Daily Activities – Bobby Jones
The daily activities created for each of the Today in Georgia History segments are designed to meet the Georgia Performance Standards for Reading Across the Curriculum, and Grade Eight: Georgia Studies. For each date, educators can choose from three optional activities differentiated for various levels of student ability. Each activity focuses on engaging the student in context specific vocabulary and improving the student’s ability to communicate about historical topics.
One suggestion is to use the Today in Georgia History video segments and daily activities as a “bell ringer” at the beginning of each class period. Using the same activity daily provides consistency and structure for the students and may help teachers utilize the first 15-20 minutes of class more effectively.
Optional Activities:
Level 1: Provide the students with the vocabulary list and have them use their textbook, a dictionary, or other teacher provided materials to define each term. After watching the video have the students write a complete sentence for each of the vocabulary terms. Student created sentences should reflect the meaning of the word based on the context of the video segment. Have students share a sampling of sentences as a way to check for understanding.
Level 2: Provide the students with the vocabulary list for that day’s segment before watching the video and have them guess the meaning of each word based on their previous knowledge. The teacher may choose to let the students work alone or in groups. After watching the video, have the students revise their definitions to better reflect the meaning of the words based on the context of the video. As a final step, have the students compare and contrast their definitions to their textbook, dictionary or other teacher provided materials definitions.
Level 3: Provide the students with the vocabulary list and have them use their textbook, a dictionary, or other teacher provided materials to define each term. After watching the video, have the students write a five sentence paragraph based on the provided writing prompts.
Vocabulary/Writing Prompts:
Vocabulary Terms
Grand Slam
Amateur
Temperament
Bar
Exam
Tournament
Writing Prompts
1. Watch clips or read descriptions of golf in the early twentieth century. How has the game changed since then? What do you think is the most significant change?
2. Bobby Jones chose to focus on his education rather than accept money for playing golf. What were both the pros and cons of this decision?
3. Put yourself in Jones’ position as a young man with a debilitating spinal disease. Write a five sentence paragraph reflecting on your past successes and give some thoughts on how you might spend your next years if you are unable to play golf as you have in past.
Related Georgia Performance Standards:
Reading Across the Curriculum (Grades 6-12)
SSRC1 Students will enhance reading in all curriculum areas by:
c. Building vocabulary knowledge
• Demonstrate an understanding of contextual vocabulary in various subjects.
• Use content vocabulary in writing and speaking.
• Explore understanding of new words found in subject area texts.
d. Establishing context
• Explore life experiences related to subject area content.
• Discuss in both writing and speaking how certain words are subject area related.
• Determine strategies for finding content and contextual meaning for unknown words.
Grade 8 English and Language Arts
ELA8R2 The student understands and acquires new vocabulary and uses it correctly in reading and writing. The student
a. Determines pronunciations, meanings, alternate word choices, parts of speech, or etymologies of words.
b. Determines the meaning of unfamiliar words in content and context specific to reading and writing.
c. Demonstrates an initial understanding of the history of the English Language.
ELA8W1 The student produces writing that establishes an appropriate organizational structure, sets a context and engages the reader, maintains a coherent focus throughout, and signals a satisfying closure. The student
a. Selects a focus, organizational structure, and a point of view based on purpose,
genre expectations, audience, length, and format requirements.
b. Writes texts of a length appropriate to address the topic or tell the story.
c. Uses traditional structures for conveying information (e.g., chronological order, cause and effect, similarity and difference, and posing and answering a question).
d. Uses appropriate structures to ensure coherence (e.g., transition elements, parallel structure).
e. Supports statements and claims with anecdotes, descriptions, facts and statistics, and specific examples.