Aim: What tips can we offer to our fellow newcomers in high schools of New York City?

Instructional Objectives: Students will be able to use their personal schooling experiences in America to compose a list of tips that will help future new immigrant students adapt themselves more quickly to their new high school in NY city; work cooperatively with partners; orally present the list to the class.

Materials: Notebooks and pens

Do Now: Read your essay to your partner and correct each other's writing errors. Use the Editing Checklist.

Motivation: Show a picture of a boy from the Dominican Republic and a picture of a girl from China and say "Jose came from the Dominican Republic three weeks ago and Meimei came from China a month ago. They have been freshmen in Murry Bergtraum High School for one week. What advice would you like to offer them so as to make them succeed quickly in their new American high school?"

Instructional activities:
1. From the discussion of the Do Now question, assign students to work in pairs in class. They will recall their personal experiences in American schools to develop a list of ten tips that will help new students learn quickly about how things are done at their new high schools in NY city.
2. Students present their lists to the class.
3. The whole class selects twenty-five best tips. Ask two students to record them on the board while the discussion is going on.

Homework assignments:

1. Rewrite the essay "Cultural Taboos" with the corrections.
2. Compose a list of 25 tips on the computer with relevant and varied clip art; social commentary cartoons; photos/drawings/sketches; flow chart; etc.