• Frequently, students can feel lost and disconnected in an unfamiliar class. Often they have few resources among their peers, which can hider them.
• Therefore, an activity that enables students to connect and develop contacts in the class can be of great benefit.

• Fill out the index card that has been distributed to you. Include the following information:
• Your name (either your formal name or the name you’d like to be called in class)
• Your major
• Three interesting things about you
• The last English class you’ve had
• What you hope to learn in this class

• Form groups of 3-4 people
• Choose one person from your group to interview
• Initially ask for information provided on your partner’s card, but if you are both comfortable sharing more, please do.
• Once everyone in the group has been interviewed, each group member will introduce one person from the group to the class, providing the information on that person’s card as well as anything else appropriate that the person has chosen to share

• Name: Tamara Lynde
• Major: English
• Three interesting facts:
• I’ originally from Iowa
• I went to CSUB
• I love the color purple.
Last English class: 19 th century American Literature
What I hope to learn: More and better ways of helping students to write, read, and research more effectively.

• Many of us have heard the term critical reading thrown around but have little clue as to what it might mean.
• For our purposes, critical reading is a form of active reading in which students engage with texts, using a variety of strategies that help the student understand and analyze a text.

• One of the strategies that critical readers use is learning to read at a variety of levels.
• A simple division of these levels would include
• Literal—examining the text’s actual meaning without going into “reading between the lines.”
• Interpretive—examining the text’s implied meanings. This involves
“reading between the lines.” Inference is often used.
• Evaluative—Judging the text’s merits based on a set of reasonable criteria.

• Other tools to aid in critical reading would be
• Determining whether the text is persuasive or informational
• Differentiating between the main point of the text and the supporting points
• Understanding the text’s context, meaning the conditions under which it was written. These include the year the text was written, the audience the text was written for, the original place of publication of the text, and how the text forms part of a “conversation” along with other texts.

• In addition to critical reading, an understanding of basic elements of argument also help the student understand and analyze a text.
• Three classic elements of argument are
• Thesis—the main point the writer is trying to make, what he or she is trying to convince the reader of.
• Reasons—statements or rationales that explain why the thesis is correct.
• Evidence—Facts, examples, quotations, statistics, and other forms of concrete support that support the writer’s claims.

• Read the essay “Single Mothers: A Menace to Society?”
• Make notes answering the following questions:
• Is this a persuasive or informational text? How do you know?
• What is the writer’s main idea and what are the writer’s supporting ideas?
• What is the text’s context? When was it written? Where was it published?
For what audience was it published? How is this part of a “conversation” on this topic?
• Is this a well-written text? Why? On what criteria are you judging it?