Hello:
Your task for your homework this week is to write a letter to a friend in response to the following senario:
You and Mike have been best friends since first grade. Through thick and thin you have always been there for each other through elementary school, middle school, and now in your first year of high school. In the past, Mike was always able to spend the weekend at your house, go camping, and just be friends.
Lately, Mike has been acting differently. At first, you thought he might just need some space, but now you realize that his behavior is a result of something deeper. Mike has taken on a lot this year. As a freshman, he is the starting quarterback this fall for the varsity football team, has a new girlfriend, is in advanced placement classes, and his parents just told him last week they were getting separated.
Mike is snappy when the two of you get a chance to talk, which is rare because of how busy he is. He looks sad although his life is filled with many things that should keep him upbeat and positive. You have also noticed that he has not been eating at lunch time and he complains his head hurts often.
You are concerned for your friend, but are not quite sure how to help him. Write mike a letter to express your feelings of concern for his well-being.
Using the following website as a guide, examine stress. In your letter to Mike, please tell Mike what stress is, identify some potential stressors in his life, and suggest some ways he might alleviate stress and get help.
Please use your current knowledge of stress, the website below, and your creativity to help you respond to the assignment. Please bring your letter to class next week so we can get deeper into this important topic.
http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/emotions/stress.html#
I like the scenario a lot. It allows you to paint a picture of what Mike is going through in your head and really get to know him. Also, I liked how their assignment was to write a letter to him. Sometimes when you tell students to write letters as opposed to papers they have a more positive attitude towards the assignment and have an easier time writing because they can make the assignment personal. Also, if they are not strong writers they will not be penalized because a letter is very similar to talking to someone. In addition I liked at the end how you gave them almost an outline to use so that they knew what you were looking for in the letter.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I think that might have been cool and a little different was if you really made them put it in a letter formation the professional way. So you could have given them a link to press that shows the format to follow. That way at the same time they are learning two things at once.
One other thing I might change is the background on your blog so that right when the kids come here they are intrigued to keep looking. They are curious because there are pictures or a different back ground maybe. Maybe a few more links to stress or an interactive stress game or test that they could take so that they could see if they themselves were similar to mike. Maybe some of the kids could relate.
I liked the wed sight link as well! Very informative and interactive. I thought it was cool that at the top of every page their was a little speaker you could press and it would tell you what the article was about. That is something different for the researcher to try.
I think this was a really good and creative assignment though!
Christine, I really liked how put your lesson into a story. Telling a story in your lesson helps give the readers a good situation that they could be in. I think that writing a letter is a great idea. It could be a lot more interesting for your students to write a letter rather than a paper. I liked how you assigned important things to include in the letter. This will also allow the students to explore the website more freely. The website seems to give general information that is appropriate for middle and high school students. I really like how the website has multiple sections that including ways to handle stress.
ReplyDeleteSomething you might want to include was for them to write about a situation or possibly make up their own. This would show their creativity and could also possibly help a situation that their actually in. The background color is a little dull; you might want to use something that will keep your students interested in.
Overall this was a very good lesson and I think your students would like it too.
Christina-
ReplyDeleteI really liked the lesson idea. The story allows students to relate and better understand the situation. Also the situation is believable and probable, which prevents students from making a, for lack of a better word, joke out of this assignment. As others have said, I too like that this is a letter and not a paper. The letter allows students to feel more personable and connected to the situation. The paper also has a negative connection to it, which could add stress to some students who do not like to write papers.
I really enjoyed the website that was given. The provided site was colorful, easy to browse, and informative. It was also very age appropriate. I would definitely find myself browsing the website for other information if I were a high school student. I do, however, think that maybe another link could be provided so students can see that there is more than one place to find information about stress management.
Contrary to what others have been saying about the background of your blog, I really like the simplicity of it. I get very easily distracted while I am trying to read things on websites. This provided enough color that it was not completely boring, but also not to many things were going on around it take away my attention on the story.
I think that the assignment was an appropriate length too. As I previously stated, I am easily distracted and if I were to have to read a long story, I may loose interest. There was an appropriate balance of information to do the assignment, and enough details to keep the reader interested.
Very nice, clear assignment!
Not to follow the crowd but I too like the letter idea. I feel that it puts a practical application to the assignment given. A paper is just a paper and has not use in life other than school, at least not to high school freshmen. However, by writing a letter it begins to show them that what they are doing in your class can actually be applied to their own lives. Many students at this age don't care about what they are learning in shool unless they can see how they will apply it to their life. I think that this allows for that application connection.
ReplyDeleteI think that there can be some additional options to this assignment, maybe for extra credit. The idea was mentioned above about the students making their own story or situation which could be extra credit. However, I think I would leave that as an extension to the lesson...possibly another assignment later on to build upon what they have already learned in class. However, with this assignment it might be cool to get them into the planning stages of their later assignment by making a list of other situations that this assignment would be applicable. See if the students can relate this assignment's application to other life applications without making a ton of extra work for them. If it's quick and simple, more students are likely to do it, especially if it counts for extra credit. The students won't even realize it, but by doing the extra credit, they are getting a head start in the planning process of their next assignment.
Overall, nice job.
This was a great assignment to do because of the story and writing a letter at the end. The story is a great way to get the students involved because it immediately grabs the students attention. Giving the students the opportunity to write a letter was a good idea because now the students can use the entire web site to their advantage and read about all kinds of related topics.
ReplyDeleteI also like how it gets the student emotionally involved because they are able to relate and or paint a good picture of the scenario.
One thing that I would change would be to have other resourses available at the end of the lesson for students to look at if they are curious about this topic.
I really liked your lesson, with the backround on our friend Mike. I also like how you had us write letters because it makes it a little bit different than an essay and that way kids can make it as long or as short as they want it to. I liked the resource you gave us but I think you should have done more than just to define stress and write a letter.
ReplyDeleteI think you just needed to add one more little activity or another link about stress and assign us to do something on that link. But overall it was a really good lesson and you went first so great job!
I found the assignment really easy to follow and complete. I didn't feel like i was writing a paper, I like how you used the letter because it subconsciously made me think I was really writing a letter of concern to my best friend. I was actually engaged in the website and ended up reading all of the pages multiple times. The guidelines were clear and covered everything that you would discuss in a stress unit.
ReplyDeleteThe website you used was really informative and used language that is easy for students to comprehend. I also agree with Abby, maybe use one or two more links. I also don't think you specified the length of the letter so I just tried to cover all of the things you wanted in the letter. Nice work, Christina.
Here is my assignment http://www.docstoc.com/docs/55105556/Mike-Turcotte
ReplyDeleteI definitely liked going from the story. It puts me in a character and I get to be myself as I right. in addition, I learned stress tips on the sight, so thanks.
ReplyDeleteMike,
We’ve been through many highs and lows from year one. But I can tell you haven’t been yourself lately. Well as little often I see you now. With all you have in your life now. You run from school to practice and spend time with your new girlfriend and finally get to your school work at the end of the day.
I have many of the same problems. What I do is I’ll just find a little time in the day where it’s me in thought. I take a time out for my self and just spend time in thought. Relaxing, thinking about the day and did I react in the correct manor.
Once again, this has helped me. May not help you and you have to do what works for you. Take things easy and just listen to your heart. Doing what you feel is right. Don't try to be perfect, no one is. And expecting others to be perfect can add to your stress level, too. I’ve heard, if there are little niches or problems fix those, then get to the bigger problems.
As you know, I’m always there for you and welcome to talk any time.
Your friend,
Jay
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/55170571/christinas-lesson
ReplyDeletehttp://www.docstoc.com/docs/55178675/health-methods-stress
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ReplyDeleteIt's really small because I didn't know how to make it bigger I did what we did in class but it took me to an extra page then it did in class.
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/55548014/MethodsChristinaBlog
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