B1 - Students were placed into their peer groups today. As an extension of what we discussed in class last time, groups discussed a chart of additional differences between high school and college, and we were able to discuss some of the most meaningful differences as a class. Students read through "My Five-Paragraph-Theme Theme," and we discussed the expectations for writing in W131, which will steer away from this older form of writing. For quite a while, we then discussed Solomon Asch's line experiment and the article "Opinions and Social Pressure." We discussed Asch's procedure and his findings then watched a Dateline episode in which the staff of the show worked with a psychology professor to duplicate the original study. From here, I asked students to take a look at the chart on page 7 of WRAC. We discussed the stages of the writing process we will go through in creating your first paper, the Summary. At this point, it will be necessary to re-read Asch's article and break it down into various "chunks" or stages of thought. As you re-read it, think about which paragraphs "go" together and why. In the last ten minutes, I asked students to write three goals for this class. Goals should be specific and measurable. Come up with an action plan for yourself so that you can be held accountable in some way. Assignments: Finish writing your three goals. In addition, please go ahead and divide Asch's article into 14-18 (or so) sections or stages of thought. Once you have those divisions, go back and write one good, thorough and complete sentence which summarizes EACH of those 14-18 stages. In total, then, you will have 14-18 sentences which should thoroughly summarize Asch's article as a whole. Don't boil it down too far. Details of the experiment and Asch's statistics, especially, are important to include. I will check those summarizing sentences in class on Friday, and we will spend some time in class discussing ways to revise those sentences in order to translate them into the Summary paper. In your syllabus and on your homework calendar, you also have some supplementary reading to do before we start drafting the first Summary paper next week. Please make sure you read through those pages in order to maximize your potential for success on this first paper.
B3 - Parent Contact Information forms DUE. Checked character and setting charts. Despite the fact that more than half of the class did not complete the charts, we were able to discuss Chapters 1-3, and students took brief notes from the board. For the remainder of the block, we conducted a class "Reaping." A male and female tribute were chosen from this class. Assignment: Read Chapters 4-6 and be prepared for a quiz. The quiz could include information from Chapters 1-6, so please be ready. If you have not yet completed the charts or the first three chapters, please catch up ASAP. It is too early to be behind!!
B4 - Students received a copy of SAT Vocab. List #19, and we discussed what my SAT vocab. tests will look like this semester. Next, we read through and discussed handouts regarding the 5W's and 1 H and the Expectations for the Research Paper assignment. Students received a copy of the brainstorming list of topics we generated in class on the first day. The remainder of the block was dedicated to a variety of brainstorming activities and a journal which were completed with a group. Assignment: Letters of Introduction, parent contact information forms, and journals DUE on Friday. In addition, please complete the remainder of the Brainstorming packet. BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE ON FRIDAY!