10/27/08

Discussion of Acculturative Stress

Small groups were assigned one of the 4 paragraphs. They had to decide what was the main idea of that paragraph. Each group reported to the whole class.

1. Acculturating is stressful and affects psychological health.

Homework:

From Quiz on Chapter 17 (returned corrected today) rewrite your answer to question #3

Read La Línea Chapter 20

Read and think about CR3, page 89 and respond in your journal

10/22/08

Political Discussion 

Viewing of Political parody: Amy Poeler sings Sarah Palin's Rap

 nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/update-palin-rap/773781/

Whole class discussion of Pages 79 and 81 of CR3

For La Línea individual students were assigned a chapter to summarize and also to look for repetitive or overly dramatic language. 

Calendar Syllabus was passed out and reviewed.

Homework:

CR3 pages 83-86

Write in your Journal about "Acculturative Stress"

10/20/08

Whole class review of CR3 pages 63-78

Students practiced identifying: topic sentence, example, explanation and concluding sentences in 3 different paragraphs

La Línea Chapter 17 Quiz

1. Why does Elena tell Miguel to forget about their mother's letters?

2. Why did Elena lie to Miguel about her money?

3. Who do Miguel and Elena try to call? How do they react to the phone call? Are they strong or are they weak?

4. Why can't Elena return to San Jacinto?

Final Project Interview Questions

Students brainstormed possible questions: 

Where are you from?

What did you used to do in your home country?

How long have you lived here?

Why did you decide to come to this country? Where your reasons good reasons?

How did you cross the border? Where did you cross?

Did you come alone or with others?

Did you come to find or be reunited with family?

Homework

Read Chapter 18 of La Línea

Read and write pages 79-82 of College Reading 3

"Secret" Instructions

Email your professor and type "Final Project" in the subject line. Dead line 5:00PM on 10/20/08

10/15/08

Students treated La Línea chapter 16 in an opposite manner. We focused on finding 3 unimportant events or details. Each student wrote 3 but reported to the whole class 1. We built a list of 5 unimportant events. Examples: 

Miguel saw 4 rats. 

Elena spread out her shawl.

Then the whole class refocused on the important events. 

Class discussed the significance of the word "Inference" (what was being said implicitly in the third to the last paragraph). In other words what did we learn about Colmillo, what might he do?

Posed with the statement that Ann Jaramillo's writing style is too dramatic, students individually rewrote the same paragraph to make it less dramatic.

To reinforce the lesson, students read the paragraph that starts "In a small monotone..." on page 51. They identified the following:

1. What is one unimportant detail?

2. Where exactly is Ann Jaramillo being too dramatic?

3. What can you infer from the paragraph?

Homework:

Check the Class's blog for "secret" instructions

Read College Reading 3 pages 77-79

Read Chapter 17 of La Línea

10/13/08

Students took a "pop" quiz on College Reading III pages 63-65.

These were the questions:

1. Who is Hans Selye? What did he contribute to psychology? (5 points)

2. Define the following words/phrases: (1 point each)

   Trigger:

   Fight or Flight:

   Arousal:

   Compare: Psychological and Physiological

3. Write a paragraph. Choose ONE of the following:

     

    A. What did you learn from pages 63-65?

    B. How many stages of stress are there? Describe them.

Whole class discussion of answers and the reading strategies that could have led students to some success even if they had very little time to read the selection:

     Read the first paragraph (question one could be answered in its entirety by reading only the first paragraph. 

     Read all titles and subtitles: Answer 3 B could have be roughly answered if only these titles were read. 

Class worked in groups of 3 to answer questions about La Línea Chapters 13, 14 and 15 on worksheet page 17.

Homework:

Read Chapter 16 of La Línea and finish worksheet page 17

Read Page 66 if CR3 and finish all five sentences. 

10/8/08

Following the format from last Monday. Students answered the following question by writing a paragraph

What important events happened in Chapter 14 of La Línea?

Students then worked in pairs to grade each other's work. They used a simple "matrix:" 

1 point for a clear introduction that echoed words from the original question above

1 point for each separate event ( total of 2) unless their topic sentence clearly stated that there was only one important event and then the 2 points could be gained if they showed in 2 or three sentences the importance of that one event. 

1 point for sounding like the paragraph was over for a total of 4 points. 

The teacher circled and asked each student to quickly justify the grade they assigned their partner. 

Return of Quizzes and paragraphs from last week. 

The class defined the following vocabulary and the teacher tied their use to events in chapter 12 and 13.

Singled out

Reckless

Conspicuous

Whole class discussion of CR3 pages 51 thru 61

Homework:

Read Chapter 15 of Laínea

Re-write your paragraph from today (see above)

Read pages 63 through 65 of CR3 (this time you must write in your Journal about this specific reading).

10/6/08

Quiz on Chapter 13 (with direct connection to chapter 12)

Whole class discussion regarding whether the actions of the Federal Agents was realistic or perhaps stereotypical. 

The class built a list of descriptive adjectives for Captain Morales.

Handouts were given with instructions for the classes Final Project (check back for a posting here).

Whole class discussion on CR3 reading regarding Stress. 

Homework:

Read Chapter 14 of La Línea

Read up to page 61 of College Reading 3

Remember to keep writing in your journals

10/1/08

Students asked to write a paragraph to answer the following question:

"What important events happen in Chapter 12 of La Línea?"

Students worked in pairs to "grade" each other's work with the following criteria:

Does the introductory sentence answer or address the question (look for the key words "important" and "event")? Give one point.

Does the paragraph discuss at least 2 seperate events? (unless the intro sentence states one important event) Give one point for each.

Does the paragraph have an ending? Look for an opinion, a dramatic statement, or phrases such as: "Finally..." "In the end..." or "By the end of the chapter..." Give one point. 4/4 is a perfect score.

Students were shown their current grades.

Whole class discussion of pages 51-53 of CR3.

Homework:

Re-write today's paragraph (see above)
Read pages 54-57 of CR3
Read Chapter 13 of La Línea
Continue writing in your Journals