8^th Grade Homework Expectations

_____ You did a nice job on this assignment and got full credit            __________/_________pts

_____ You got nearly full-credit but need to do one of the following things next time      __________/_________pts

_____ You have to re-do this assignment for credit because of one or more of the following issues:

Your homework needs one or more of the following items:

_____  Needs a proper heading

_____  Needs to be in pen

______Needs to be more legible

______Needs to be in a standard looking font

______Needs to follow the Jackson Punctuation Rules

______Needs to have 1 inch margins on paper

______Needs to be on paper that is not crumpled or torn out of a note book

­______Needs to be written in full sentences

______Needs to restate the questions as part of the answers

______Needs work on formatting

______Needs to be more detailed and thorough

Grading Policy

I assign letter grades based on the points that students earn throughout each quarter.  I use a standard percentage scale to determine grades:

98 – 100 = A+

93 – 97   = A

90 – 92   = A –

80s = B range

70s = C range

60s = D range

Any percentage below 60 is not passing.

Points are awarded based on the quality of student work (see Academic Expectations handout).  Homework and projects need to be turned in on time to receive full credit.  Long-term projects are marked down 5 pts (on 100 pt scale) for every day that they are turned in late. 

Shorter assignments are worth 10 to 50 points.

• To receive full credit for an assignment you need to do well-presented, detailed, and thorough work.  Well-presented work is neatly handwritten or typed, and has a header in upper right-hand corner. It meets all of the expectations of the assignment and may have even gone above and beyond what was expected.  This work receives 90-100% credit and earns an A.
• B work means the student has done a good job, but perhaps needs to elaborate more in their writing or pay closer attention to some of the details such as spelling or capitalization.  This work receives 80-89% of credit.
• C work needs more elaboration in the writing; perhaps more time and effort making the work look presentable.  C grades typically reflect hastily done work. 

Late homework is marked down 10% per day late.  After 5 days I will not accept it unless other arrangements have been made. 

Homework Policy

Most of the homework assigned in this class is related to ongoing projects or writing assignments. You should try to budget your time at home to keep up with long term projects.  I suggest sitting down with a parent at the beginning of a project and establishing a plan to complete projects or writing assignments.  Use planners to write down target goals for assignments.  I will work with you on this in class, but you need to be responsible in using your planner.

Current events. You will have current events due every other Friday unless it is a short week, then they will be due on the last school day of that week.  I assign current events because it is important to keep informed about important world, national, or local events.  You need to get your current events from a print source.  Although I prefer newspaper or news weekly articles, you can use news sites on the Internet to find articles.  If you choose to use the Internet, you should choose a credible news agency and you must print the article.  Articles should be neatly attached to the back of the current event form.  Current event forms can be found on the class webpage in pdf format.  In the “personalize” section of the form, I expect that you give a detailed and thorough response.  If you cannot think of anything to say about the article, you should choose a different one.