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Syllabus
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 Hello! Welcome to my English 10 WebPages! The following pages were developed to direct my students to Internet information that will be helpful in the study of the required Literature, Speech, and Grammar material for the tenth grade English curriculum at Kingsford High School. Please feel free to browse the information contained here. Enjoy! Cheers, Mrs. Kendalynn Sutton
Dear Students and Families,
My fingertips have been resting on the “asdf” and “jkl;” keys of my laptop for approximately seven minutes. The digital numbers on my computer’s clock not only mark the time, but they mark the only changes to my otherwise blank screen. My To-Do List rests beside my laptop on the desk on which the phrase “Make syllabus and letter for English 9 and English 10” is highlighted and circled. “This is my seventh year of teaching English. Why can’t I do this?” I mumble aloud to myself.
Maybe my struggles to write this letter stem from the anxious excitement I have about the many changes to Kingsford High School’s English curriculum. Maybe my struggles are more relative to the confusion I have about how these changes will impact students…and me. Or maybe my brain has simply turned to mush over the summer months and I need to get back to work before I incur serious damage.
For those of you who do not know or simply need a refresher, I will highlight some of the changes occurring in education in Michigan, and consequently in KHS’s own English Department. The governing bodies of the State of Michigan signed into law new high school graduation requirements. These graduation requirements are intended to provide students with the knowledge and skills to succeed in the local and global economies of the 21st Century. The new curriculum is called the Michigan Merit Curriculum or MMC. The High School Content Expectations for English Language Arts are aligned with the MMC and have a stronger focus on informational text comprehension and workplace reading and skills than past curriculums. The High School Content Expectations for English Language Arts are the same for every English student in every English class. The standards are intended to be addressed repeatedly and at increasingly complex levels throughout the units from grade 9 to grade 12.
Scoring and grading will be slightly different this year. Students must meet or surpass 65% of the 91 Content Expectations (C.E.) in English Language Arts in order to receive credit for English. Not every assignment will be graded. Only assessments will be graded. For instance, I may assign students a free-write for homework, but the assessment may not be whether students can write a free-write; rather, the assessment will be two days later when students are evaluated on an in-class oral exercise that relates to the previously assigned free-write. Consequently, if a particular student opted not to do the previous night’s homework, his or her grade on the oral exercise will likely suffer. Completion grades will not be given. Each assessment (assignment, test, project, activity) will list the Content Expectations addressed in that particular task. Some assessments will assess more Content Expectations than others, so some assessments will carry more point value than others. Regardless of the number of Content Expectations on a given assessment, students must receive a 65% or higher on each assessment to demonstrate mastery of the Content Expectations. A score of 65% or higher indicates that a student has met the Content Expectations for that particular assessment. If a student does not earn a 65% or higher on a given assessment, he or she will be offered opportunities on other assessments to demonstrate mastery. In short, some students may fail a few assessments and still pass the course. However, failure is not the expectation, it will be the exception.
Whew!!! I told you there are a lot of changes this year! Because so much is new this year, I anticipate many questions from students and families. I have questions of my own, too. As we wade through uncharted waters together, let’s keep the lines of communication open. With one less hour in my day to make and return phone calls, meet with students, and meet with parents and guardians, e-mail will be my preferred method of communication. I will do my best to respond to e-mails as quickly as possible. I am excited to meet all of you and look forward to this ground-breaking new school year.
Cheers,
Kendalynn Sutton English Teacher ksutton@kingsford.org
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