1. Critical Thinking Topic: Faith v. Evidence

2. Journal #15: Memoirs (a biography or an account of historical events)
Ernest Hemmingway was once challenged to enter a competition in which he was required to write a novel in 6 words.
He wrote: For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
It is said that he won that competition.
There is now a book out called Not quite what I was planning that is a compilation of these 6-word memoirs.
What would you say if you only had 6 words?

3. Here are some Examples:
Cursed with cancer. Blessed with friends.
I still make coffee for two.
Painful nerd kid, happy nerd adult.
Years in the closet. Why? Why?
Followed yellow brick road. Disappointment ensued.
Recent doctorate means overeducated and underemployed.
Soul’d out so I could prophet.
Taking a lifetime to grow up.
I threw away my teddy bear.
Followed rules, not dreams. Never again.

4. Creating text dependent questions
A very important tool we use when we read (and when we read to write) is creating questions.
Writers have always understood that although they put the words on the page, those words carry different meanings for different readers.
The best readers (and writers) do more than simply draw upon the basic definition of words; they explore the understandings of those words that the reader brings to the text and weigh them against the apparent understandings of the author.

5. Creating text dependent questions
MOST teachers, however, give you the text-dependent questions.
Think of readings you do, then answer questions the teacher provides (I totally do this too).
But it is SOOOO much better to generate those questions yourself.

6. Creating text dependent questions steps
Read “Hands” by Sherwood Anderson.
THIS IS A HARD TEXT.
Simply mark the spots where you feel confused, have a question, or wonder about something.
JUST MARK!!!! Don’t write anything.
Reread the story.
This time, pause at each mark you made and write a question about the text or comment about the confusion you felt.
Sometimes, we cant reread the entire section. Too much time. Buy we can go back and comment (sometimes rereading the section).

7. Creating text dependent questions steps
4) Let collect our questions and generate a list.

8. Creating text dependent questions steps
5) In pairs or trios, look at the list of questions. Pick the 3 or 4 that you find the most interesting and discuss.
TAKE NOTES ON YOUR DISCUSSION
6) As a class, lets work through a few of the most interesting questions.

9. How Generating Questions works for Into the Wild (And for the year)
You will be asked to share one of your TD q’s during class or group discussion for all of us to talk about.
My goal for the entire semester is to slowly take the responsibility of your learning AWAY from me and give it to you. Students are almost always totally dependent on teachers for learning, and that is terribly sad.

11. Dj’s
You will have one due at the end of each week (So one DJ for each section of reading…NOT each chapter)

12. Section 1 (summary) Chapters numbers EXAMPLE: Chapters 1-5
Bullet point summary (at least 6)
EXAMPLE:
•Blah blah blah

13. Section #2 (Text dependent question)
Text-dependent questions FOR EACH CHAPTER
EXAMPLE: Chapter #1 “Why didn’t Chris pack enough supplies?”
Thoughts (a couple sentences each)
EXAMPLE: Maybe Chris wasn’t sure how to survive out there. HE could have assumed he would find whatever he needed on the road.

14. Section 3 (Deep question)
Using your text-dependent questions as a guide, generate a deep questions. Deep, or thematic, questions should not:
Have an answer that can be found in the book
Have answer that cannot be debated
Reference a specific character, place, scene, object from the book
After generating the question, explore it in a one pager.

15. Starting reading Into the Wild
Lets start reading…