pillars of Character Counts by participating in character education activities and PBIS strategies.

REACH is:

R = Re-teach
E = Enrich
A = Accountability
C = Character education
H = Help!

Grading in REACH will be Pass/Fail.

Materials/Resources:
PBIS Materials
Various Test-prep materials
Character Counts materials
Sixth grade texts from all content areas
Teacher selected and created materials


FIELD TRIPS

Team 6W will travel on busses to various educational field trips in the Chicagoland area this year. The students look forward to these every year! We will be sending home notices in advance of each trip. We will be requesting parent/guardian volunteers. The bus cost to each student for each field trip will be approximately between $2 to $15, payable in cash or check to Herget Middle School. Payment will be collected by Team 6W teachers.

Thanks for the parent/guardian support and involvemen