So for this past week Warren and I have been working on and discussing our unit rationales. I felt it would be more reasonable if we only focused on the first two points that the rationale is supposed to cover: Describing the course and describing the students, class, and community we have cultivated. On top of that, we decided to create a lesson plan on a reading strategy. I plan on teaching the reading strategy that I picked within the first weeks of class to use for my own reading comphrension for Smago. With this reading strategy I am working on implementing I will expect students to actively interact with the text in order to comprehend the content of the text. I figure, if I can get students to master this reading strategy in an article, they will be able to use the strategy for more complex texts that I plan on using in the unit.  Then from there on, students will be able to implement different strategies during the unit for all the texts they will be reading to insure comprehension. I purposely want this lesson to be within the first week of my unit because I want students to know the difference between what an author is “saying” vs what an author is “doing.” Students will be able to identify power verbs and use them in analyzing a text. This reading strategy also scaffolds into teaching summary and analysis, which relates to my working UNIT RATIONALE THESIS.

Thesis- My unit will reflect how student’s need to practice analyzing and evaluating characters and situations, but also take note on their everyday life decisions through the different texts. In order to challenege students to do this I will have them practice realistic skill-based activities that they can apply to their present, past or future. 

Also, I am pretty excited about reading the book, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. I know for a fact students will find this high-interest and we can make our own 6-word memoirs based on a topic we are covering in the unit. However, I am struggling with the "so what" aspect of using this book. Any help with how I can make it more relevant my unit on little decisions impacting lives in big ways? I have some ideas, but i'd love feedback!

Here is a link to get more information on the book! Some are pretty entertaining, while others more serious, which I think is a great balance.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2252947.Not_Quite_What_I_Was_Planning