1. Today: Analyzing and Constructing Perfect Paragraphs
9/15/16 BR: How does a person’s identity affect their participation in our democracy? -Election Judge Registration!
Today: Analyzing and Constructing Perfect Paragraphs

2. Important moments in my Life
Event #1
Description
Who/What made it possible
How did it shape your identity
Event #2
Event #3
Extension – Due Friday!

3. In This Class.. Student voices count
You will be discussing controversial issues with people of different opinions
You will be collaborating with classmates on a variety of projects
You will be engaging the community
You will be engaged in civic life

4. On your notebook (left side)
What makes a successful classroom?
What does it look like
Sound like?
How are people acting?
What are people doing?
What is happening?
What is the teacher doing?
What are you doing?
Take a few minutes to write
Compare with a partner and discuss
Join with another pair, discuss, revise, add to you list
Record your list on butcher paper and post it

5. What next?
As a Class, lets make a list of the most common characteristics (5-10)

6. Is our class a community?
Discuss why we think it is or is not.

7. Consider..
Communities are not built of friends, or of groups with similar styles and tastes, or even of people who like and understand each other. They are built of people who feel they are part of something that is bigger than themselves: a shared goal or enterprise, like righting a wrong, or building a road, or raising children, or living honorably, or worshipping a god. To build community requires only the ability to see value in others, to look at them and see a potential partner in one’s enterprise. —From A City Year, by Suzanne Goldsmith

8. Community Use the provide guide and rewrite the quote
What does this quotation mean? Chunking the quotation into smaller sections and rewriting each chunk in your own words may help you answer that question . The following steps can help you:
Read the passage aloud . Read it several times .
Circle words that are unfamiliar .
Use context clues to help you define those words . If that doesn’t work, look up the words .
Write synonyms for these new words in the text .
Use the provide guide and rewrite the quote

9. Can You Answer? To be a community, must members like each other?
Do you agree that communities always have a shared goal or enterprise?
Are those who do not contribute to the shared goal/enterprise still considered members of the community?
Does being a member of a community come with responsibilities?
Based on your new understanding of community, do you think our classroom is a community? Why or why not? If not, what would it take to make the classroom a community?
How does being a member of a community shape your identity? Think about the communities that you belong to (perhaps some were represented in the objects you brought in during the last lesson) and how they influence you.
Do you think communities can function effectively without being organized in some way? Why or why not?