Pettersen's Tips for the Test

Ahead of Time:

• Come prepared with an oxygenated brain – get plenty of sleep and exercise beforehand.
• Arrive early, and ignore other people who are acting nervous and crazy. For the moment, they are not your friends.

______________________________

Creating the Big Picture: Back & Forth
When you start the test, begin a back & forth process of moving between the text and the questions.

Text: First get an overview of the text. Read first and last sentences of paragraphs; skim in between. Think. What is the author’s purpose in writing this passage? What will you need to find out?

Questions: Click through the questions. You don’t need to read every a, b, c option. Just read the stems and ask yourself what they are looking for.

Text: Go back to the text and begin your careful reading.

• If you find something that you know answers a question, you can go back and answer that question immediately.

• Otherwise, just read the whole passage with the questions in mind.

• Keep thinking: Where is the author going? What does he or she want you to get out of the passage?

Questions: Go back to the questions. Reread the stem. Consider what your own answer would be before looking at their choices. Now you need to get really analytical:

• Most of their choices will sound very reasonable. Many will draw words or phrases directly from the passage. Don’t be tricked by that. It’s the meaning, not the exact words, that you’re looking for.

• On vocabulary questions, don’t be tricked by familiar words. They’re likely to give you a familiar word with an unfamiliar meaning.
  
  
• Expect questions that ask you to imagine what the author (or a character if it's fiction) might think or do in a different situation.
  
  
• Save “main idea” and “main purpose” questions for last. You’ll have the best idea of the overall picture after doing the more detailed questions.
  
  
• Analyzing the questions is where most of your brain space needs to go. The reading passage is the easy part. Pick the questions apart. That's where the fine distinctions are. Here is where you need to outfox the test maker. You can do that! You've been analyzing texts all semester. It's time to show off!
  

Pacing:

• Take your time! Some people will leave before you; some will still be working when you get done. Ignore them!
  
• The length of time that the computer keeps giving you passages is irrelevant to your success. Some people are on for a short time and pass. Some are on for a long time and pass.

So put yourself on your own schedule, give it your whole brain, and celebrate when you finish! I should have the scores for you in just a few days.

Ding - THAT WAS EASY!

Assignment for Friday 4/24

We'll be doing test prep practice on Friday. The practice is on handouts that I'll need to email to you, so send me a message asking for them. There will be a quiz on one of them, so you do need to get them.

You need to be caught up on your writing on Eat That Frog through Chapter 18. I'll be checking those on Friday. If there are any assignments that you did not complete over spring break, they need to be turned in for Friday.

Splitting into two groups worked really well last time, so if there's anybody who can come in the "second shift," we'll meet at 1:30. Be on time, because I'll show the end of Shawshank Redemption to both groups at that time.

Assignment for Wednesday 4/1

Just email me, and I'll send you the work!

Assignment for Wednesday 3/25

First, there are several things that need to be made clear:

• Using a cellphone or iPod during class is rude, disrespectful, and disruptive. From now on, doing so will be cause for dismissal from class.
• When the teacher or another student is addressing the class, anyone who cannot listen quietly and respectfully will be dismissed.
• People who do not turn in homework will not be able to take the ACT test at the end of the semester, which means repeating the class.

Shawshank
For Wednesday, the Shawhank assignment is very short because I'm giving you a take-home written test on those pages. The pages are 70 - 73. You need to email me for the test.

Vocabulary
I gave out a new vocabulary page. You need to email me for that as well.

Eat That Frog!
Chapter 12, the usual

Assignment for Friday 3/20

Eat That Frog! Chapter 11 (the usual)

New WordCloud page (you need to email me for it)

LATE paragraph assignment bringing together "Reflections on a Broken Zipper" and Parenting Styles Theory

Bring Why Do People

Hot Potatoes Instructions

• Click on the HotPotatoes.net link under Links on the right-hand side of this page, or go to HotPotatoes.net and click on the log-in link.
• Both your User Name and your Password will be your last name.
• Click on Pages.
• The first set of quizzes is Parenting Styles. As you work in the on-line quiz, use the paper packet to do the analytical marking and to record any that you have trouble with.
• When you finish a quiz, you will flip automatically to the Comments page. In the box, you can send me the numbers of any questions that you missed, and I'll look at them with you.
  
• Then hit the "click here" link to go back to Pages and the next quiz.
• If the computer tells you that you have not completed the quiz, it's because you never found the right answer. On each question, keep working till you get it.

THAT WAS EASY!

Quizlet Instructions

• Go to Quizlet.com or follow the link from my blog.
• Go to the search box in the upper right hand corner. Type in Readspot, and you will go to my page. There are now four sets of quizzes for you to choose from.
• You can start with Familiarize or Learn if you feel like you need it, but I suspect that you’re ready to go straight to the games in the second row. See what you think. Have fun.

Assignment for Wednesday 3/18

Complete the "Zipper" workbook

Paragraph assignment: Analysis of "Reflections on a Broken Zipper" using Baumrind's Theory of Parenting Styles

• Type
• Double space
  

Shawshank pp. 64 - 70

Eat That Frog! Chapter 10 - the usual

Word Cloud: Words about evidence and credibility

• perspective (From my perspective . . .)
  
• discrepancy (There were discrepancies in his story . . .)
  
• incontrovertible (The evidence was incontrovertible.)
  

Assignment for Friday 3/13

Why Do People: Parenting Styles Theory, pp. 105 – 108
Read first sentences of paragraphs and use your BrainBook to record –

• what do you already know about the article?
• what do you need to find out?

Read the passage, marking for main ideas and relevant details.
Evaluate the sample outlines of ¶ 2 on p. 107: which one would you prefer to study from?


Why Do People: “Reflections on a Broken Zipper,” pp. 24, 26, 28, 30, & 32
As you read,

• at the bottom of each page, write in your own words the most important or interesting idea on that page.
• mark at least two places in which you notice the way Canada’s relationship with the kids changes; challenge – relate those changes to parenting styles theory

Why Do People: vocabulary
If you haven't already done pages 20 - 22 in WDP, be sure to catch up on that for Friday.

Eat That Frog, Chapter 9, pp. 56 – 59 (the usual)

WordCloud: preliminary, subsequent, terminal

Assignment for Wednesday 3/11

If you were absent on Friday, email me for the handout that we worked on in class. And here's the new assignment:

Shawshank Redemption, pp. 56 - 64
Complete the last set of workbook pages if you haven't already.

Eat That Frog, Chapter 8, pp. 47 - 55
For your Frog/BrainBook entry,
- do the usual, and
- choose one of the two exercises on page 55.
And ask yourself: Is he realistic? Can you really narrow priorities down to three?

Why Do People: Laila vocabulary, pp. 20 – 22

WordCloud: concur, verify, presumably (words about knowing)

Assignment for Friday 2/6

Why Do People
Written Response: Write one paragraph in which you discuss your opinion of Laila Ali’s decision to box. Should she or should she not have made that move? In that paragraph, include –

• at least one quotation from “Another Ali Enters the Ring";
• the terms intrinsic and extrinsic;
• at least three stages from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Type. Double space. Print. This work will be the basis for our work in class Friday, so getting credit for attendance depends on taking responsibility for this task. Ask me if you have questions.

Analysis: If you had trouble with the Laila – Maslow chart, based on what we talk about in class, go back and fill in at least five boxes in the chart. If you were absent and are having trouble with that, email me. I'll get you started.


Eat That Frog, Chapter 7, pp. 41 – 46
On page 42, the author defines “key result areas.”

• Mark that definition in your book.
• In the next section, Tracy identifies seven key result areas for management and sales. Now consider, what are the 5 – 7 most important aspects of being a student that you are completely responsible for? List those 5 – 7 areas in your BrainBook.
• Follow Tracy’s instructions on p. 44 for giving yourself a grade in each area.
• Also in your BrainBook, answer Tracy’s question: What is the one skill or habit that could have the greatest impact on your career as a student? What would you need to do to enhance it?
  

You’re pretty much working independently in Frog. The people’s BrainBooks that I have seen so far have done a good job of applying the book to their own lives.

Word Cloud: Find or create sentences for adamant, tentative, & pertinent. (If you've already done them, good for you. I'll have new ones for Friday.) Also, catch up with your own words. I’ll be checking them on Friday.

Bring:
Why Do People
Eat That Frog
BrainBook
WordCloud

Assignment for Wednesday 3/4

If you missed class on Friday, you can email me for the assignment: thereadspot@gmail.com.

Assignment for Friday 2/27

In-class Work
If you were absent Wednesday, the first important thing to do is take care of what we did in class:

• Groups worked together to make sure that they had really good answers for the second part of the Maslow workbook. What we found was that although people had done the assignment, their answers were often not specific enough. So double-check your answers to make sure that they show a deep understanding of the text.
• We did a workbook for pages 38-48 of Shawshank Redemption. You can email me for the workbook.

Why Do People
The new assignment in my book is pages 10 and 138. This vocabulary will provide the foundation for reading our next narrative. Page 10 will introduce the vocabulary, and page 138 will help you internalize it.

Page 10:

• Follow the instructions for the top of the page.
• When you get to the two textbook paragraphs in the bottom half of the page, read for key concepts. Mark the 3-5 words that are most important for understanding intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
• When you revisit your lists at the top, mark them: Which ones are intrinsically motivated? Which are extrinsically motivated? For which are you not motivated at all?
  

Page 135:

• Follow the instructions for analyzing the examples.
• For the "Create Your Own" activity, instead of choosing any old activity, take this opportunity for thinking about the activity that you wrote your Initial Motivation Essay about. Explore that activity in writing. What are the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for that activity? You can use your BrainBook for this thinking. You should be able to get at least a half-page of thinking about this.

BrainBooks & Word Clouds
I checked in people's BrainBook and WordCloud work. I purposely did not give a new Eat That Frog or vocabulary assignment because I want to check in on people's work before we go any further, so be sure that you're caught up. Email me if you have any questions.

Assignment for Wednesday 2/25

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
On Friday, we completed page 2 - 5 in the Maslow's Hierarchy workbook, pages 2 - 5. For Wednesday, you can make up those pages and --

• complete the workbook, i.e., pages 6 - 13. We'll analyze your responses in class.;
• continue to write the 3 - 5 most important ideas at the bottom of each page of text;
  
• you can skip page 9; we'll do that together.

On Friday, the class was really getting the idea of deep analysis in the text, so on Wednesday we'll go to the next level and start assessing your answers. Yes, that would be metacognition.

Email me for a copy if you don't have the Maslow handout.

Shawshank Redemption
Read pages 38 - 48. Thought question: Why does Andy have such a powerful effect on the other men?

Eat That Frog!
Read Chapter 5, pp. 33 - 35
Continue to mark up the text and respond in your BrainBook. I'll be checking BrainBooks on Wednesday.

Word Cloud

• I called a moratorium on new words till next week. (Not sure what a moratorium is? Look it up! It's a useful word.) We're going to practice with the ones we have before moving on.
• We did a practice page on our old words in class on Friday. Email me for it.

Email me if you have any questions. See you Wednesday!

Catch-up
If you haven't done the Initial Motivation Essay, you need to submit that by Wednesday.

• The instructions are on page 8 of Why Do People.
  
• Please type & double space.
  

Email me if you have questions.

Assignment for Friday 2/20

Why Do People
I gave out a handout that's connected with Why Do People. You can email me for it.

Eat That Frog! pp. 30-32
The usual: Mark for most important ideas. Use your BrainBook to reflect on what it has to do with you.

Word Cloud
New words: generalization, specificity, explicit
Here's a definition for one of our earlier words:
irony - incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs
We'll talk about what that means.

Staying Caught Up
Under Labels on the right hand side of this page, you can click on Assignments to review back assignments and make sure that you are caught up.

• Especially, be sure to do the Initial Motivation Essay that was due Wednesday. I've made a label for it on the right side of this page.
• I'll be checking BrainBooks and Word Clouds on Friday, so make sure you're at least on the right path even if you're not totally caught up.

Email me if you have any questions.

Ground Rules

Responsibility for Homework
Starting Wednesday, I will not teach any students who have not taken responsibility for their homework. I will mark them absent and send them to the library to do their work. My attention belongs to those who have taken responsibility for their work.

Expecting to pass a class without doing the work is not an adult expectation.

Classroom Behavior
Anyone who is being disruptive towards a classmate will be dismissed and will not be allowed back into class until they have had a meeting with the Associate Dean for Student Affairs.

Anyone who is being bothered by a classmate remains responsible for his or her own behavior. Disruptiveness is not acceptable, regardless of the cause. Do not lower yourself to someone else's level.

Responsibility for Class Materials
If you are not yet able to purchase a book, take responsibility for making arrangements with me. We will work something out. Simply showing up without the work is not acceptable.

Turning in Work
Do not wait for me to ask for class work. If you have completed something and want to receive credit for it, put it in the basket on my desk.

If you did not have time to complete something during class, finish it for the next time and put it in my basket.

Diligence & Persistence
This class has huge potential for doing good work. Let's do it. Show me.

Assignment for Wednesday 2/18

Make-up
If you did not complete the assignment for Friday, 2/13, check below and get caught up.


Why Do People: Initial Motivation Essay
The instructions for the essay are on page 8 of WDP.

• Please type, double-space, and bring a printed copy to class.
• Save it on your computer or a flash drive. You will be revising it later.

This essay will be the seed for later writing that we do as we read the various theories of motivation in the book, so it is important to have it as a starting point. Email me if you have any questions about it.

Shawshank Redemption. pp. 25-36
Focus Question: Be prepared to discuss -- What are the two deepest things that Red learned about Andy. (There is no right or wrong answer here as long as you can support it with evidence.)

Caveat: If you find the subject matter of pages 32-35 distressing, you may skip them, but be sure to read the rest.

Eat That Frog! pp. 25-29
Do the usual:

• Mark the three most interesting/important ideas.
• Choose one to discuss in your BrainBook. What's the idea, and what does it have to do with you?
  

Three New Words

• objective
• subjective
• miscreant

Make sure that you've also found four words of your own for the week.

Bring:
Shawshank
Frog
Pens in two colors

Assignment for Friday 2/13

Email!!!
If you haven't already sent me your email address, please take responsibility for doing that. There's a great online site that I want to invite everybody into.

Wrap-up from Wednesday
If you didn't have time to finish the analytical reading pages on Wednesday, finish them up and I'll collect them at the beginning of class. If you were absent, you can email me for the handout.

Eat That Frog!
Read Chapter 3 and do the usual:

• Mark the three most important or interesting ideas.
• Choose one of those ideas and use your BrainBook to explore it: Put it in your own words and think on paper -- what does it have to do with you?

You can just bring your BrainBook entry with you on Friday. You won't need the actual Frog book.

Why Do People, pp. 86-88
Do the vocabulary exercise at the end of "A Retrieved Reformation." Bring a colored pen -- you'll be checking those pages in groups.

"Word Cloud" Words

• cognition
• articulate
• irony

1. Look them up and fill in the definitions on the handout.
2. Go online and find at least one sentence using each of the words. You can Google the word along with something that you're interested in, for example, cognition and basketball or irony and computer graphics or articulate and music. No matter what interests you, these words are probably going to show up.
Once you get to the webpage, I think you can hit control-F to find the word you're looking for. We'll talk Friday about how this is working.

BrainBook Question of the Week
If you want to learn in a class, what are the advantages and disadvantages of working in groups?

• What is a good group? What happens to make it good? What do people do?
• Can a group expedite your learning? Can it enhance your cognition? If so, how?

Use your BrainBook to explore this question. We'll discuss it in class.

Bring:

• at least one colored pen
  
• Why Do People
• BrainBook (I'll start checking in the work that people have done in it)

Thinking Ahead
Your Shawshank assignment for Wednesday will be pp. 25-36.

Assignment for Wednesday 2/11

Shawshank Redemption

• Read through page 25.
• Be prepared for a KWIKquiz over those pages. My KWIKquizzes are very simple. If you have simply read the assignment, you will pass them.
  

Eat That Frog! Chapter Two

• In the text, mark the three most important or most interesting ideas in the chapter.
• In your BrainBook, choose one of those ideas and explore in writing -- what does it have to do with you?

I will start doing spot checks in BrainBooks on Wednesday, so make sure that you've done this part of the assignment.


Word Cloud: Academic Vocabulary
I will start giving you three academic vocabulary words to look up for each class. Come prepared with these definitions.

• conjecture
• misanthrope
• succinct

I'll explain the rest of the "Word Cloud" to you in class.


In-class readings from Friday: Why Do People Do What They Do?
We worked on the Theory of Moral Development (p. 123), and we read the short story "A Retrieved Reformation" (79-83). We'll do some follow-up on those readings on Wednesday, so familiarize yourself with the theory and have fun reading the story -- it's a great one.

You can email me if you have any questions (thereadspot@gmail.com). If you haven't sent me your email address yet, please do that too. See you in H347 on Wednesday.

Assignment for Friday 2/6

1. Please send an email to me at thereadspot@gmail.com so I can get in touch with all of you if I need to.

2. Read Chapter 1 of Eat That Frog!

• In the text, mark the three most important or most interesting ideas in the chapter.
• In your BrainBook, choose one of those ideas and explore in writing -- what does it have to do with you?

I'll start doing spot checks on BrainBooks on Friday, so don't come with an empty book!

3. Read page 123 of Why Do People Do What They Do? (WDP)

• Have fun with the Heinz Question. You don't need to mark up those two paragraphs unless you want to.
  
• For each of the other paragraphs, do some thoughtful marking. Mark the 3-5 words that you think best capture the meaning of the paragraph. If you were going to study from your markings a month from now, what words would help you the most?

Consider the possibility of a KWIKquiz (my quick way of knowing that you took mature adult responsibility for your work!).

Catch-Up
The following should be already submitted. If you haven't turned them in, they'll be LATE, but you still need to turn them in:

• choice newspaper article;
• "Colors" open notes.

I also need a Student Info form if you haven't done that yet. Please ask me for it if you don't have one.

For Wednesday, 2/11:

Shawshank Redemption

• Pages 15 - 25; mark for evidence of character -- What kind of guy is the narrator? What kind of guy is Andy Dufresne? What kind of evidence does Steven King give us that lets us know who these guys are?
• Circle any juicy vocabulary words that you find. Choose one to look up and write the meaning in the margin.
  

Eat That Frog!

• Chapter 2
• The usual: Mark the three most interesting ideas. Choose one to explore in your BrainBook.

I'll explain a short writing assignment on Friday.

Assignment for Wednesday 2/4

Email
Send an email to me at thereadspot@gmail.com so I'll have everyone's address in a mailing list.

"Colors" open notes

• Based on the passage, create the 1/2 page of notes that you would want to bring in with you for an open notes test.
  
• This exercise will be the basis of an activity that we'll do next week, so bring something that you can be proud to share.
  

Eat That Frog!

• Read the Introduction.
• In the text, mark the three ideas that you think are most interesting or important.
• Choose one of those ideas. In your Brain Book or on your blog, make an entry in which you explore: What does that idea have to do with me -- the way I do things, my goals, my habits . . . (When I give a list of things to write about, you don't have to do them all. I'm just giving you some ideas for getting started.)
• Be prepared to present your "most important idea" for small group discussion. You don't have to agree with the author. Your presentation can be an argument against his recommendations as long as you're prepared to give logical reasons for your argument. Or, if you think he's right, why?
  

Your group will be doing some intensive vocabulary exploration based on this chapter, so prepare yourself by familiarizing yourself with the text.


Brain Book
Choose two of the following for entries in your Brain Book:

• What is a neuron, and what do neurons have to do with us?
• What is the Year of the Ox, and what does the Year of the Ox have to do with us?
• How does stress affect the brain, and what does it have to do with us?
• Choose one of our Cool Words. Google it along with a topic that interests you. Copy the most interesting sentence into your Brain Book. Copy and paste all three sentences into an email and send them to me at thereadspot@gmail.com.

Be prepared to share one of your Brain Book entries with your group.


Vocabulary, ongoing
Any time you come across juicy words, either in class readings or in the world, collect them. Start listing them in the vocabulary section of your notebook.


Wednesday: H347
Bring supplies, Shawshank Redemption, and Eat that Frog!

Fridays we will meet in LB26.

Setting up your own Blog

If you want to experiment with your own blog, click on the link in the upper right-hand corner and follow the instructions. I think you'll have to set up a Gmail account if you don't already have one. That's cool -- Gmail is great and you're going to need it for some class activities anyway, so go for it. Let me know if you have questions.

Some Cool Words

prodigious
eloquent
philanthropist

misanthrope
conjecture

ReadSpot Question of the Week

Why bother? What good is a prodigious vocabulary? We all know enough basic words to communicate what we need. Why bother?

Comment below.

Welcome

This is our class class blog. You can find assignments here, add comments, go to links, and start your own blog if you'd like. Welcome to the class.

Wednesdays: We'll be meeting in H327.
Be sure to bring your QCC ID for checking out a laptop.

Fridays: We'll be meeting in LB26.
Anyone who would like to bring a laptop is welcome to do that.