Welcome to 2012 -2013 at Flint Academy

Welcome back! What an excellent year we have before us. Already the first month  has proven to be very productive. It is exciting to watch as students become engaged in their education in memorable and meaningful ways. You can expect many updates here throughout the year starting next week when I will post a description of what we are doing in class along with photos. Please read this syllabus, which includes details of how class time is being put to even better use through the integration of vocabulary workbook levels and the future inclusion of grammar work within the vocabulary program.

Language Arts Syllabus

2012-2013

Text:                The Winston Grammar Program - grammar workbook

Wordly Wise - vocabulary workbook

Barton - reading remediation

Supplemental Text:                 

The Bible

A History of the English Speaking People by Winston Churchill

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons.

The Official SAT study Guide

Course Description:              

After some review and throughout the year students will build on their understanding of how the parts of speech work together in articulate speech and writing. This will also involve labeling words in a sentences. In both grammar and vocabulary, students will have time for classroom discussion. Students will be encouraged daily to use vocabulary words, in context, in everyday conversation. It is important to know that 90 % mastery in student workbooks is required before students move forward in their work.

This year I am implementing an integration of the different levels of vocabulary within any particular class. Wordly Wise workbooks are numbered according to grade level; but not all students in, for example, tenth grade are in book ten. Each class may include students that are in 2 or 3 different grade levels. However the grade levels within each class will be near in number to each other. No students that are in book 5 will be in a class with students in book 12.  To enhance each students capacity to learn all vocabulary words from each level within a class will be reviewed together with the whole class. This benefits the students in many way.

Students who have finished workbooks that their classmates are working in will get a review of past work and in oral discussions their knowledge will enhance the understanding of those who are being introduced to new words.  Students who are working in the lower level workbooks will be getting a preview of words they will be having in the future. They are able to ask questions and participate in discussions about those words without the pressure of having to know them yet. More exposure to vocabulary words is better for all students. The students love this  interactive learning. It is fun and helps them be more engaged in their work and therefore teaches them more effectively.

During the second semester my students will begin working again in their Winston Grammar workbooks but rather than do either grammar or vocabulary work, students will use their knowledge of grammar as they identify the parts of speech of their vocabulary words and use them in sentences together as a class. The goal is to make it meaningful and in so doing, make it memorable.

Students will also be learning more about the history of the English language and will learn and use Old and Middle English words in the classroom as a fun way of connecting with their English speaking roots.

Classroom Expectations:

This year  students will be  focused on who they are in Christ. Hand in hand with practicing the habits of  Attention, Self Control, Sweet Temper and Perfect Execution; to name a few; my goal is to bring them to an awareness of who God says they are and show them the possibility of positive change that comes from within.

In the classroom students will be expected to be respectful of others and to pay particular attention to not wasting classroom time. A student who consistently speaks out of turn or because of behavior issues takes time away from the class may have to leave the room and will be counted as absent. This type of absence counts as a ½ day absences. Students should be aware of the seriousness of accumulated absence and make it a top priority to curb their behavior in the classroom.

Devotions Syllabus

2012-2013

This year students will be involved daily with self-evaluation concerning their own conduct and their practical implementation of a Charlotte Mason “habit” of their choosing. They will be given the opportunity to reflect on the use (or not) of their chosen habit during devotions and at the end of the day.

This year Mrs. Hallford and I will have devotions with the upper school girls. We will alternate days of guiding devotions. For the first semester in devotions I will have the girls look at Psalms 23. Their focus will be on learning to hear the Lord's words, not only with their minds, but with their spirits.

April Newsletter 2012

In my home room class for devotions I am reading and the students are narrating The Silas Diary by Gene Edwards. This book is a fictional telling of the apostle Paul's journey's as he takes the gospel to the gentiles. Based on the biblical account of Acts meshed with historical facts known about the culture of the region at that time, The Silas Diary puts handles on understanding what it might have been like for Paul and his companions. The hardships they endured and the victories they celebrated in Christ become alive and real. Just ask any of my home room students if they would ever get on a ship that was preparing to sail into the Etesian winds!

All students are using the Winston Grammar workbooks, each one working at their own pace. Most students are working now on mastery of identifying words as either adverbs or adjectives and  learning how to tell what word the adverb or adjective modifies. Many have moved on to identifying prepositions, objects of  prepositions and how to identify a prepositional phrase as either an adverb or an adjective, while showing what word the phrase is modifying. Most seniors and a few sophomores and juniors have advanced to and/or completed the advanced Winston Grammar Workbook.

For vocabulary we are continuing to use Wordly Wise workbooks. Each student is working through these workbooks at their own pace. With five different sections per lesson, each section approaching the vocabulary words in a different way, students get exposure to, and an understanding of a much broader array of words available to them.

This year we have added Barton Reading remediation to the Language Arts program. Barton is a one on one tutoring curriculum for children with dyslexia. The students who receive this are so appreciative of the hope they have for overcoming their reading disabilities. There is no better reading remediation program than Barton and I am so excited about being able to offer this to our kids!

As the Language Arts teacher I also teach journalism and yearbook as electives.

Throughout the year my journalism students have published over a half dozen editions of our new school newspaper, The Flint Telegraph. I am so proud of the excellent work students have put into the paper! The result of their hard work has been an insightful, intelligent and entertaining paper that has something for all grade levels. As we near the end of the school year we are retiring the newspaper for the year to work on Flint Academy's first ever yearbook!

Taking center stage though, for the month of April, is our upcoming annual play. This year's play is Hotel Frankenstein. This is one of my favorite parts of the year! Being in charge of stage crew,  there is nothing more exciting to me than  finding free or inexpensive items for our students to transform into amazing props. Left over foam donated by a local mattress factory becomes gray stones for castle walls. An old ugly couch is being transformed into a lovely piece of Gothic furniture, with wall paint! Do you know how many hours it takes 6 students to tear up enough newspapers to make paper mache mash for the creation of fog blowing gargoyles? A lot! I love watching the students creativity flow and the satisfaction  and pride they experience as their creations develop into works of art.

From scraps of foam,

 to rocks for a castle wall.

The students' creativeness in prop design is in addition to another artistic outlet they have available all year long.  Zentangle has been incorporated into the Language Arts program as a way to reduce the stress that students tend to have about grammar. Zentangle is art created by repeating patterns of specific designs. The benefits are manifold and the kids love doing this! Taking a few minutes out of the class period for a brain break helps them do better work with a clearer, more relaxed mind. More benefits of Zentangle are:

The students' tangles are copied and then combined on the bulletin board in the hallway to create a united work of art.