Classpage - MRS. LISA SCULLEN

Class Info (Check box to include this section when classpage is printed:)

Welcome to 8th Grade Language Arts and/or U.S. Studies with Mrs. Scullen!

I'd like to welcome Mr. Tim Raddish. He is a student teacher from Walsh University. He will be with us until December. We wish him a warm Spartan welcome and look forward to his involvement in our education journey!

Mr. Raddish has assumed all teaching duties!

We are reading Gary Blackwood's novel, The Year of the Hangman, in Language Arts. This novel is from the genre, uchronia. A uchronic novel is one that tells a story of "alternate history". In this novel, the colonists have lost the Revolutionary War and the British still control our country. Students will read about real life American figures such as: Benjamin Franklin, Benedict Arnold, George Washington, and Peter Francisco. However, these people will be presented in an altered way.

The question and vocabulary packets for the novel are available for download at the bottom of this page.

After we read the novel, we will begin our official research paper for the year. Students will research either Benjamin Franklin, Benedict Arnold, George Washington, or Peter Francisco. Part of their research will require them to compare/contrast the real lives of their topic to their characterization in the novel. It is quite fun to see where the author used real facts and where he made things up!

Students are studying about the Revolutionary War. We will focus on the causes and effects of the Revolutionary War, our independence from England, and the birth of our country.

Credit/Non-Credit Assignments:

Not all assignments are given individual letter/percentage grades. However, it is important for students to be held accountable for the work they are assigned. For such assignments, I will simply check for completion of the work. If it is completed to my satisfaction, the student will earn a check. If it is not, they will earn a 0. For every 10 such assignments, I will give students a letter grade. For example: If 8 out of 10 credit/non-credit assignments are complete, the letter grade would be an 80%.

Progress Book:

I strive to keep Progress Book as up-to-date as possible. It is not always feasible for me to load grades daily. Please know when you access grades on Progress Book that the grade you see is an "approximation" of your child's grade at that time.

If you do not know your username and password for Progress Book, please contact Mr. Dustin Boswell, Director of Technology, at 330-798-1110 ext. 545051.

Textbooks:

We do not have enough Language Arts textbooks for students to have one of their own. In most cases we only have class sets. I provide more than enough time in class for students to complete their work. However, if a student does not get finished, has been absent, or needs extra time, he/she may borrow a book overnight. Students can pick up books at the end of 8th period, and they must be returned to me before homeroom the next day.

All U.S. Studies students will have their own copy of the text. These books are numbered and each student will be assigned a specific book. At the end of the year, when books are collected, the student who was assigned the book must turn it in. Charges will be applied to the student to whom the book was signed out.

Extra Credit:

Students have the opportunity to earn 5 Extra Credit points weekly by entering "Looney Luse's Word of the Week" drawing. Students are given a word weekly. They have to define the word, tell its origin, and write the word in an original, complete sentence. Their entries give them the opportunity to be the winner of a drawing on Friday mornings during Spartan Live with Tony C.

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