Learning How to Learn
PC 101 Life Skills | Gathering Agenda for Week 02
Gathering Purposes
- Discuss the BYU-Pathway Worldwide devotional
- Review the Academic Honesty policy
- Discuss Mindset
- Review the structure of a paragraph
Preparation
- For face-to-face Gatherings, arrive early to set up the room, prepare any visual aids, and greet students as they arrive.
- For virtual Gatherings, start the meeting early, share your screen with a message welcoming them to the gathering and letting them know you’ll start soon.
- When the Gathering Agenda asks that students meet in small groups, use Breakout Rooms
- When the Gathering Agenda asks you to display things on “the board,” you can use the whiteboard.
Welcome and Devotional - 10 minutes
Welcome
Welcome everyone to the gathering. Assure the class that you are glad everyone is here and that everyone should feel welcome and accepted.
Devotional
- If you meet in person, you may choose to sing one or two verses of a hymn. If you meet virtually, the missionaries may choose to include a hymn in a way that works with the remote technology, but this is not required.
- A volunteer will give an opening prayer
- Students were asked to watch the BYU-Pathway Worldwide devotional this week at http://byupathway.org/devotionals. They should have done this prior to the gathering. The lead student will use the questions on the website linked here to conduct a brief discussion.
Academic Honesty - 10 minutes
Review and Discuss
Review the “Academic Honesty” section of Student Honor Code before class.
Remind the class of what “academic honesty” means. As time permits, discuss the answers to some of all of these questions:
- What is academic honesty and why is it important?
- If you are learning English, is it OK to use Google Translate to translate your writing assignments into English before you turn them in? Why not?
- Why is it important to submit your own work and not the work of someone else?
- In a “Western” university, it is important to give the source when you are using the words or ideas of someone else. Why do you think that is important?
- What are the blessings of being honest in all things?
Mindset - 20 minutes
Discussion (5 minutes)
As we learned in this week’s Life Skill lesson, to have a growth mindset we have to be open to making mistakes and also be willing to learn from them. Start a class discussion with the following prompts:
- How do you feel when you make a mistake? Why?
- How do you think other people see you when you make a mistake?
- Have you ever discovered something new from making a mistake?
- In the last week, can you identify a situation where you had either a fixed or growth mindset? What happened?
- How has the Holy Ghost helped you learn from your mistakes?
Class Activity (10 minutes)
If in a virtual setting, consider using the whiteboard in Zoom or a PowerPoint slide to project the labels and statements. Ask select students to read each statement one at a time and discuss as a class which category that statement falls under.
The way we give feedback and praise can affect our mindset. To nurture a growth mindset we need to praise the process, not the person.
- Make two categories on the board with the following labels:
- Growth Mindset -Process Praise
- Fixed Mindset -Person Praise
- Hand out slips of paper with one of the following statements on each slip of paper:
- Great job! You must be smart at this. Great job!
- You must have worked really hard. See, you are good at English. You got an A on your last test. You really studied for your English test and your improvement shows it.
- You got it! I told you that you were smart.
- I like the way you tried all kinds of strategies on that math problem until you finally got it.
- You are such a good student!
- I love the way you kept your concentration, and kept on working. That’s great!
Have each student who has a statement read it and then in the category it belongs in (growth mindset are b, d, and f). Discuss why each one belongs where it does.
Review the Structure of a Paragraph - 20 minutes
Explain
Paragraphs help you organize your writing. In a paragraph, you introduce an idea, support it, and then connect the support back to the main (or controlling) idea.
Draw or share this image on the board:
Remind Each Other
As a class, remind each other of the following:
- Topic Sentence - State the controlling idea of the paragraph.
- Supporting Details - These support the controlling idea and can include facts, expert testimony, statistics, and personal experiences.
- Concluding Sentence - State how the supporting details all support the controlling idea.
Small Group Discussion and Practice
Divide the class into small groups (use breakout rooms if meeting virtually). Read the topic sentence and supporting detail, then discuss the questions that follow.
Topic Sentence: “Teach to Learn” is a learning strategy that will help me succeed in PathwayConnect because it will force me to think of more than one way to explain concepts.
Supporting Detail: Last week, I taught my family about repentance. Since there were young children there, I wondered how I could say it so everyone would understand. As a result, I thought of a few examples to make my point. That extra work in my brain created extra connections in my brain. It was the kind of brain growth that we read about when we learned about growth mindset. Now, when I think about repentance, I have those connections to help me understand it better.
- What kind of supporting detail is this (facts, expert testimony, statistics, personal experience)?
- How is it obvious that this supporting detail actually supports the controlling idea stated in the topic sentence?
- What specific details are included in the supporting detail sentences? Why do these specific details add color and power to the writing?
Exercises
Only the first part of a supporting detail is given in the exercises below. As a small group, choose which kind of supporting detail is given. An answer key is included at the bottom so you can check, but don’t peek! Try to get them all. When done, return to the large group.
- According to the PathwayConnect website, the number of students in the program has grown steadily over the years and is now at 36,262 students.
- Facts
- Expert Testimony
- Statistics
- Personal Experiences
- Albert Einstein, the famous physicist said…
- Facts
- Expert Testimony
- Statistics
- Personal Experiences
- I remember when I served a mission and my companion told me I was really good at teaching children…
- Facts
- Expert Testimony
- Statistics
- Personal Experiences
- In many poor regions across the globe, many students do not attend public schools…
- Facts
- Expert Testimony
- Statistics
- Personal Experiences
Answers: 1:c; 2:b; 3:d; 4:a
Testimony and Prayer
Bear a 30-90 second testimony of the importance of education. End with a prayer by invitation.