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"Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides." -- Rita Mae Brown

Grading: You will receive grades for your academic performance and your effort.

Your grades in IC will be current (or very close) at all times. Please use IC to check your progress. Canvas doesn’t count! IC is where it’s at.

Grades will include reading, writing, discussion, projects, and behavior. Generally, an A on an assignment requires the inclusion of your own original thought and connections to the real world. For an A, in addition to including every requirement of the assignment, you must also go beyond the text and our classroom discussions. You need to put YOUR OWN ideas in your work. That’s why we study literature; we apply it to our society and our lives. We use it to better understand our world. Include higher-level thinking: analysis (examine, compare/contrast, inspect); synthesis (connect, blend, integrate, unify); evaluation (assess, balance, decide). Your behavior in class will also affect your grade. Tardiness, use of electronics during instruction time (for activities other than schoolwork), late or missing assignments, academic dishonesty, disruptive behaviors, etc. will lower your grade and be recorded in IC. You will receive a bi-weekly behavior grade based on the following rubric: Zero negative behaviors = A; one to two negative behaviors = B; three to five = C; six or seven = D; eight or more = F.

Students are welcome to correct work and return an assignment in order to improve the grade.
FOR REWRITES:
Please leave my comments in, highlight all revisions, add your own improvements, title it P#/name/title, and share your document to my email: lselle@dcsdk12.org. If it's on paper, never mind all that and put it in the basket.
LATE WORK: Please title your doc or email Period#/name/title and share with my email. (You might have to un-share and re-share so it shows up in my inbox again.)

Enlarge your vocabulary

and expression

Daily Warm-ups

We cover grammar, sentence structure, and vocabulary word roots every single day. People will evaluate you on your written expression. Know how our language works!

Students, please check Infinite Campus, the classroom "Week At-A-Glance" board, the classroom daily agenda board, this website, and Canvas for assignments, information, and schedules.
Submit all assignments in writing (in the basket on my desk), on Canvas, or via email. For email assignments -- Title the document: Period Number, First Last Name, Assignment Topic. Share with lselle@dcsdk12.org

About Me:

I'm from a small town out on the prairie of eastern Colorado. I went to Colorado College for my undergrad and the University of Northern Colorado for my Master's degree. This is my first year here at Ranch. For the past ten years, I taught eighth-grade at Rocky Heights Middle School. For five years prior, I taught ninth- and twelfth-grade English at George Washington High School in Denver Public Schools. Before that, I taught for nine years at Cory Elementary School, and before that, I taught for four years in residential treatment centers in Denver. If you also count the year I taught elementary PE in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I am now starting my thirtieth year of teaching. I can hardly believe it myself... I have three children, ages eighteen, sixteen, and eight. In my free time, I read, sew, bake, garden, and I'm a singer/songwriter and guitarist, and I perform my music locally at several venues around the city.

Communicate

effectively

World-Class Outcomes:

Strategically create meaning through complex writing and speaking
Formulate a position supported by the quantitative method
Demonstrate the process of inquiry:
- Create plausible solutions through the inquiry process