A Warm-up Activity for Unit 12 "Have a Good Four Years"

Yesterday and today I started Unit 12 in Class 313 and Class 314 respectively.   It is a speech given to freshmen at Harvard by its president Derek C. Bok in 1971.  Before having the students look at the text, I asked the students to guess from the title "Have a Good Four Years" what this lesson was about.  They immediately told me it was about going to college.

Then I asked them to brainstorm why they wanted to go to college.  The following are the reasons given orally by the two classes.

Class 313 (in yesterday's class)

1. To acquire knowledge

2. To get a good job

3. To meet friends

4. To achieve one's goal

5. To broaden one's horizons

Class 314

1. To experience a more colorful life

2. To get closer to one's dream

3. To learn what one really wants to learn

4. To join clubs

5. To have (more) girlfriends

6. To find a good job

7. To cut class  (I don't know whether they were serious or just kidding)

After the brainstorming, I asked them to group the ideas, putting the same ideas together, for example, in Class 314, we put "to join clubs" and "to have more girlfriends" under "to experience a more colorful life."  By doing so, we reviewed brainstorming and grouping, which were what one should do before one makes an outline and starts to write an essay.  

Then we went to the warm-up part in the lesson and then the text. 

This is a lesson I love very much.  I highly recommend those who are going to college read it.  The content, the arguments, and the way Mr. Bok organized the ideas make the speech worth reading over and over again.