A Letter to Parents

Hello Parents,

As I’m sure that most of you have already heard, Birmingham launched its remote learning program yesterday morning.  I’ve taken steps to continue the strong work that we’ve established the first three quarters of the year, and have attempted to adapt as many elements of our regular classroom experience to remain the same as much as possible. Here is an overview of what to expect from your child’s English, Language Arts class as we transition to online.

TIMELINE
Every Monday morning, five short assignments will be posted on our Google Classroom. The assignments will be due the following Monday, allowing students to work flexibly.  Some students may opt to get them all done at once, while others may choose to break them up over several days.  Grading will be based upon participation and completion.

CURRICULUM
Each lesson should last no more than thirty minutes. These lessons will typically include:

SENTENCE COMPOSING 
Two lessons on sentence construction, grammar, mechanics, usage, spelling, punctuation, literacy, and short burst creative narrative writing – whew! -- that we call “Sentence Composing.”  Adapted from the groundbreaking work of Lucy Calkins and Don Killgallon, they will copy a mentor sentence into their Google Doc “Sentence Composing Journals,” study, edit, and analyze the structure of the sentence, and compose an original sentence that follows the pattern.  These have formed the heart of our class and our students have dramatically improved their writing as a result of our daily practice.

MINDFUL READING
One lesson that is essentially an independent choice novel reading activity, called “Mindful Reading.”  They will read for thirty minutes with a guided activity to help develop their metacognition, or “thinking about thinking,” and self-regulation, or the ability to monitor and adjust their own focus and attention spans.  Your child may use either a digital novel accessed during this week’s lesson, or use a physical novel that they already have at home.

HMH WORKBOOKS
Two lessons culled from our HMH workbooks (the “Performance Assessment” and the “Close Reader”).  Many students have already brought copies of these disposable workbooks home, but digital scans will be incorporated into the lessons for students who were unable to retrieve them on such short notice.  We will be doing a short research project as well as reading a selection from The Diary of Anne Frank.

SUBMISSION
Students will turn in most of their work through Turnitin.com as they had already been doing throughout the year.  As I become more familiar with the online app, we will also be using Flipgrid, where students will take short videos of themselves sharing their work or thoughts with the class.  If you are uncomfortable with them using Flipgrid, please let me know and we’ll find another way for them to participate.

SUPPORT
I will be checking my school email frequently throughout the work week.  Also, students are invited to join me on Wednesdays between 10:15 and 11:15 AM for a question and answer ZOOM meeting.  This meeting is optional and there specifically to support student learning.

CONTACT
The best way to reach me is through email at jchappell@birmingham.k12.mi.us. I typically respond within 24 business hours.

Thank you for your patience, and I hope you and your family are all safe and healthy as we go through difficult time together. 

I miss seeing your kids every day in our classroom, and I am honored to have this opportunity to once again serve them as they round third base and head towards high school.

Best Always,
Jonathan Chappell