CYCLE 10 - DAY 5 - SEMESTER 1: What does it mean to "follow"?

After we took a brief quiz on Unit 5 Vocabulary, we broke into small groups to discuss last night's reading and your paragraphs. Here are the specific issues I asked you to address.

Each small group discussed:

• Remember our opening activity to the book when we talked about teams and leaders? We were reticent to use the word “follower” because it seemed like a backhanded compliment. Together, discuss HOW your ideas about followership have changed as a result of getting this far in the novel, reading these articles, and analyzing the character you chose for your 12-sentence paragraph today.
• Together, create a list of key traits that the articles suggest are essential to good followership.
• Consider this: Being a member of a class is also being a follower of sorts. The articles don’t cover all the traits required to being a good class member. What traits are missing from the discussion so far? Write your list in answer to questions 2 & 3 on the board

When the group reconvened, we reviewed the list and came up with the top three rules that, if followed by everyone, will make class meaningful, enjoyable & productive. (Ultimately, these three simple terms summarize what we want our lives to be, so why not begin that journey of a thousand steps here and see where it takes us?) There are certain base assumptions we made in this: we assume that everyone in the class wants to do well and that everyone does his or her best to be prepared for class. If this isn't describing your attitude and approach, see me, please.

Group 2 came up with the following rules:

• Demonstrate respect toward others, always.
• Think before you speak (and think all the time).
• Challenge yourself and others in a useful way.

HOMEWORK:

Revise your paragraph, adding 2 to 3 sentences to it (you may do more), however you choose, that address the class dynamic we discussed today. You may choose to focus on your own participation or on the class dynamic as a whole. You can put the sentences wherever you wish. They need to be integrated into the paragraph and not just tacked on. That means you'll need to give some careful thought to transitioning (e.g. Just as Fiver tried to appear curious when looking at the fish so that others would follow him onto the bridge, I've feigned interest in passages just to get the conversation going again...). Look for parallels between your experience, the articles and the novel. My goals in assigning this are three-fold:

1. I want you to focus on transitions in your writing.
2. I want you to synthesize fiction, non-fiction and discussion in your thinking.
3. I want you to articulate your authentic ideas and reflections.

The paragraph, typed and double-spaced, is due on Wednesday. To cite the newspaper articles, you need only place the author's name in parentheses.