Help me give my students access to a book that will serve as a way for them to start thinking about Psychology and the way our brains analyze countless pieces of data and stimuli every day.
My students are from Champaign, Illinois, home of the University of Illinois. They are made up of junior and senior high school students that tend to come from all walks of life. I have students that are on our free and reduced lunch program, and I have students whose parents are doctors, lawyers, etc... Not only do my students come from varied backgrounds but they also arrive with varied academic abilities. The social and academic stratification can sometimes make it challenging to engage all of my students at the same time, but that challenge is also the reason that I love to teach them.
Most of the students in my Psychology classes have a true and genuine interest in the subject.
It might be that they have hopes of majoring in this field in college or that they simply want to take it to understand themselves and others better. Regardless of their reason, it is a joy to work with such motivated students. It gives me the opportunity to discuss topics at a much deeper level and to watch them dive into the material and truly learn and make broad connections.
My Project
These books will allow my students the opportunity to dive into our Psychology class during the summer before their class begins. The book Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell, is an intriguing book that tackles a topic that is one of the key areas of Psychology.
The purpose of having students read this book is to help them begin to become familiar with the concept of their unconscious decision-making abilities and to help build an interest in the class that will continue throughout the year.
Students will read the book in its entirety and then complete a book report that asks them to interact with the text on many different levels. Literacy engagement is very important to me and is a concept that I continue to stress every chance that I get. The style of reading that students will be working on over the summer is also the same style of reading that students will be engaged in throughout the year, therefore this project is a perfect extension for them of skills they will continue to use all year long.
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