Opportunities 1 & 2

This post is to show you what my expectations were for the last two opportunities that you have taken and encourage you to dig in for the upcoming 3rd.  I thought my map might amuse you - I did not practice drawing the map as I asked you guys to do - you can tell I really don't know what Central America, South America and Canada look like - I just have a vague concept from memory.  Some indian tribes and explorers I confuse and am unsure about without looking - still!

Opportunity 1


For the last opportunity I gave you a list of possible questions - and gave you a hint to be prepared to answer not just the easy ones.  (That meant be prepared to answer the harder ones!)  As you can see below all of the information to answer this question was in the text - I've provided page numbers for your convenience.  You will notice however that all of the information is not on the same page - it's not a simple look at the question, find that part of the text and copy down the answer.  You will not have any (very few at least) questions like that in the next two years.

That's why its' VERY, VERY important that you begin to learn to read in a different way.  I know that it is possible for every one of you to read this weeks Bennett homework in one hour or less.  Very few of you (maybe none - I certainly can't) can read it once in an hour or less and be able to retain the information and answer the questions (which requires you to grasp the ideas and think about what you've read).  That's why I'm asking you to do different levels of reading.  I expect you to spend at least 3 hours each week - reading slowly for understanding/misunderstanding, scan reading for information (timeline/important people), and a deeper reading of portions of the text working through your questions. 

Please read your text slowly - break it into small bites/bytes.  After each one stop and see if you can repeat to yourself what you just read.  Then move onto the next chunk taking breaks every 25 minutes.  This is how you read the text the first time.  That 'repeating to yourself' has a special name - 'narrating'.  In order for you to learn something your brain actually goes through a physical change.  You can retain information for a short period without your brain making the effort to 'change', but then it falls out like sand in a sieve!  When you narrate (a form of paraphrasing) your brain must act on what you've read.  That acting causes a physical change in your brain which causes you to LEARN not just retain.  You then own it - you've made it yours!

This is ACTIVE reading not PASSIVE reading.

PLEASE DON'T BE A PASSIVE READER!
Opportunity 2