The Nature of Happiness: Writing Activities

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    Activity 1: Individual Summarizing EdPuzzle Activity
    Watch the video and answer the questions. Note: The teacher will not be able to record answers unless he/she has a free EdPuzzle.com account. Create your own free account or open this activity in EdPuzzle.

    Note: To see captions, press the Play button and then the CC button.

    Activity 2: Individual Summarizing Practice

    screenshot of summarizing webpage showing a passage for students to use to practice summarizing

    At IXL Learning, students read a passage, then answer questions about the background, problem, and solution.  After, students practice their summarizing skills with a drag and drop activity. 

    Activity 3: Individual Summarizing Assignment

    Description: Students read the following article: Teens Who Spend Less Time in Front of the Screen are Happier—to a Point and summarize the article in 100-200 words.

    Note: this article is also available on Newsela, where it can be adapted to each individual student’s reading level (search for "teen screen time"). Get a free account. to track your students' assignments.

    Alternate group activity: In groups, students divide up the article and summarize a portion, then check each other’s work before combining their summaries in order and turning the final product in.

    Use the Summarizing Rubric for grading.