Welcome to English Class!
with Mrs. Workman
Hello, Scholar!
For some of you, reading and writing may come naturally and be activities that you enjoy. For you, I hope that this year will help kindle that fire you already have toward our beautiful language. For others of you, reading and writing may not come naturally and may be things that you don't enjoy or may even struggle to do. I hope this year I will be able to add clarity to places you struggle and a smile as you do the subjects you don't naturally enjoy. I believe that if you can smile during difficult tasks, you will end those tasks more successfully than you would have otherwise.
Overall, I want you to know that I'm here. If you ever have a time that you are confused, struggling, need some encouragement, or just need to know that there is a person on the other side of your screen, please reach out. You can message me through Ignitia or email me at m.workman@enlightiumacademy.com .
Blessings,
Mrs. Workman
Grading
I am a firm believer in learning from your mistakes. This applies academically too. Because of this, when I write corrections on your essays or projects, I will generally include a rubric that shows exactly where you lost points—and most of the time these will include detailed explanations. I often will also include comments throughout your essay/project. All of this is to help you improve your writing ability through the areas of content, organization, grammar, and documentation. You may ask that I reassign the essay/project to you so that you may use the notes I made to improve it—and I will not penalize your score for redoing it (unless a policy develops that won’t allow me to do this). This does not apply to lessons, quizzes, or tests. However, you must request a return of the project within an acceptable time period (before the following unit is complete).
My goal is to help you improve as a writer because I want to see you succeed no matter what career you pursue. Whether you are writing memos, letters, proposals, or papers, writing is an important part of life.
Most essays will be graded using this rubric. All projects and essays within English I-IV should have some form of rubric included.
Notes about Grading
- One revision per essay if requested. Further revisions will be determined by the teacher. Requests for revisions must be within one unit of the project's unit. This also applies to quiz corrections and tests.
- You are not allowed to submit a project blank with the intention of returning to it later without teacher permission ahead of time - doing so will result in a zero being given for the assignment. Your teacher may give an alternative option.
- 15 points are removed for blank answers (or non-answers) from the final assignment grade
- A percentage of your points for questions (usually 0.2-0.3) may be removed for errors in spelling, grammar, or mechanics.
- Unlock requests for quizzes and tests are limited; a quiz or test may be graded as-is if repeated requests for unlocks are made, or an alternate test may be assigned. The right to unlocks may be taken away if a student regularly uses them.
- All blank projects will receive zeroes; assignment not submitted in Turnitin when they are required to be will also receive a zero. Return of projects may be denied after so much time has passed. Projects are worth 30% of the course grade.
- All blank submissions and plagiarism will be logged by the teacher.
- Lack of proper citations (parenthetical and works cited), copying and pasting answers from the curriculum or outside websites, submitting work you previously submitted in another course, and any work submitted that is not yours, will be treated as plagiarism.
Grammar and Mechanics in Short Answer Questions
Since this is an English course, there are expectations for how you should answer in short answer questions. This includes answering in complete sentences and use of proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
With this in mind, points will be removed for errors that relate to these things:
- Spelling and capitalization = 0.2 points per word
- Grammar and punctuation = 0.5 points per error
- Incomplete/fragment sentences = 1 point
A Note about Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a big deal and something that is often misunderstood by students. Students often have the misconception that if you change some words, then it isn't plagiarism anymore. Yet this is not true. Changing a few words is still a form of plagiarism.
While you may get in trouble for plagiarism this semester, don't freak out! Please understand that our ultimate goal is to teach you so that it doesn't happen again. Unintentional plagiarism is still plagiarism and still has consequences, which is why we want to help you to avoid it by teaching you about it. If you ever have a question or concern about something that you think might be plagiarism, or you are not sure how to cite your sources, then please always ask. Your teacher would LOVE to help you avoid it in any way they can. It is much more fun for me (and other teachers) to teach preventatively than have to hand out consequences, which is not fun for us or for you. Seeing you succeed is our ultimate goal!
Turnitin
Turnitin is a program all high school students are expected to use for their core courses, though some other courses may require it as well. All assignment that are listed inside Turnitin are expected to be submitted in Turnitin. If the assignment is not in Turnitin, you may ask your teacher or assume it is meant to be submitted in Ignitia.
Please match your assignment title to the one in Turnitin and submit to the original assignment - not the revision assignment. Once you submit your assignment in Turnitin, please copy the submission ID and paste it into Ignitia's text box for the assignment, then submit the assignment in Ignitia.
Resources
For English specific binders, you can use the following links:
Contact Information
Email: m.workman@enlightiumacademy.com
Website: enlightiumacademy.com
Phone: 509-319-2157