Dear Parents and Students,

Welcome to Oakdale Middle School's Sixth Grade Integrated Studies Class.  During the next five months, your child will learn many of the important skills that will help him or her to succeed in middle school, with a particular focus on research skills.  We have published a brochure that explores the highlights of the course.  

Below, I have outlined some of our class policies.

Policies

1.   Be on time.

2.   Have all materials needed for class.

3.   Respect yourself, others and property in the classroom.

4.   Follow ALL school rules.

Our primary goal is to help your son or daughter work independently on projects and reports by the time they are finished with this class.  For this reason, I encourage you to let children do their own work on Integrated Studies projects.  During the second half of the semester, we will be researching and creating presentations.  One of the most important points we stress in Integrated Studies is the need to avoid plagiarism.  Please take a moment to review and sign the OMS Integrated Studies Plagiarism Policy below.

I will use a rubric scoring system for this class.  Points will be awarded for activities and assignments based on the rubric used for each project, although some work is based solely on completion of the assignment. 

Attending class each day is essential.  It is the student's responsibility to check with other classmates or the teacher about work assignments missed and to make them up in a timely manner.  This year, grades will be available on line.

Oakdale Middle School Homework Policy is as follows:

On Date Due    100% credit possible

One Day Late        75% credit possible

Two Days Late    50% credit possible

Three Days Late   25% credit possible

Four Days Late      0% credit possible

This policy will also be used for work that is to be completed in class.

Parents may reach Mr. Graff through email at Thomas.graff@fcps.org or voice mail at 240-236-5500 

Sincerely,

Tom Graff

OMS Integrated Studies

Plagiarism Policy

Integrated Studies is a sixth grade class designed to teach students to gather, assess, interpret and communicate information effectively.  In short, it is designed to teach students how to research.  Essential Curriculum goal 600.10.05

addresses the need to apply ethical behavior to the use of information and information technologies.  Specifically:

600.10.05.a. Define and identify plagiarism to avoid copyright violations.

600.10.05.b. Demonstrate knowledge of FCPS Acceptable Use Regulations.

To ensure that all students recognize the many forms of plagiarism and understand its severity and related consequences, we are communicating this information to parents.

From the Frederick County Public School handbook:

The nature of the schooling experience demands the highest standards of integrity on the part of all involved. For this reason, the deliberate unauthorized use of another person's work or talents (e.g., cheating, plagiarism) is considered a serious breach of appropriate behavior. Any grades or credit earned as a result of such action will be disallowed. (Page 33).

FCPS policy states that consequences of plagiarism may include suspension or expulsion (Page 39).  We take this especially seriously in Integrated Studies because the issue of how the students are conducting the research is often even more important than the content of what they are researching.  For this reason, our goal is to involve parents in helping to communicate the importance of paraphrasing and bibliographies to avoid copyright violations and plagiarism.  Our policy states that the use of any content (informational, visual or other type of data) used without properly citing the appropriate source in the bibliography AND at the point of use will be considered plagiarism and dealt with accordingly.  If this happens, a student will be required to perform extra work in school after the regular school day has ended to provide them the opportunity for a partial restoration of credit. 

Hopefully, by working together, we will be able to help our students to learn this important lesson. Thank you for your support. 

Sincerely,

Neal Case, Principal

Tom Graff, Teachers Integrated Studies