Spies, Lies, and Codes

Please carefully read this letter that describes your child’s participation in our Algebra 1 unit project, Secret, Codes, and Lies.  I believe this unit project represents a wonderful and valuable learning opportunity for your child.  I believe it is very important that you understand all aspects of the project so that your child will meet with the highest level of success.

This unit project will allow your child a look back on the importance of cryptography in history as well as the important role cryptography plays in today’s society.  The lessons in the unit project will walk your child through how to encode and decode messages.  From those tools, your child can use his/her creativity to come up with his/her own codes. Majority of the unit project will be done during class time.  However, there will be one group presentation, several homework assignments, and one final project that will require your child to spend time outside of class to get these assignments completed.  My classroom will be available until 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday if the students need an after-school location to work at.

There will be many assessments throughout the project, on average there will be two or three grades each week. The students will work in small groups in class; however, a majority of their grades will be individually based. The grading breakdown will be as follows: Homework 20%, Tests/Quizzes (3) 35%, Group Presentation 20%, Final project (group) 25%

Most of the supplies needed for this project will be provided by the school.  The students will use a classroom TI-83 (or TI-83 Plus) graphing calculator.  The students will need to purchase 1 cm graph paper preferably or .5 cm graph paper as an alternative.

In addition to classroom instruction, the class will be taking a field trip to the World War II Museum at the beginning of the semester.  The tentative date is the second week of the semester.  Please keep that week in mind.  More information will be provided on the first day of class.

I encourage you to check on your child’s progress from time to time and feel free to contact me if you have any questions (school phone: 444-4444, e-mail: teacher@isd.org). Please sign below so that I know that you have seen this letter.  Thank you for your time and interest.

Sincerely,

Connie Aphonephanh & Tom Abraham

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I have read and understand the requirements of my child's Algebra 1 unit project, Secret, Lies, and Codes.