Dear Parents,

It is a pleasure to welcome you and your student to Transtional English. We at Helix Charter High School are committed to providing a quality education for your child. Therefore, we have implemented a developmental writing program, to ensure all students meet college-prep standards, which will provide relevant instruction and authentic assessment of writing. This is an intensive academic writing program, which is designed to begin preparing students for the of rigors senior paper and project, which are both graduation requirements at Helix.

This writing program is based on the premise that in order to learn to write, students must write every day. Students must be shown models of good writing, in order to begin developing a sense of what is good academic writing, so that they can evaluate their own work. Students must be shown ways to edit and correct their own writing, but in order to do this, students must first learn what correct writing is. The freshman writing program addresses these needs, including grammar, sentence structure, paragraph writing, essay writing, literature, and vocabulary building.

During the next 18 weeks, while your students is enrolled in Transitional English, your student will be expected to complete five full-process typed essays, numerous timed writings, and two formal speeches. In addition, a showcase portfolio is due at the end of the term, which will demonstrate the learning and production that has taken place. Successful completion of this course requires completing all competencies at a score of “3” on a writing rubric. This is an intense program, in which your student will have writing homework almost every night.

All students must complete the following performance standards to earn credit for the course:

Illustration and Example Essay
Compare and Contrast Essay
Research Paper
4 Coreworks of Literature
2 Formal Speeches
6 Timed Writings

Each full-process essay will go through several drafts, including revision and editing before a final copy is turned in to be assessed. Each essay will be evaluated and must meet a level of acceptability in order to receive a grade. Essays that have not yet achieved that level will be returned to the student to revise and resubmit. A student may revise an essay as many times as it takes in order for the student to earn a letter grade, if due dates are met.

Freshman English teachers have instituted a “no late work” policy on all major assignments. Late work will not be accepted for a grade. If one of the required essays is not turned in on time, it may be turned in late; however, it will not earn a grade.

The grading scale we use for all writing assignments is as follows:

Score Explanation Percentage
6 Exemplary 110%
5 Discerning 100%
4 Thoughtful 88%
3 Literal 75%
2 Limited Return-Revise for a grade
1 Minimal Return-Revise for a grade

Grades will be based on these four categories:
· 40% Formal Essays
· 25% Homework/Classwork
· 25% Speeches
· 10% Timed Writings

The final grade will be calculated based on the following scale:

Percentage of Points Earned Grade

100-90 A
89-80 B
79-70 C
69-60 D
59 and below F

Materials needed for this course:

Pens-blue or black
Hi-liter (Fluorescent Marker)
Colored Markers
Binder-complete with paper and 6-8 assignment dividers with tabs
Helix Style Manual (green manual received in advisory)
Computer Disk

Student Support:
· Students are offered academic support every Wednesday in English during tutorial, from 8:40-9:25 each week, and after school with an appointment.
· Saturday school is available for students to makeup excused absences.

If you have any questions, about the writing program or about your student, feel free to contact me at 644-8200 ext. 330.

Sincerely,

Mr. Eric Ginsberg
English Teacher
Room 1310

Return This Form To Mr. Ginsberg

Please sign this form, indicating that you have read this letter. Return this form to Mr. Ginsberg - Freshman English Teacher.

I have read the letter about the freshman writing program and I understand, that in order to pass this course, all performance standards must be completed at a “3” level of proficiency, in addition to earning 60% of the grade points.

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Student Name Student Signature

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Parent Name Parent Signature

 

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