Complete your assignments on time and keep you assignments in your folder.   (Remember, late assignments are not accepted!)  Although most students complete all class work in class, if you do not, you need to complete it for homework.

2.  Make up work if you are absent

If you are absent, you are expected to make up all assignments you missed.  However, you will receive extended time to complete these assignments.  You can find out what you missed by phoning or IMing a classmate and by checking the web assignment calendar.  The homework managers will give you an Absent Sheet describing what went on in class.  They will also paperclip any work distributed in class.  Paperclip the Absent Sheet to your excused late work and put it in the absent basket.  All excused late work must be completed within the same number of days that the student has been absent. (i.e. 2 days absent = 2 days to hand in work). 

Labs are a large portion of your grade, so if you were absent for a lab, you need to make it up within a week of your absence either at home or during lunch at school.  Otherwise you will earn a zero for the lab.

Tests are usually 25 multiple choice questions with a learning reflection 4 point bonus.  Studying the PowerPoint notes taken in class or printed off from the web each night is the best way to prepare the test.  Almost all test questions come from the PowerPoints.  Ways to study:

• Explain the PowerPoint notes to your parents
• Form a study group and discuss the notes with your classmates
• Take Cornell notes on your notes
• Write the major concepts in your own words with detailed illustrations

Don't put off understanding the concepts to the last minute!

Test scores are usually posted on Edline the day that they are given.  They are then reviewed in class the following day.  If you missed a question and don't understand the answer, come in during nutrition or lunch for further explanation.  Science is like a foreign language, the vocabulary is new and the concepts build on each other.

If you perform poorly on a test, you may complete test corrections during lunch to raise your test grade providing you have completed a notebook.  Ds may be raised to 70%; Fs to 60%.  Test corrections consist of writing the questions you missed, giving the correct answer, and copying the sentence(s) from the PowerPoint that explains the answer.  This procedure helps you relearn the science concepts you did not fully understand. 

Once test corrections have been made, if parents have further questions or concerns, they are more than welcome to see the test first hand at school in room 105.  Please note:  Tests do not leave the classroom.

Quizzes

The same exact questions from the textbook directed reading homework are the ones used for quizzes.  Generally, a reading assignment is given one day, corrected the next, and then on the third day a quiz is given.  If you were absent on the day of the quiz, it is your job to ask to make up the quiz during class, lunch, or nutrition.  All quizzes must be completed within one week.

Patricia Ware

Manhattan Beach Middle School

1501 Redondo Beach Avenue

Manhattan Beach, CA 90266

310.318.7345 ext. 3105