Wiki Page, Ms. Kallis - BEG ELL-B: Course Syllabus

Wiki Page
2024-08-19T14:38:24-07:00

Beginner ELL Course Syllabus

Welcome! Bienvenidos! Chào mừng! Soo dhowow! እንኳን ደህና መጣህ! 欢迎! Желанный! ښه راغلاست!

Hello! I am Ms. Kallis. I am so happy to have you in my class. This is my 3rd year teaching at Renton High School, but I have been working with teens in various capacities for over 20 years. Prior to becoming a teacher, I managed Teen Link, a helpline for teens. I love learning about my students and working with them to reach their goals. When I am not teaching English, I like to read, bake, and knit. I can’t wait to get to know you better!

How to contact me:

Email (preferred) | anna.kallis@rentonschools.us
Phone number | (425) 204-3472
Visit me in Room 344 | Most days day from 2:05-2:30 pm, or by appointment

Additional ways to get help after school:

1. Homework Help Center will be held on specified days in the library after school. More details to come in the next few weeks. If you need transportation home, free bus passes are available at the main office.

2. Tutor.com link on Canvas. Tutors on tutor.com are available to help you in English and Spanish in all subjects, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Important Dates
Trimester 2 | December 3, 2024 – March 14, 2025 (12 weeks long)
Parent-Teacher Conferences | January 30, 2025

School Closures

Winter Break: December 23, 2024-January 3, 2025

MLK Jr. Day: January 20, 2025

Mid-Winter Break: February 17, 2025- February 21, 2025

Professional Teacher Day: March 17, 2025

Important Rules and Policies

CELL PHONES

Students may use cell phones before school, after school, during lunch, and in room 344 with teacher permission for certain learning activities.

Your cell phones must be silenced and kept in your backpack at all times. Your teacher may take your cell phone or contact home if you are distracted by it during class.

Reminder from the RHS Student Handbook: Lost and stolen cell phones are NOT the responsibility of the Renton School District. Your teacher will not call security for you or help you look for lost or stolen cell phones. Any allowed electronic use is optional, so students are encouraged to leave personal devices at home.

TARDY POLICY

PLEASE COME ON TIME. TARDY STUDENTS ARE VERY DISRUPTIVE TO THE CLASS.

If you arrive after the bell rings, you will be marked tardy.

If you arrive after Ms. Kallis has taken attendance, sign in on the tardy sheet so your attendance can be updated. Ms. Kallis will not stop teaching to correct the attendance on Skyward if you arrive late to class. That is why you will sign in!

If you are more than 30 minutes late to class, you will be marked absent on Skyward. Excessive unexcused absences may result in your child being sent to court.

ATTENDANCE POLICY

Daily attendance is very important to school success. Students who are frequently absent get lower grades.

If you are absent, your guardian MUST call or email the attendance secretary within 48 hours for your absence to be excused.

You can leave a voicemail after hours. Say your name, the date and reason for your absence. The voicemail box is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week: 425-204-3410.

If a parent is picking up a student during school for early dismissal, the guardian must sign in with the main office to arrange to pick up the student. If the student will be driving themselves home or to an appointment, the guardian must call the main office to inform them and excuse the absences in the remaining classes for the day.

Students taking video or phone appointments with immigration, attorneys or doctors in the middle of class need to have their guardians email or text the teacher ahead of time to excuse the absence and disrupted learning time.

If your absences are unexcused, your teachers may not allow you to make up assignments and tests that you missed that day. The school’s automated phone messaging system will call the telephone number in Skyward to notify your guardian of your absence.

FOOD

You may not eat in room 344 unless you have enough to share with the whole class and Ms. Kallis says it is okay. Sometimes, Ms. Kallis might share a treat with you. Students are responsible for cleaning up after themselves. Help keep our classroom clean for everyone!

HALL PASS POLICY

Students cannot leave class during the first or last 10 minutes of class. You must have a bathroom or green hall pass to be outside of room 344 during class hours. Students must ask permission before leaving the classroom. Students taking too long to return to class and students leaving without a hall pass will face disciplinary action from the Dean of Students.

ITEMS TO BRING TO CLASS DAILY:

Your district-provided Chromebook, fully charged, with your charger just in case.

Earbuds or headphones should you need to watch videos in class or work on apps with audio. Ms. Kallis does not have headphones that you can borrow for use in the classroom. You may also want to have a computer mouse.

A pencil, a black ball point pen and a pen of a different color (for correcting and peer editing purposes)

A pocket folder. Do not lose your papers!

A NOTE ABOUT CHEATING:

All of these things count as cheating:

Copying someone else’s assignment and submitting it as your own

Asking someone else to do a speaking recording for you, or having an app read it aloud for you

Cutting and pasting answers off of the internet or Google

Having someone else do an assignment for you, or doing an assignment for someone else

Students caught cheating will get an automatic ZERO for the assignment without the opportunity to re-do it, and will be referred to the Dean of Students for an Academic Honesty Violation.

Course Description

Renton High School is a trimester school.

Trimester 1: August 28, 2024 – November 27, 2024. (14 weeks)

Trimester 2: December 3, 2024 – March 14, 2025. (12 weeks long)

Trimester 3: March 18 2025– June 18, 2025. (13.5 weeks long)

Beginner ELL is a year-long course that focuses on learning the English language. Students are enrolled in two class periods per day, one with Ms. Kallis and one with another teacher. In this class, you will learn basic English language skills to be able to communicate and participate within your general education classes.

In Beginner ELL we will be moving into more complex academic language development. We will focus on speaking and writing detailed and complete sentences with increasing complexity and elaboration. You will demonstrate sentence variety in your speaking and writing, including simple, compound and complex sentences. You will work towards a mastery of verb tenses over three trimesters. Our goal is for you to write strong paragraphs by the time you move on to Intermediate ELL. By the end of this school year, you should be able to write paragraphs with introduction sentences, body sentences, and a conclusion.

Additionally, by the time you exit Beginner ELL, you will be familiar with the four key functions of language: to inform, narrate, argue and explain. You will listen to and read more complex texts that are literary, informative and argumentative. With preparation and support, you will also be able to speak to a small group about a focused topic.

Grading Policy

Classwork will be weighted as follows:

1. Assessments (ASMT) - 60%. This category will include presentations, longer writing assignments, and projects.

2. Classwork and Assignments (ASGN) - 40%. These are shorter things we do in class every day, including grammar and reading assignments.

Due Dates

Due dates decide the order of "To-Do" items on each student's Canvas home page. All short assignments (ASGN) will be due at 3 pm on the day they are assigned. Longer writing assessments (ASMT) will have work time provided in class, and the opportunity to get feedback for revisions from your teacher.

Closing Dates

All assignments will close two weeks before the end of the trimester. For trimester 1, this date is Friday, February 27, 2025. I will allow all students to turn in late work or re-do work for a higher grade up until this time. After February 27, 2025, I will only accept, and grade assignments and assessments given after that date.

Do your work as it is assigned so you do not get overwhelmed with the tasks you need to complete two weeks before the end of the trimester.

The ELL department will use the following grading scale.

A | 96-100% | B+ | 87-89.99% | C+ | 77-79.99% | D+ | 67-69.99% | F | 0-59.99%
A- | 90-95.99% | B | 84-86.99% | C | 74-76.99% | D | 64-66.99% |
| B- | 80-83.99% | C- | 70-73.99 | D- | 60-63.99%

Beginner ELL counts as an elective towards graduation. You must pass this class with a D or higher to get credit so that you can graduate on time with your classmates.