Mr. Steen's Class Information 2006-2007
Books and
Notebooks
You are expected to bring your book and notebook every day. You cannot follow along with us if you don't have your book, and you can't keep track of information and ideas without a notebook. As far as notes are concerned, remember that this is largely a concept-driven course. If all you tend to write down is facts, you will have very few notes. In here, you are expected to record and react to ideas. However, there is one constant guideline for taking notes: if you didn’t know it before I said it, write it down.
Quizzes and
Tests
· There will be a vocabulary quiz EVERY FRIDAY unless otherwise noted. It will cover the ten words assigned the previous Friday, plus an additional two to five words from ANY earlier lesson(s). You must be able to spell the words, define them, use them correctly in a sentence, and recognize their proper use in context. Remember, if you miss the words in any week, they are up on the website.
· You will be made aware well ahead of time that a test is coming up. Additionally, tests and all other assignments will be posted on the website. Absenteeism does NOT constitute a valid excuse for not taking a test. Only in the case of a protracted absence can you expect me to schedule a time for a makeup test. If you miss a test, expect to take it IMMEDIATELY upon your return.
· If you miss a vocab quiz, you will make it up by writing either 12 or 15 sentences using the words in context. The number is dependent on whether we had 25 or 30 questions in the quiz. These sentences must be handed in as soon as possible after the missed quiz and prior to the following week's quiz!! If you are more than a week late with the makeup, the grade is a 0. The sentences should represent the 10 missed words plus 2-5 words from previous lists.
Rewrite
Policy
As long as you hand in your essay on time, you may take advantage of my rewrite policy. That is, if you get a C- on the essay, you can rewrite it in order to improve your grade. Use my comments, confer with a classmate, conference with me or another adult, anything. If your new grade is an A, that's what you get. Please get rewrites to me as soon as possible. Also, please don't waste my time by rewriting an A in hopes of getting an A+. I'm not doing this to make you the valedictorian; I'm doing it to improve your writing. If you take advantage of my good nature, I'll revoke your rewrite "privileges." Rewrites must be stapled on top of originals.
Plagiarism
You and I begin this year with complete trust. I believe that you will do all your own work, and I fully believe that every word I receive from you is your own. However, it needs only one instance of plagiarism to destroy that bond of trust. Simply put, plagiarism is passing off someone else's words or ideas (published or not), as your own. If I catch you at it, you will get a 0 on the assignment with no chance to make it up, have a meeting with the principal, and at least a phone conference with your parents. Additionally, I will tell your other teachers, your guidance counselor, and the coordinator of the National Honor Society that you committed plagiarism. This will taint your reputation with them too and will quite possibly affect your ability to get into the National Honor Society or even college. For further information, see the expanded plagiarism policy on the web site.
My
Mistakes
No one is infallible, not even I. accordingly, I may occasionally make an error. I may hand back a paper without recording its grade. I may enter the wrong data in a computer field and give you (rarely) the wrong grade. Obviously, if I have made such an error, I am completely unaware of it and rely on you to bring it to my attention. Therefore, YOU MUST KEEP EVERYTHING that I return to you--even the smallest pop quiz. If I tell you at the end of the quarter that you are missing something, or if you look at the posted grade and see a discrepancy, all you have to do is show me the original document, and I'll happily change the grade.
Grading System
1. The categories of assignments are,"par," “voc" and “other.” Participation will constitute 10% of your grade for AP and CP, and 30% for Intro. to Philosophy. Vocabulary will constitute 20% of your grade for AP and 25% for CP for any given quarter. All the other assignments, tests, essays, homework, etc, will count the remaining percentage—65% for CP and 70% for AP and Introduction to Philosophy.
2. Each assignment will receive a point value commensurate with its importance relative to the other assignments. That is, a vocab quiz might be 25 points (1 pt. for every question), while an essay may be worth 100 or even 300 pts., depending on its depth and complexity. The point value of tests will vary according to the number of questions and the amount of material represented. For instance, a 40 question test on a major unit may have the questions worth 2 or 2.5 pts. each, making for 80-100 pts. total. A pop quiz may count for 5 or 10 pts. In any case, you will always know ahead of time what the point value will be. Participation will be counted at least 3 times in any given quarter, but it may be counted more often as circumstances warrant.
3. Participation Grades:
It is the responsibility of every student to do as well as he/she can in all aspects of education--including classroom performance. After all, I am not a television set, and education is not a passive activity. If you are not taking an active role in the classroom, you are not getting everything out of your education that you can. I do recognize, though, that some people are naturally quiet and reticent, and they may do very well academically but be shy in the room. Well, I sympathize with you, but to get the absolutely best grades in this class, you're going to have to speak up. For the genetically shy, though, participation is only 10% of the grade. Silence will hurt you, but it won't destroy you.
Here is the scale for participation:
5-4: You are actively engaged in the class, asking questions, volunteering, initiating discussion, actively participating in group work, taking notes, etc. A high degree of interest is manifested, and you challenge the teacher. Whether the score is a 5 or a 4 depends on the degree of participation.
3: You are present, taking notes, following the discussion, and participating when called upon. You seldom or never take the initiative to ask a question.
2: You display most of the qualities of a #3 student, with the addition of being frequently absent. It goes without saying that participation is impossible if you're not here. Remember, 2/5 is the equivalent of 40%; this is not a grade you can boast of.
1-0: You draw negative attention to yourself by talking to classmates out of turn, asking for frequent lavatory passes, and being disrespectful. In short, you cause me to waste class time by attending to you and not attending to instruction.
3. Computing your grade should be done in two steps. First add up the total number of points you earned for all the assignments in any given category, and divide that by the number of points you COULD have earned. Then multiply that category’s average by its weight, i.e., 85% for “other” x .65. Add the categories together to get your grade. In most cases this will be unnecessary, though, because I regularly post the grades on the board.
4. Miscellaneous information:
· Essays will usually count 50 pts. per page--though please don't hold me to that strictly. It's a sliding scale. A four page essay, therefore, is a BIG one and will count 200 pts. I am not impressed by overachievers, though. If you are assigned a one page essay and you give me a five page one, don't expect that I'll be grateful and impressed. Most of the time I've carefully considered the optimum length for the question. Going way over in length tells me you're trying to use quantity to compensate for quality.
· For essays, handing in your work on time is of greatest importance. For every school day that your essay is late, you lose one letter grade. In addition, you may not rewrite late essays. Legitimate (excused) absences do not count as lateness.
· THERE WILL BE NO "I's" ISSUED ON THE REPORT CARD! You will have plenty of time during the quarter to do your work and to make it up if it's been missed. Once the end of the quarter passes, though, all opportunities to make up missing work are over, and blank spots are counted as zero. In the case of a major assignment, this could spell failure for the quarter.
If there are ever any modifications to these policies throughout the year, I will be sure to let you know.
Memorize this web site: <http://home.ptd.net/~msteen> Everything you will ever need regarding this course will be found here!