Dear parents/guardians,

            I am pleased to announce that I will be your child’s English Language Arts teacher for the 2024-2025 school year.  

            Among other goals, I hope to encourage each student to discover useful ideas and to create a realistic way of looking at life that will help them to succeed in their own lives. I will expect every child to make a determined effort to take seriously the lessons that will be presented to them.  As we delve into articles, novels, and other texts, I will focus on how to understand the ways in which writers and educated speakers use language to express their ideas intelligently and clearly.  Additionally, attention will be given to how to recognize common cues that educated people are expected to recognize and interpret.  Each student will be expected to keep up with all the reading assignments and be ready to contribute to class discussions, which will be dynamic and engaging only if each student is working on ways to improve his or her intellectual capacity.   

            All of this may sound quite formal and serious.  It is.  Another important goal I have for all the students is for them to understand that while school may at times be amusing, entertaining, or exciting, truly learning how to acquire and use information is the fundamental principle on which every other aspect of school is built.  Becoming educated is neither trivial nor inconsequential; it requires an enormous amount of discipline and sacrifice.  That’s where you come in.  As a parent or guardian, I will expect you to impress upon your child’s mind that in today’s world, education is the way to successful living.  Therefore, I urge you to have frequent conversations with your children to prevent them from developing a narrow point of view based on the thoughts and ideas of other inexperienced students—ideas that are not informed with the knowledge, understanding, or wisdom to which I hope to introduce them this year.   
 
Please be aware that all the summer work will be graded and will count towards the first report card.
 
Sincerely,
 
Mr. Charles Castellano