Week+1

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 * Class planning grid for evening course ** (2.5 hrs)
 * Time || Teaching and Learning Activities || Resources ||
 * 15 min || Intro to American Lit video clips || Powerpoint ||
 * 10 min || Pass out and review syllabus || Syllabus hard copies ||
 * 10 min || Pass out and review Academic Contract || Academic Contract Hard Copies ||
 * 10 min || Introduction to the Wiki || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Internet/Wiki access ||
 * 10 min || Intro to Second Life portion of class/virtual classroom || Internet/SL access ||
 * 30-45 min || Student Interviews and Presentations of Each Other || Prizes for most memorable ||
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">10 min || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Overview of American History (background of what we're covering) || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Notes and Powerpoint and timelines ||
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">10 min || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Short group assignment--discuss time periods || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">
 * 10 min || Open discussion (Q & A) ||  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">5 min || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Closing activity || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">

Not long? Good. This class may be a review for you. Very long? Don't worry. Even if it's been a while, you'll have plenty of choices for projects and opportunities to ask questions. || This is looking like a great group! I'm so excited to see what you come up with this semester! || I'd say you're well on your way to knowing how to ace this class! || I can't wait to work with you to see what amazing things you create! ||
 * Attention || Relevance || Confidence || Satisfaction ||
 * Video Clip intro || While this class covers the first "half" of American Literature, many of you would be surprised at just how much of our modern culture is shaped by these early authors. || How long has it been since your last American literature course?
 * So who's ready to learn how to get an A in this class? || For those of you who have not encountered an academic contract before, this course will give you your first taste of a method that's being used by more and more instructors here at this university. || So now you have the contract, you have what is expected for each item and you have a lot of the rubrics I'll be using for grading.
 * Look to your left. Now, look to your right. Do you know either of these people? Well, you're about to! || Now you're getting to know the people you might be working with in groups. See? You're not strangers anymore! || Next week, we'll be picking our permanent groups, so be thinking about who you'd like to group up with. || We have a lot of interesting people in here!

Prizes ||
 * What if I told you this class could help you in a lot of your other classes? || By getting an image of the "big picture" of which authors were writing through events, you can use this knowledge to "hook into" when studying further in American history but also in understanding other fields (for example, business, education, law, etc.) || Small group assignment--talking about events/authors of interest. || Wow! Sounds like some of you are well on your way to filling out that academic contract. ||

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Introduction Activity--Student Interviews and Presentations of Each Other This activity is meant to get the students talking to each other and well on the way to being comfortable enough to do group work, etc. Opening Line--<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;">Look to your left. Now, look to your right. Do you know either of these people? Well, you're about to! Have students pair up. These two students should "interview" each other. The object is to come up with three interesting things about the other person (what makes this person memorable?) Once the interviews are done, we'll go around the room and each student will "present" the student he/she interviewed. After everyone has been presented, the class will take a quick vote on who was the most memorable. Prize(s) go to the winner(s).

Short Group Assignment-- For a few minutes, let's group up in small groups (try to keep it to four people). Chat amongst yourselves about the time period/author you think you'd most like to work with for this class. Jot down your ideas. Hopefully, this will help you select what texts you want to use for your projects. (When we come back together as a class, ask if anyone wants to share what they want to do. Explore their reasons.)

Closing activity-- In the last five minutes here, please jot down a question you'd like to ask about the syllabus, academic contract, wiki, second life, the texts we'll be covering, whatever. Don't put your name on it. Pass it to me before you leave. I'll post them to the wiki and answer as many of them as I can before next week.