English 101: Fall 2015

Deborah L. Harrington

Goals for Tonight

• Get to know one another (create connections with fellow students and build supportive relationships)

• Build class norms and strategies for success in order to thrive over the course of the semester

Count Off Groups

• In your groups, discuss and summarize your answers to the following:– Why are you here (taking this class tonight at

LAVC)?– What makes a good college student?– To what extent do the qualities that make a good

college student correspond to your reasons for taking this course and for being in college? To what extent do they not?

Pair & Share

• Read the article section to yourself; jot down some thoughts to yourself; locate “golden lines”—i.e. lines that resonate for you.

• In your “color-coded” group (all the purples meet with all the other purples, etc.), develop a short summary of the section you’ve read—each of you should take notes for yourself as you and your colleagues discuss and synthesize the article section together.

1. Return to your Home group2. In your home group, teach each other

your section of the article

Carol Dweck ends her article stating, “Most of all, teach them that by taking on challenges, making mistakes, and putting forth effort, they are making themselves smarter.” What is one strategy you can implement to help yourself and your fellow students internalize the value of challenges, mistakes, and/or effort, which in turn can help us create a more powerful classroom experience this semester?

Mindset 101

Class Norms: What will help this be a learning environment in which you will thrive this semester?

Syllabus Overview• What We Will Do This

Semester & How We Will Do It

• Required Materials• Overall Policies for Course

Success• Rubrics for Course

Success• Resources for Success

Homework• Read Ch. 1 of Lies My Teacher Told Me by Loewen (posted

on the class website and the class FB group): Write a Reading Response following the guidelines given in your syllabus.

• Choose a figure from U.S. History (not mentioned in the Loewen chapter) who you feel has gone through a process of hero-making and one who has not. Write a 2-4 page analysis describing why you think this hero-making has happened or not happened for each and what this says about U.S. society and cultural values. Make sure to list the sources you’ve consulted in preparing your answer.

• Place both parts of your homework in your journal and bring to class next time.