The Five Half-Truths About Happiness

Student B is an honors student in all classes but English. He loves reading nonfiction and has scored high on standardized tests for reading (His composite ACT score is a 27). He does, however, not enjoy reading or like reading fiction. While he does not read for pleasure, he does want to be successful in class. He claims that reading fiction frustrates him because he forgets characters, plot, and it takes him a long time to read. To understand Student B as a reader, I have included a reader’s response to Gretchen Rubin’s TED Talk “The Five Half-Truths about Happiness,” and his independent book assignment, which he selected based on his interest. Student B read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. As a reader, Student B’s instructional goals that align with Common Core State Standards include 1. Citing strong textual evidence to support analysis (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.1), 2. Evaluating information presented in multiple types of formats to draw a conclusion (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.7), and 3. Determining a central theme in a text and analyzing that theme (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.9). The reflection assignment that followed the TED talk encouraged Student
In addition to being able to use textual support from a book, Student B was challenged to practice pulling evidence from a nonprint text. When analyzing the message in Gretchen Rubin’s TED Talk “The Five Half-Truths About Happiness,” Student B was given a graphic organizer to help him record main ideas and then draw conclusions about the overall message of the piece using evidence. He then was asked to share his finds with a small group and in a whole classroom discussion. After the discussion, Student B completed a writing response in which, he used evidence to identify that having strong relationships and supporting others are two ways in which a person can achieve