Summer Work

The following parts are in no particular order, please read through this now and tackle them all in small chunks throughout the summer.

What: You will read a book, take notes, apply vocab, watch TED talks, and read the course expectations so that you know what you signed up for. 

Why: I want you to understand what we are going to spend all year working on together before you get stuck in a year long elective. 

Part 1: read this book: You Are Not So Smart: You Have too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You Are Deluding Yourself  (directions for note-taking below) handwritten notes count for 46pts

Part 2: choose a few TED talks topic options (from the list below) that you can see and hand write what you think will make your TED talk different from a typical in-class presentation. (You will pick your topic the first week of school.) Please also go through the TED talk assignment so that you know what you are going to be doing, please list your top 4 most interesting topics from the assignment list in the comments when you post.  14pts (this is not picking your topic! it is getting you to read the options for your topic and consider the calendar. You will pick your TED talk topics from the list the first week of school.) 

Part 3: read the Course expectations . You need to know what you have committed to! (plus there will be a quiz on this and the TED talk instructions as one of your first grades)

Part 4: Get outside and have fun with your friends/relatives/pets, it is summer, relax, please tour colleges, recharge, and recover/prepare physically and emotionally. 

OK, now for the details of each part. 

Part 1: Reading a book You are not so smart is available for free to read or listen to on the Sora app on your school iPad, or Overdrive, or BHS and public library both have copies available to check out, and our friends at the Used Book Superstore try to keep it in stock. Your goal here is to go through the 46 super quick chapters and hand-write an in-your-own-words a definition for each of the 46 terms and generate your own example. This is a light, fun, interesting book. You can bullet point this. Don't copy definitions down, word for word, put them in your own words, keeping the meaning clear to you and then provide an example from your life, tv, etc. This must be handwritten on notebook paper and stick it in your 3 ring binder for this class when you are done.

This course is all about moving past the low level skill of memorizing definitions and up Bloom's Taxonomy into applying concepts/seeing connections. This is also a life skill if you enjoy conversations with humans and doing well in arguments. The goal is to keep your brain learning over the summer and to see if you are interested in taking this college level course. 

Part 2: of your summer assignment is to PREPARE YOU for your very own TED talk that you will give some time this YEAR. You will be picking a topic from the list generated by former students and presenting a TED once during the year. 

Here is the TED talk page scroll down to topics past the assignment instructions. I hope that you see the TED as a learning opportunity or at the very least something to talk about during your college interviews. Your class will pick topics first week of school and you will be quizzed on the instructions (not the available topics)!

Watch at least 6 of the following TED Talks. We will be using TED Talks a great deal during the year, this assignment is to familiarize you with how they are structured. While watching, please take handwritten notes about what makes a TED talk a TED talk. Please scroll below the options for questions you need to answer. (these are TED talks for you to learn from, this is not the list of topics you can pick from, that is on the TED assignment page).

Dan Ariely, Why we think it’s OK to cheat and steal (sometimes):

Diana Laufenberg, How to learn? From mistakes:

James Randi, Homeopathy, quackery, and fraud:

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, The mysterious workings of the adolescent brain:

Daniel Pink, Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us:

Beau Lotto, Optical Illusions Show How We See:

Philip Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect: The psychology of evil: (this contains some graphic imagery, not appropriate for all viewers)

Amy Cuddy, How your body position may shape who you are (fun fact, she fudged her data! but it feels good, so people believe it.)

Dan Gilbert, The surprising science of happiness

Sir Ken Robinson, How schools kill creativity He is the very best. 

Eleanor Longden, The voices in my head, a psychologist living with schizophrenia.

Robert Sapolsky, The Biology of our best and worst selves Most famous behavioral neuroscientist for a reason. 

Duckworth on GRIT, The power of passion and perseverance She is why you had the option for "not yet" on report cards back in elementary school. 

Again, no need to take notes on the content! Please just handwrite your reflections on:

• what exactly makes a TED talk a TED talk? 

• how do you see the rules of TED shown? (no more than 18 words per slide, shorter than 18 mins, only highly relevant and important visuals, high engagement, how can you tell that the presenters are super prepared?)

• what specifically can you can do to comprehensively prepare for your TED? ("try hard" is not specific)

• what makes these TED talks interesting and engaging? More importantly, what might you do for the required interactive portion? 

• What happened in the worst presentation you have ever seen in class? Or what is your greatest fear about the TED and what can you do to prevent any of these nightmare scenarios?

• On the topic list that you will choose from to do your TED, what 4 interest you most and why?

Final part: Here are the course expectations. You will be taking a low point value quiz (not open note) that asks about the course expectations and general questions about how TED talks will work, specifics about the assignment expectations, etc. This quiz ensures that you know what you are getting into and is evidence that you totally understood the assignment when it was given. 

Please feel free to contact me with questions about the assignment, class, etc. at any time at  gould@bpsk12.org please don't be the sort of person who asks what questions are on the quiz. Summer work will be due just before school starts. You can even begin this very minute. Handwritten book notes (just take clear photos) and handwritten TED answers will be submitted in classroom. 

Have a wonderful summer! I look forward to getting to know you!

Dr. Gould