GUIDING LEARNING PRINCIPLES
“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process [i.e. patterns, repetitions, habits, algorithms], then you don’t know what you are doing."
W. Edwards Deming, father of the “Quality MovemenT" in modern management
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, relearn, and unlearn."
Alvin Toffler, Future Shock, 1980
"There is no significant learning without a significant relationship."
Dr. James Comer
"Students who are loved at home come to school to learn, and students who aren't come to school to be loved."
Nicholas A. Ferroni
Dr. Randolph's
8th Grade English Class
Dade Middle School
Trenton, Georgia
Weebly website address: http://drrandolph8thgradeenglish.weebly.com
Teacher DMS email: [email protected]
Student grades: campus.dadecs.org User name: student ID# Password example: mj012402 (initials, birth month,
day, year)
Google Drive: drive.google.com User name: lunch #dadecs.org Password: Word1234
Power School: Parents may access their students' class grades at any time from the DMS website after reregistering.
Remind.com: Parent texts @ 81010@drrandolph
CLASSWORK
THIS WEEK'S CLASSWORK FROM MONDAY _____________ TO FRIDAY______________
DAILY HOMEWORK
YES, PARENTS, YOUR STUDENT(S) DO HAVE ENGLISH HOMEWORK EACH NIGHT, MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY, REGARDLESS OF WHAT THEY TELL YOU! Students' homework is to read a book of their choice for 20 minutes each night during each 9-week grading period.
Books are available in our school library. Students will NOT statistically be able earn a "B" or "A" grade at the end of each grading period without read at least one book and turning in a book report on time.
Students have the entire 9 weeks to complete this assignment.
ATTENTION! A student may have a "B" or "A" average during the 9 weeks and fail to turn in the book report the last day. The student's "B" or "A" grade will automatically drop to no higher than a "C" grade. The reading and book report together is a test grade. Failing to turn it in on time will result in a "0" test grade. This is statistically why the "B" or "A" grade is not possible. Reading is the key to learning. If a student will not read outside of school, he or she will not become a better reader. This will hurt the student's learning in every class!
READING CHAIR: Below is the "Reading Chair" where students may volunteer in front of the class to talk about the books they are reading answer students' questions.
YEARLONG GOAL
OUR END OF YEAR CLASS GOAL IS FOR EVERY STUDENT TO PASS THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS STATE
MILESTONES TEST THE LAST WEEK OF APRIL BY LEARNING TO LOVE READING, WRITING, DISCUSSING, AND EXPERIMENTING. There is no reason for a student to not pass the test who works consistently and diligently each day to learn. The ELA Milestones test is a "Reading and Evidence-based written response test. That means all of our writing is directly based on or inspired by what we read in class.
DAILY PATTERN
EACH DAY WE WILL FOLLOW A CONSISTENT LEARNING ROUTINE.
1st. Students get their class folders and update their Scientific Method experiment about improving a poor
habit into a better habit. Education should change our lives for the better in very specific and practical
ways right now!
2nd. The teacher will read for at leasts 5 minutes from our class book or a literature passage from our textbook.
3rd. Students will read silently from their own homework book for at least 5 minutes.
4th. We will spend 5 minutes reviewing a writing skill by learning to diagram sentences to better understand
how ideas are clearly communicated.
5th. We will spend 5 minutes on Greek and Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes to better understand how words
are built..
6th. We will work through our Literary Analysis strategy while discussing our reading passage
OR
We will work through our writing assignment based on that reading passage.
DAILY PATTERN
EACH DAY WE WILL FOLLOW A CONSISTENT LEARNING ROUTINE.
1st. Students get their class folders and update their Scientific Method experiment about improving a poor
habit into a better habit. Education should change our lives for the better in very specific and practical
ways right now!
2nd. The teacher will read for at leasts 5 minutes from our class book or a literature passage from our textbook.
3rd. Students will read silently from their own homework book for at least 5 minutes.
4th. We will spend 5 minutes reviewing a writing skill by learning to diagram sentences to better understand
how ideas are clearly communicated.
5th. We will spend 5 minutes on Greek and Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes to better understand how words
are built..
6th. We will work through our Literary Analysis strategy while discussing our reading passage
OR
We will work through our writing assignment based on that reading passage.
GOALS
1. Read 4 books individually (1 per quarter)
2. Read 2 class novels together (1 per semester)
3. Run 4 personal habit experiments (Capitol trip)
4. Write 25 assignments (1, 2, or 4 paragraphs, about 3 per month)
5. Pass ELA Milestones test (last week in April)
6. Pass English class each report card (9 weeks)
7. Ask 1 curious question each class (at least 5 per week)
8. Share from each chair and sign and date them (5 chairs)
8. Kinds of tests: multiple-choice reading, definition memorization, writing ( 3 kinds)
CURIOSITY
OF ALL THE LEARNING QUALITIES I WOULD WISH FOR MY STUDENTS, CURIOSITY IS THE MOST IMPORTANT!
It is the emotional energy of creativity. It is the natural hunger to discover, invent, and explore. Without this driving passion, students "learn" to become bored, lazy, and uninterested in becoming better by learning new things each day. Our class will seek to inspire students by learning to ask "beautiful" questions about whatever we are doing!
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
EXPERIMENTATION
THE APPLICATION OF LEARNING IS MEANT TO CHANGE STUDENTS' LIVES' FOR THE BETTER IN EVERY DIMENSION IN SPECIFIC AND PRACTICAL WAYS, NOT ONLY INTO THE FUTURE, BUT ALSO IN THE IMMEDIATE PRESENT. Students will run a personal experiment to improve one poor habit to a better habit during each 9-weeks grading period. These experiments can be about school, home, sports, or anything the student is motivated to change. The experiment is based on DOING something new that is both specific and measurable. It IS NOT about stopping something old.
EXPERIMENTER'S CHAIR: Below is the "Experimenter"s Chair" where students may volunteer to explain their experiments in front of the class and answer students' questions.
PUBLISHING WRITING
STUDENTS WILL WRITE ALL YEAR LONG FOR A REAL LIFE AUDIENCES TO READ THEIR IDEAS. Completed assignments that have been corrected will be given to a teacher to read and provide feedback. A teacher could be in either the 6th, 7th, or 8th grades. Students whose writing is returned with comments earns extra credit for successfully publishing his or her writing.
AUTHOR'S CHAIR: Below is the "Author's Chair" where students' may volunteer to read their writing to the class and answer students' questions.
WRITING
Our basic writing strategy for informative and argumentative paragraphs is 'RITIRS".
R = Restate writing task + give reason: main idea of paragraph (What?)
copy key words from writing assignment + explain answer
I = Importance: explain emotional influence of reason (Why?)
T = Textual evidence + source: copy 1 sentence + where it came from (Where?)
I = Inference: draw conclusion from evidence (So what?)
R = Recommendation: specific action to begin now (How?)
S = Strong closing statement: give hope that this could happen (How?)
R = Recommendation
or picking a different thinking skill from the list below for this sentence
APPLY action to take now (How can it be used?)
PROBLEM needing fixing (What is wrong?)
CRITICISM fault (What kind of weakness?)
CONTRADICT hypocrisy (What major inconsistency?)
RESEARCH 1 smart phone fact that can be proven (What supporting evidence?)
(must first ask teacher permission)
OPINION personal preference (How to prove?)
PATTERN repeats over and over (How often?)
SUMMARIZE very short version (How in 1 or 2 sentences?)
CONCLUDE final result (How does it end?)
DECEIVE trick to fool (What kind of dishonesty)
QUESTION digging deeper (What unknown?)
COMPARE this is like (How similar is it?)
CONTRAST opposite idea (How unlike is it?)
INTERPRET explain meaning (How to understand it?)
MOTIVATION reason people do it (What makes it happen?)
COUNTER attacking argument (What big disagreement?)
REBUTTAL opposing point of view (Why bad argument?)
RESEARCH one smart phone quotation + source (What new fact?)
PREDICT future result (What will be the ending?)
ADVANTAGE benefit (How does it help?)
DISADVANTAGE harm (How does it hurt?)
DEFINE exact meaning (What is the meaning?)
TIPPING POINT force for change (Where is pressure point?)
EXPERIMENT if / then hypothesis (What change could happen?)
VISUALIZE appearance (What it looks like?)
CONNECT another class or book (How it ties together?)
DESCRIBE appearance using 5 senses (What picture looks like?)
EXAMPLEa personal experience (How in my own life?)
RELATIONSHIP interpersonal connections (What kind of links?)
EMOTION feelings in the heart (How do these drive people?)
ANOTHER different thinking skill (What other thinking skill?)
This teacher believes that writing is the single most mentally difficult skill for students to master in school.
First of all better readers make better writers. Students who choose not read outside of school on a weekly basis do not become better readers and put themselves at a great educational disadvantage. Writers have an endless number of words, sentences, and ideas to choose between. There is not one correct way to express ideas. Students begin with a blank page and must create everything! This requires them to do everything! It requires great effort, attention to detail, logical thinking, and creativity.
BRAIN RESEARCH
OUR CLASS IS DESIGNED AND TAUGHT FOR STUDENTS TO LEARN THE WAY THE BRAIN NATURALLY LEARNS. Students have been using their brains to learn since birth, but very few of them have any idea how their brains actually work to learn! Our class includes teaching basic brain skills for learning. Material "chunked" into small portions. We compare and contrast new learning to old learning. Repetition for practice is essential for longterm memory, i.e., use it or lose it. Brain cells that fire together wire together! Concepts are visualized as much as possible. Information is differentiated for different levels and abilities of learners.
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GEORGIA STATE MILESTONES TEST
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS (ELA)
ALL 8TH GRADE ENGLISH STUDENTS MUST PASS THIS TEST AS AN EXIT REQUIREMENT FOR PROMOTION TO HIGH SCHOOL. Testing will be the last week of April. This portion of the test is two days. There are multiple-choice reading and literature skills questions for determining students understanding, based on reading passages. Both days students will have evidence-based written responses to reading passages. These include short and longer paragraphs and an essay. THE BEST PREPARATION PARENTS CAN HELP WITH IS REQUIRING THEIR STUDENT(S) TO READ A BOOK OF THEIR CHOICE EACH NIGHT FOR AT LEAST 20 MINUTES. Good readers become good writers, but no one becomes a better reader who does not consistently read. This test is very reading intensive using higher level thinking skills!
s
GEORGIA STATE MILESTONES TEST
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS (ELA)
ALL 8TH GRADE ENGLISH STUDENTS MUST PASS THIS TEST AS AN EXIT REQUIREMENT FOR PROMOTION TO HIGH SCHOOL. Testing will be the last week of April. This portion of the test is two days. There are multiple-choice reading and literature skills questions for determining students understanding, based on reading passages. Both days students will have evidence-based written responses to reading passages. These include short and longer paragraphs and an essay. THE BEST PREPARATION PARENTS CAN HELP WITH IS REQUIRING THEIR STUDENT(S) TO READ A BOOK OF THEIR CHOICE EACH NIGHT FOR AT LEAST 20 MINUTES. Good readers become good writers, but no one becomes a better reader who does not consistently read. This test is very reading intensive using higher level thinking skills!
TEACHER
DR. RANDOLPH HAS BEEN TEACHING ENGLISH AT THE MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL LEVELS FOR 37 YEARS. In addition, he has spent the last 25 years teaching part time at junior college, college, and university levels for both undergraduate and graduate adult students. This summer he returned from traveling in Europe in June and teaching English to Tunisian (North Africa) doctoral students in July. He has also taught English in China (Asia), Cambodia (Southeast Asia), Togo (West Africa), and Indonesia (South Pacific) and Iraq (Middle East). His next teaching experience will be Oman (Arabian Peninsula). He has taught school in urban, inner-city, and country environments in California, Tennessee, and Georgia. He has been teaching at Dade Middle School since 2002.