WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL
               AUGUST 27th

Dear Students, Parents/Guardians,
Welcome to seventh grade and the 2018-19 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 and persuasive/argumentative essays. All students should be able to complete these 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
 ‘Core’ is an integrated Language Arts and Social Studies course with no differentiation for writing. 
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.

Our Language Arts portion of the core
block 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.
​
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 and 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.
      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 student-lead 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 graded on a 4-point scale and are our only exception to our grading policy mentioned earlier (Completed sheets turned in on Monday=4pts., Tuesday=3pts., Wednesday=2pts.,...). 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 in the middle of  the first quarter 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.
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 2015-16 school year:
​__________________________________
 **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. 

---