December 3- Bonus

Hello, parents!

I just wanted to let you all know about some bonus opportunities that your students will be having in my classes in the next few days. I realize that some students do not have the grades that they might like to have in English, and I am making these assignments as an opportunity for these students to raise their grades to what they would like them to be.

Overall, there are 6 assignments right now, which total 200 possible bonus points. All of the bonus assignments deal with The Odyssey, and they are all pretty creative ways for students to learn more about what we are reading, as well as raise their grades in English class. Two of the assignments are worth 50 points each, and the rest are worth 25 points each. Students can choose not to do any of the assignments if they are satisfied with their grades, or they may also do all of the assignments if they would like to do so. Earlier this afternoon, I entered these assignments into my gradebook, and I hypothetically put grades in for a few students to see how these assignments would affect their grades in my class. On average, the grade rose about 10 percentage points when I entered perfect grades for all of the assignments. This means that for most students, doing all of these assignments can potentially raise their grade in my class a whole letter grade.

I realize that all of you check Power School, so I know that these assignments will be showing up on my class's gradebook. Again, if your child does not choose to do these assignments, these assignments will not hurt his/her grade. I hope that this can help some students who might be struggling in English.

If you would like me to send yo a copy of those bonus assignments, I would be more than willing to get you one. Just send me an email at kwalls@byngschools.com. Have a great day!