Charles J. Sykes wrote the book, 50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School. It is a myth that Bill Gates came up with these rules. He discusses lessons that children learn in school that hurt them rather than help them. I read the book and LOVED it! So, I created a lesson so my students could LOVE it too.
What i did was I chose 12 of the 50 to highlight in the lesson. Some examples are: LIFE IS NOT FAIR -get used to it!; IF YOU THINK YOUR TEACHER IS TOUGH -wait till you get a boss.; TELEVISION IS NOT REAL LIFE and MORE!
They were told to read them, choose THREE and state why they agree of disagree with the statement, discuss their experience with the rule so far in their life and finally make a prediction for his/her personal life based on the rules chosen.
I would then go over all the rules in class, as a class discussion. You can start in smaller groups if you like as well. Since they had responses already recorded they were more apt to share or have something to say when I called on him/her.
I used this as a beginning of the year/semester/quarter activity. It is also great with personal skill building classes.
The format of this assignment is to use in an Interactive Student Notebook. They glue the handout to the right and record their responses to the left.
I've also included a non (Interactive Student Notebook) ISN format. I have also included my teacher notes just in case you have not read the book.
I used this with 9th and 10th graders (English class)