Step by step: Ten minute introduction
Wecome to English Literature. In one school class, all the students were asked to draw themselves at age 100. Will you still be the same person you are now? What makes you the person you will be? What traits do you want to see in yourself at age 100? On each of your desks is a piece of paper.
In this class, I would ask you to look back over your life and talk about what choices you have made during your imaginary century of living, working, interactiving, and existing in this world. Can you see your career? Your friends? Life is about choices. We make choices depending on our own need to ameliorate or improve our lives and we reach out to others in the same way. In your hundred years, how have your choices impacted this world? List three of your thoughts about how you impacted the world in three complete sentences and how do you see yourself modeling the values needed to make pructive change in this world.
We make change through our own character; our own internal view of how we see ourselves and the world. Building character involves building ourselves.
In this class, we will all change but in our own way by making our own choices.
Make 3 choices about yourself at 100. Now age 90, age 60, age 40, age 20, today. Write those choices and traits about yourself on the paper.
Next, think for a moment and picture your own actions today. Have you been respectful today? What does respect look like to you when you picture it? Is respect an orange you have to peel or is it an apple that is something that is ready to eat and use at any time. In what way have you been respectul today?
Thirdly,everybody in class whould write down five class rules that they would like to see in class. Again, use complete sentences. Class rules should follow what we think is important to have as character traits in everybody rather than what we copy from another student's paper.
Finally, lets take a moment and clarify our thoughts. How do each of you want to be treated in class? Why is it important for each of us to be responsible for how we behave and acknowledge the importance of rules? For example, would it be fair if everyone got the same grade in class? Raise your hands if you should all have the same grade. Now raise your hands if you think you should not have the same grade. What about ourselves do grades help to reflect if they are done properly?