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Friday, June 17, 2010 - Happy Summer Vacation!
SOCIAL STUDIES 8R
- Watch The History Channel.
SOCIAL STUDIES 7B and 7G
- Watch The History Channel.
SCIENCE 7B and 7G
- Watch Discovery Channel.
RELIGION 6D
- August 15, The Feast of the Assumption, is a holyday of
obligation.
GENERAL NOTES:
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Back-to-School Letters
Religion 6D
Teacher: Mrs. Denise Rose Britt
Dear Parents,
Welcome to Back-to-School
Night! I am happy to say that this is my twentieth year
teaching at St. Helena, and I look forward to an exciting and
rewarding year with your children. I will do my best to provide
your sons and daughters with a challenging educational
experience in a nurturing environment. Students will have
various educational opportunities to demonstrate understanding
of the curriculum within the framework of differentiated
instruction and special emphasis upon the rigor and relevance
framework. If you have any questions or concerns throughout the
year, my e-mail address is drosebritt@sainthelenaschool.org.
Curriculum Content:
The focus of sixth grade religion is the Bible and the Old
Testament. Our text is Blest Are We by Silver Burdett
Ginn; there are also classroom bibles which are used during our
classes. We also will study the liturgical calendar, saints’
feast days, Mary, prayer, the mass, and the sacraments, to name
just a few other areas. In January the children will receive a
Confirmation folder and text, The Gift of the Spirit. A
packet listing all Confirmation dates and requirements will be
distributed at a meeting later in the year. I will distribute a
Confirmation Service Form to the students the first week of
class, so service hours can be noted as soon as possible.
Twenty hours of service are required for Confirmation.
Classroom Instruction:
Students will decorate a copybook as a religion journal in which
to keep notes and other entries. Students will need a pencil
case with blue/black pens (preferably erasable), red pen for
correcting work, and highlighter for gleaming important facts in
the text. I frequently use DVD’s and Discovery Education for
stories of the Old Testament. The students perform plays, as
well, to help the Old Testament come alive.
Grading:
Report card grades are a combination of
- Major
Tests
- Quizzes
- Homework*
- Projects
- Religion
Journal/Text
- Class
Participation/Behavior, especially during our plays
Homework/Assignment Policies:
Homework assignments are always checked on the following day.
Missed homework assignments adversely affect a student’s grade.
All work must be handed in on time, and points will be deducted
each day an assignment is late. If a student is absent, he or
she is responsible for making up all assignments, quizzes, and
tests.
Social
Studies 8R
American History Part Two
Teacher: Mrs. Denise Rose Britt
Dear Parents,
Welcome to Back-to-School
Night! I am happy to say that this is my twentieth year
teaching at St. Helena, and I look forward to an exciting and
rewarding year with your children. My B.A. is in history, and
my goal is to instill a love of this subject to your children.
I will do my best to provide your sons and daughters with a
challenging educational experience in a nurturing environment.
Students will have various educational opportunities to
demonstrate understanding of the curriculum within the framework
of differentiated instruction and special emphasis upon the
rigor and relevance framework. If you have any questions or
concerns throughout the year, my e-mail address is drosebritt@sainthelenaschool.org.
Curriculum Content:
Part Two of American History technically covers the years from
1850 to 1960 (Road to the Civil War to the New Frontier). This
time period includes the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Gilded
Age, Industrial Revolution, Age of Imperialism, The
Spanish-American War, Progressive Movement, World War I, the
Jazz Age, the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, and
all the presidents who served during these periods in our
history. Our textbook is Holt’s Call to Freedom: 1865 to
the Present (2002 edition). We regularly use our Junior
Scholastic magazine for current events news and map and
globe skills.
Classroom Instruction:
We discuss, read aloud, and
learn how to outline notes using graphic organizers and other
methods. Visuals from Discovery Education, videos, CDs, power
points, and internet sites are employed in class daily. My
homework website contains many of these sites that I use in
class. Students are encouraged to use these sites at home,
especially the Holt site, for enrichment/reinforcement. I often
use the Holt 2009 edition which contains interactive maps.
Students can take quizzes from our present 2002 series and
challenge themselves with the more recent editions.
Skills:
It is important that students
complete reading of the text pages when they are assigned.
Three skills that I will continue to teach are (1) learning to
form terms from the section reading and not just copying terms
from the back of the book; (2) answering specific written
questions in well-written sentences, paragraphs, or essay
format; and (3) outlining. These assignments incorporate
reading skills of summarizing, finding main ideas,
comparing/contrasting, cause and effect, etc. There is a
Handbook in the front of the text that reviews these basic
reading skills, and some students may need to review it.
Grading:
Report card grades are a combination of
- Major Tests
- Quizzes
- Junior
Scholastic maps
- Homework*
- Projects/Reports
- Copybook
notes/terms/worksheets
- Class
Participation
Homework/Assignment Policies:
Homework is assigned regularly Monday through Thursday, and all
assignments are always checked. Specific handwritten (or typed)
assignments on loose leaf paper are always collected for a
homework grade, as is all assigned homework. Missed homework
assignments adversely affect a student’s grade. All work must
be handed in on time, and points will be deducted each day
an assignment is late. If a student is absent, he or she is
responsible for making up all assignments, quizzes, and tests.
Projects/reports will be assigned and will require work to be
completed over
weekends. A research paper will
be completed in the second trimester along with the Study Skills
course. The topic of this paper will be relevant to our study
of United States Presidents, and I use this paper for
differentiated instruction.
Social Studies 7B and 7G
American History Part One
Teacher: Mrs. Denise Rose Britt
Dear Parents,
Welcome to Back-to-School
Night! I am happy to say that this is my twentieth year teaching at
St. Helena, and I look forward to an exciting and rewarding year
with your children. My B.A. is in history, and my gold is to
instill a love of this subject in your children. I will do my best
to provide your sons and daughters with a challenging educational
experience in a nurturing environment. Students will have various
educational opportunities to demonstrate understanding of the
curriculum within the framework of differentiated instruction and
special emphasis upon the rigor and relevance framework. If you
have any questions or concerns throughout the year, my e-mail
address is drosebritt@sainthelenaschool.org.
Curriculum Content:
Part One of American History technically covers the years from 1492
to 1850 (Discovery of the New World to Road to the Civil War), and
emphasis is on how the United States became a country from its
origin of thirteen colonies. This time period includes the empires
of the world before the Age of Exploration, the establishment of
colonial empires during the Age of Exploration, consequences of this
exploration to existing cultures, settlement of the English
colonies, the American Revolution, the establishment of our
government including our U.S. Constitution and related topics of
citizenship, the War of 1812, Age of Jackson, Mexican-American
War, the movement westward, sl avery, and all other issues related
to that movement. Presidents Washington to Buchanan also will be
studied. Our textbook is Holt’s Call to Freedom: Beginnings to
1865 (2002 edition). We regularly use our Junior Scholastic
magazine for current events news and map and globe skills.
Classroom Instruction:
We discuss, read aloud, and learn
how to outline notes using graphic organizers and other methods.
Visuals from Discovery Education, videos, CDs, power points, and
internet sites are employed in class daily. My homework website
contains many of these sites that I use in class. Students are
encouraged to use these sites at home, especially the Holt site, for
enrichment/reinforcement. I often use the Holt 2009 edition which
contains interactive maps. Students can take quizzes from our
present 2002 series and challenge themselves with the more recent
editions.
Skills:
It is important that students
complete reading of the text pages when they are assigned. Three
skills that I will continue to teach are (1) learning to form terms
from the section reading and not just copying terms from the back of
the book; (2) answering specific written questions in well-written
sentences, paragraphs, or essay format; and (3) outlining. These
assignments incorporate reading skills of summarizing, finding main
ideas, comparing/contrasting, cause and effect, etc. There is a
Handbook in the front of the text that reviews these basic reading
skills, and some students may need to review it.
Grading:
Report card grades are a combination of
- Major
Tests
-
Quizzes
- Junior Scholastic
work including maps
- Homework*
- Projects/Reports
- Copybook
outlines/terms/worksheets
- Class Participation
Homework/Assignment Policies:
Homework is assigned regularly Monday through Thursday, and all
assignments are always checked. Specific handwritten (or typed)
assignments on loose leaf paper are
always collected for a homework
grade, as is all assigned homework. Missed homework assignments
adversely affect a student’s grade. All work must be handed in on
time, and points will be deducted each day an assignment is late.
If a student is absent, he or she is responsible for making up all
assignments, quizzes, and tests. Projects/reports will be assigned
and will require work to be completed over weekends. A research
paper will be completed in the third trimester along with the Study
Skills course. This topic of the paper is relevant to our study of
the Industrial Revolution and coordinates very well with our May
trip to Baltimore, Maryland.
Science 7B and 7G
Life Science
Teacher: Mrs. Denise Rose Britt
Dear Parents,
I am happy to say that
we have a new science series in our school this year.
Unfortunately, because of the problems with the Pennsylvania budget,
the books have not yet arrived. Nevertheless, the series has a wide
variety of CDs, and access to the text can be found online. The
site is now on my homework web page.
Curriculum Content:
The seventh grade life science curriculum is an in-depth study of
the scientific method, lab equipment, metric measurements in the
lab, use of the microscope, the cell and microbiology, taxonomy and
the kingdoms, and the human body. It also involves an overview of
zoology, botany, and ecology. Our new textbook is Glencoe Life
Science by McGraw Hill. Our Science World magazine
features articles in all three main branches of science: physical,
life, and earth. We use this periodical for up-to-date articles on
current science news.
Classroom Instruction:
We discuss, read aloud, and learn
how to outline notes using graphic organizers and other methods.
Visuals from overhead transparencies, Discovery Education, videos,
CDs, power points, and internet sites are employed in class daily.
My homework website contains many of these sites that I use in
class. Students are encouraged to use these sites at home,
especially the Glencoe site, for enrichment/reinforcement.
Grading:
Report card grades are a combination of
- Major Tests
- Quizzes (including
Science World magazine)
- Labs
- Homework*
- Projects
- Copybook
notes/terms/worksheets
- Class Participation
Homework/Assignment Policies:
Homework assignments are always checked. Specific handwritten (or
typed) assignments on loose leaf paper are always collected for a
homework grade. Missed homework assignments adversely affect a
student’s grade. All work must be handed in on time, and points
will be deducted each day an assignment is late. If a student is
absent, he or she is responsible for making up all assignments,
quizzes, and tests. Projects/reports will be assigned and will
require work to be completed over weekends.
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