Transitions-Day 1

• We started today's session with a brief "Getting to Know You" handout.  After the students completed it, we had various students share their responses.  Not only does this help us to get to know each student, it helps the students to get to know each other.
• The last question on the form asked the students about what is important in a classroom (ie Respect). We used this list to develop classroom Norms.
• After the Norms, we took the group on a campus tour.
• Once we returned to the classroom, (@ 10am), the students completed a 16 sentence fill-in the blank activity for Chapter 1 of Ender's Game.  This pre-reading activity is meant to get the students thinking about the topics and events that they will read about in Chapter 1.  It is also set up so that they most likely can complete the entire thing even without having read the story. 
• We then introduced note-taking.   When a teacher tells you to take notes on a chapter, what does that mean?  We decided that you should look for main characters, setting, major changes, key ideas/words.
• We then listened to Chapter 1 of Ender's Game.
• Follow-up:  The students will read Chapter 2 tonight.