5-Week E-Newsletter

Want to have this delivered to your inbox? Just click here, and fill out the short form to sign up.

---------------------------

Dear parents, guardians, and colleagues,

It's difficult to believe it's come and gone already, but last Friday marked the end of the five-week Progress Report period. Please take the time to review your student's grades on the Schooltool ParentPortal regularly to check for accuracy as well as to look for ways for your student to improve as the quarter continues. The ParentPortal will be updated at least once a week. As you will see, homework completion is essential for students to gain the reading and writing skills they need to be successful in this class.

Remember, this Progress Report period is just a checkpoint to let you know how your student is doing so far this year; there are five additional weeks that will count toward the marking period grade and which will significantly impact your student's overall quarter 1 grade.

*

Here's what we've been up to in class:

The first tenth-grade module is about the American dream and focuses on close reading skills as well as how character development impacts central ideas in a text.

English 10 Regents is currently discussing two poems centered around the idea of the American dream, focusing on how one poet draws upon and transforms the central ideas in another poem. This short unit will culminate in an in-class essay this Friday comparing the two poems and showing how they are connected. Students should also be reading and journalling about John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men independently, finishing the novella next week. Up next is F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

English 10 Honors will begin discussing Fitzgerald's Gatsby this week, the second major text in our American dream unit. This module will culminate in an essay in which students will be asked to discuss the American dream as it is portrayed in both Of Mice and Men (which students are reading independently) and Gatsby (which we will be discussing together as a class).

*

Please check the class blog weekly, as you will find the most recent homework assignments and announcements posted there. If you have any questions or concerns throughout the year, please do not hesitate to e-mail me at swebb@homercentral.org.  

I hope to have the opportunity to meet you at Open House this Wednesday, and I'm looking forward to a great year!