Overview of Today's class:

In the future, Mondays will generally be Individual Goal Improvement and Indpendent Reading days.  Today, we will 1) discuss "Happy"; 2) use Canvas to follow-up on that discussionin  3), and each find one online source that you could use/read/study this week in an effort to help you improve on a chosen skill goal.

Station Groups 

Activity 1: Discsuss "Happy"

Materials needed: "Happy" note sheet

Choose three moments, ideas, inisghts from "Happy" that stood out for you. Which ideas, insights do you think were the most intersting or helpful and why?  Remember...Really listen to people.  Face them, make eye contact, give them some kind of inidcation (verbally or non-verbally) that you heard them. Not only is this a good opportunity to talk about happiness and get to know one another better, those of you who have made improving your discussion and speaking skills a goal for this year have another opportunity to practice your listening and discussion skills.

Activity 2: Write a well-developed seven to ten sentence paragraph which goes into some depth about one of the three take-away moments, ideas, insights which stood out to you.  Provide a brief summary of the scene, context in which it was presented and then talk about why it grabbed your attention.  In reflecting on it, please feel free to share whether or not this idea could be beneficial to you or someone you know and explain why. benefit to people beyond your group. Please post to Canvas. This is a good opportunity to practice writing and reflection skills.

Activity 3: I have recently finished reading your inidvidual learning goal paragraphs, and I loved how thoughtfull virtually all of you were.  Great goals and great ideas for how to work on those goals! Today or tonight, find one online source which you believe might be helpful in developing your chosen skill.  1) Copy and paste it into the Canvas page (and print it if you wish) and 2) write a paragraph explaining why you believe it is a helpful source and how you will use this source during the next several days to develop a particular English skill.

Examples:

I found the following list of SAT-level vocabulary words.  I've heard most of them, but I don't feel that confident about some of the definitions.  I am going to print the list, highlight ten of the words I don't know that well, find their definitions and example sentences online. I will cut and paste them into a document, and then I will then write my own sentences using both the words and context clues. Finally,  I will make a simple quiz to test myself later in the week.

I found the following website which addresses common punctuation mistakes in high school and college papers. 

Independent Reading

In the Library tomorrow!

For the rest of the semester, you will always have a book or magazine you are reading independently.  You may choose any book you want, any genre or topic.  Be sure to pick what you are truly interested in.  Do you think you want to own a motorcycle someday?  Read about motorcycles.  Are you interested in the problem of poverty?  Read about what causes poverty and any related issues.  Like science fiction?  Fantasy?  Movies that were based on books?  Read the book.

If you choose a very short book are finished right away, you will just move to your next one.

Note:  Research shows when students are allowed complete freedom to read what they want, they want to read.  J 

Here are the activities that will keep you accountable for your reading and will allow you “points” in the gradebook:

·        Reading day once a week—Mondays-- in class (and shorter slots I might sneak in)

·        Journal entries (Find them on Canvas under our “Independent Reading” Module)

·        Book talks

Tomorrow Ms. Price will be booktalking books and magazines for you, and you will get your chance to browse titles.  Take notes on ideas and get yourself excited to read what you love.  It’s a wonderful luxury but also an intellectual necessity to read what you ARE INTERESTED IN.  Own your path!