Calculus AB

GRADING POLICY: The grade you earn will be based upon the subsequent criteria:

Students need to complete 70% of their Daily Assignments (which includes all homework) to earn a passing grade of C or better.

To earn an A, B or C in this course, the following requirement must be met by students: your Daily Assignment grade must be 70% or higher. Otherwise the highest grade you can obtain on any report card is a D+. The grading scale for report cards will be based on the above point system. Rounding to the nearest whole number will be used when determining the letter grade. After each unit I will update the online Gradebook and announce in class that each student is to printout their grade from Gradebook and get their parents or guardians to sign it. These grade reports with the parent signatures will be collected and will be entered as a 3 point homework assignment. Homework passes can NOT be used to earn points for parent signatures. Parents and students can always access the on line Gradebook to see your student’s grades. Gradebook is updated once after the unit exam has been scored.

60%: Test: Individual & Partner Either one or two tests will be given after each unit, covering most concepts during the chapter. Each test will be of use one or more of the following formats: individual with graphing calculator, individual without a calculator, and partner with graphing calculator or partner without a calculator. Information from previous units can also be expected on a test, as math is a continuous building of knowledge. Students may not retake tests. However, one unit individual test grade can be dropped at the end of the semester. The comprehensive semester exam can not be dropped.

Missed test due to absences. All missed test due to unexcused absences will be a zero. Students will not be able to drop an exam that was missed due to an unexcused absence.

If a student misses a test due to an excused absence then the student will have one week to makeup the missed test. If a student fails to make arrangements to retake the missed test within a week then that test will be the one that is dropped for the semester. Since two tests can not be dropped in one semester the student will receive a zero on additional test that are missed and not made-up within a week.

Semester Comprehensive Exams: There will be a final exam given at the end of each semester that covers the material for 1^st semester or for the entire school year. Since it does not occur until the end of the semester, grades on report cards can significantly change from the previous printouts. The final exam at the end of the year may be doubled (200 point) if doubling improves your semester grade. The final exam can not be dropped.

5%: POP QUIZZES (10 points each): These quizzes will be given regularly but will be unannounced. Students can use their homework but not their textbooks during pop quizzes. The concepts on these quizzes will be directly from recent homework assignments or cover basic concept skills from previous courses such as Algebra 2 or PreCalculus. The two lowest quizzes will be dropped at the end of the semester. There are no makeup or retake opportunities due to absences or tardies. When students are tardy for class (excused or unexcused), they will not be allowed to take the pop quiz. Up to two missed pop quizzes can be dropped at the end of the semester since they would be the two lowest scores.

10%: MASTERY QUIZZES (10 points each): These quizzes may be given over precalculus or calculus content. Mastery Quizzes are always announced in class in advance of the day the quiz is given so that students have adequate time to prepare. Students can NOT use their homework during mastery quizzes. Mastery quizzes may be retaken after school on Monday, Wednesday or Thursdays until a score of 8 or higher is achieved. It is better to prepare to pass the mastery quizzes on the first attempt since these items will also be on the individual tests. You should expect that the definition of all the major concepts (limit, derivative, antiderivative or indefinite integral and definite integral) will be on a mastery quiz along with all the derivative and antiderivative formulas.

15%: HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS: Homework is due at the beginning of class and each is worth three points. Full credit cannot be earned for finishing homework in class. Copying down answers from the solutions provided in class using a pencil will result in a zero on that assignment. You must receive a stamp on your homework assignment to earn full points.

* Assignment is written at the top of the page with a score written clearly at the top.

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOUR HOMEWORK IS CORRECT AND HOW MUCH CREDIT YOU EARNED? Each student is responsible for grading his or her own assignment and clearly labeling a score of how many problems were missed at the top of the paper. I will provide answers or detailed solutions to problems and will allow students to ask questions in class over any problem you need help with. Students should write a score on top of their paper according to the following chart.

Write SCORE	All problems attempted & Stamped	At least ½ problems attempted & Stamped	< than ½ problems attempted & Stamped	Work is in pencil	Corrected with a pen & number missed at the top	Assign, written at the top	Used a pass as a waiver (2 max)
3
3
2
1
0

After all your late passes are used up then one point will be given for work that is completed in pencil with the assignment written at the top but turned in after the due date and before the unit exam. No late work accepted after the exam.

ABSENCES: All absent work must be turned in within one week, seven days, upon return. This includes a test that was missed, which can be made up after school on Mondays, Wednesday or Thursdays. However, work can only be made up if an excused absence was involved. Work due on a day when the student has an unexcused absence will not be accepted. When a student is absent, it becomes his/her responsibility to find out what was missed. To help you find out what was missed from an absence you should refer to your unit calendar or talk to a group member. When students are not absent and the work was simply not turned in at all, zero is entered in the grade book. Please note that the “absent” code is treated as a zero in Gradebook.

LATE WORK: Unexcused late work will not be accepted! No exceptions! See absence above for excused absent work.

SUPPLIES: All students should have a ruler, protractor, compass, colored pencils and a graphing calculator available at home for math homework assignments.

CALCULATORS: For Calculus students, it is a requirement to have a graphing calculator in class daily. There will also be many assignments where a graphing calculator shall be needed at home. If you need to buy a new one I recommend that students purchase the TI-83 or 84 graphing calculator. Other graphing calculators will also work. However, the advantages of the TI-83 and 84’s are that teachers have overhead calculators for demonstrations that work just like the 83 and 84. Also, most other students also have these versions and can more easily work together. And finally it is more “user friendly”. The TI-83 and TI-84 can complete all required work in this course and college courses. (Believe it or not, The TI-85 and TI-86 do not!) If you do not want to purchase a graphing calculator there are a limited number available for rent (SEE CALCULATOR RENTAL PROGRAM). Lastly, if a student is caught playing games on a calculator during class time, then the memory will be cleared immediately. It is not appropriate to play video games in classes at school.

Calculator Rental Program: If you do not want to purchase a graphing calculator you can rent a TI-83 for $15 or a TI-82 for $10 for the school year. You need to pay the bookkeeper either at lunch or before or after school and bring your receipt to you math teacher. Your math teacher will assign you a calculator to use all year. Lost/stolen or broken rental calculators will be charged a replacement fee (usually around $85).

CLASSROOM RULES: All school rules will be enforced within the classroom. This includes the district’s attendance and cheating policies. Did you know that letting someone copy your homework or test is a form of cheating? (See PLAGIARISM POLICY)

(1) Be Prompt. When the bell rings you should be in your assigned seat and ready to start with the days lesson.

(2) Be Prepared. Always come to class with a pencil, grid paper, and completed homework assignments and be ready to learn.

(3) Be Respectful. Treat yourself, other students, substitute teachers and myself with equal respect and do not interfere with my teaching or other student’s learning.

(4) Be Responsible. It is your responsibility to keep track of assignment due dates, to turn your work in on time and to find out what we did on the days you miss class. Don’t copy or allow anyone else to copy your work.

There is no gum, no food and no drinks. Water is acceptable in a container with a lid to prevent spills. Also, use of electronic devices not listed in the Supplies above is not allowed. In fact, using any electronic devices in class, such as IPODS or a cell phone will result in having it taken away until the end of the day. That means if you want to use these devices OUTSIDE of class you need to keep them turned off and inside your backpack or purse during class. All school discipline policies apply.

PASSES: Hall passes, Waivers & Homework passes You will receive four passes per semester that can be used as hall passes (for example: 10 minutes to go to the bathroom, use your phone, get a drink of water … or to excuse an unexcused tardy), WAIVERS or HW Passes. You decide how you would like to use your passes according to the following guidelines.

You MUST turn in a pass with your name and date on it and write how you want to use the pass. The red tickets are used for passes in all my classes. I will keep track of when you’ve used your passes in my attendance records.

EXTRA CREDIT: Extra credit is only assigned by the teacher and offered to the entire class. There are no instances in which an individual can earn extra credit. Special requests for extra credit cannot be met. Students should be completing work as it is assigned in order to be successful on future assignments and tests. Only unused passes can be considered guaranteed extra credit when not used within the semester. (See passes for details.) You cannot earn more than a 100% average in any area of this class.

PLAGIARISM POLICY: Copying someone else’s work will not be tolerated and will result in the following consequences. All involved students will receive a zero for the work. This includes those who copied and those who allowed the copying. A ‘0’ will be entered into the grade book. Copies of the work shall be placed in each student’s file along with a referral for future reference. It is simply not worth it!

Keep this syllabus in your notebook all year long. Have your parents sign the last sheet and return the last page to me so I can record three points in my Gradebook. You will be able to look at this syllabus on the open note syllabus pop quiz on the 2^nd day of class.

Parents, please feel free to e-mail me at anytime if questions arise. It usually is much easier to reach me at my school e-mail. I usually return e-mails the next day unless it is at the end of a grading period or I am out of the building.

I am really looking forward to working with another excellent group of students this year at Liberty High School. As a team, we can work together to provide a quality education for your student.

Please sign to indicate that you’ve had an opportunity to read this syllabus. If you have any questions or concerns, please ask.