WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL
               AUGUST 28th/29th

Dear Students, Parents/Guardians,
Welcome to seventh grade and the 2019-20 school year at Beaumont Middle School.  We're off to a very busy start with a delightful and energetic group of young people. This year will be both an exciting and enriching learning experience. In seventh grade there is an abundant amount of curriculum to cover, so keeping abreast of upcoming units, as well as projects and assignments due is essential. In order to reinforce organizational skills, students are asked to update planners regularly. Portland Public School district has adopted the Synergy grading system that allows our community real-time access to grades and assessment information for monitoring progress online. Here, students and families are able to log on and view the student’s exact status for ALL classes in one place, called ParentVUE. If you are unaware of user names and passwords allowing entry to the system,  you may obtain them from our tech. manager, John McMahon, at Beaumont's front office. 
With this grade program you will see categorized assignments for my core classes that are weighted for rigorous content. Because I use a 100 point grading scale most missed assignment are assessed at 40%, while failing marks receive at least 50%. This is to prevent the unfair  weighting of failed or missed work. Please see the link below for additional justification:http://www.ccresa.org/Files/Uploads
​/252/The_Case_Against_Zero.pdf
​Exceptions to this assessment format include only the quarterly book projects, home reading sheets, persuasive/argumentative essays and Travel-216(passports & Journals). All students should be able to complete these assignments at their varied competency levels. Failure to turn in projects will constitute the traditional 0%.

Should you ever have questions or concerns please email me at cwortham@pps.net, phone Beaumont [(503) 916-5610], or feel free to visit class any time by simply checking in at the office for a visitor's badge. It's always an added treat whenever parents and guardians join us. 

         CORE CLASS vs. Single Subjects
In the past ‘Core’ has been an integrated Language Arts and Social Studies block course with no differentiation for writing. This year however, the core block has been substituted for individual language arts and social studies courses. As a result there is no guarantee that the language arts teacher will also be the social studies teacher. I've been told that this is a benefit to the scheduling process and the ability to better balance class loads. 
Beaumont educators though, remain dedicated to forging strong relationships with great communication between home and school, and for our students–teachers will implement our Common Core State Standards in order to provide engaging, rigorous curriculum (in literature, composition and history) traditionally associated with our school. In keeping with the integrated thematic model, the Medieval World text activities will be introduced in sequence in case students have different teachers.  Language arts units will reflect corresponding units of study. 

Our Language Arts class incorporates both literature and writing. For the literature component we explore an assortment of genres, examining significance of setting, character development, types of conflict and resolution. We also identify literary devices in order to solidify comprehension.
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The writing component of class is happily married to literature. We re-visit basic skills in grammar, vocabulary, and spelling patterns covered in the  school district's curriculum, Mechanically Inclined, and supplementary materials.

In addition, we evaluate styles and techniques of noted classical as well as contemporary writers in order to promote proper use of conventions and develop student voice for captivating an audience. Students compose prose and poetic writing pieces, and for our language arts class, there is one major book project due quarterly. 

For History, at the seventh grade level we study each inhabitable continent from the fall of Rome’s mighty empire through the Age of Exploration. I introduce each unit of study with an entertaining overview, Flocabulary: Hip-Hop History of the World. We then work backward through our curriculum–The Medieval World and Beyond. Our primary focus is to connect the five areas of social studies: economy, government, history, geography, and culture.

​                              TRAVEL~216
Travel-216 is a new component added to our social studies course to better connect medieval studies to our modern world. Three times per quarter students research contemporary data on countries related to our studies and record information in Room-216 Passports and Travel Journals-216 
      FILM, DOCUMENTARY & AUDITORY DISC LIST
Periodically I supplement instruction with visual and audio reproductions related to our academic content. Please see the list at the link below to familiarize yourself with offerings.      film_list_new_.docx
       CURRICULUM MODIFICATIONS
For students with active SPED and/or 504 plans, I work with highly qualified staff to meet specific curriculum needs suggested. For those with TAG designations (as well as others who might qualify based on academic complexity of classwork), a class TAG plan is offered/may be suggested during our conference time.  
                                  ROUTINE
Home Reading: Students read each evening for 15+ minutes and turn in the weekly sheet w/parent signature. Home reading sheets are assessed on a 4-point scale and are graded accordingly: (Completed sheets turned in on Monday=4pts., Tuesday=3pts., Wednesday=2pts., Thursday=1pt., Friday=0.5 pts.). Click 'reading sheet' docx below to download a copy if student forgets to pick one up from shelves near door
**reading_sheets-7.docx
Newsroom-216: Beginning the week of September 9th, 2019 students will use our formatted graphic organizer, to write three news stories due weekly. They confer in a category-specific news team prior to each member reporting aloud on one of their current events news stories. Homework is assigned weekly for students in this category, although one day per week computer time is arranged for students to find current events news stories during class time.
Click below to download a copy of the news sheet (if student forgets to pick one up from shelves near door). Also here, you'll find the student news categories for the school year. 
**2018-19_newsroom_216-update.docx
               
   **ASSIGNMENTS ABOVE (Home Rdg. & News) 
    MAY NOT BE TURNED IN LATE**
**Please see the link below to track & download the news team schedule and assignment document for the 2019-20 school year:
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 **ANY OTHER ASSIGNMENT MAY BE TURNED IN FOR CREDIT DURING THE QUARTER IT IS DUE AS LONG AS STUDENTS ATTACH THE LATE WORK SLIP  W/PARENT SIGNATURE IN ORDER TO VERIFY AWARENESS THAT IT'S TURNED IN AFTER THE DUE-DATE. 

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