Bell-Ringer: Write a paragraph (5-8 sentences) using one of the following topics to describe YOUR “American Dream”. These are words that you and your classmates came up with during the writing prompt last Friday. If you brought in your own article or image, you can write about that instead. Adapted from Wordle.net

The “American Dream” Car House Family

Number your paper 1-10 and write a sentence explaining what each of these images have to do with the “American Dream”. At the end, we will take time to rank the images in the order of what best depicts our understanding of the

#1 Fireworks and Independence

#2 Home Cooked Apple Pie

#3 Coffee Shop / Starbucks / Customer

#4 Vacation / Money for a trip

#5 High School Graduation / Education

#6 College

#7 Own a Business

#8 Health Care

TV (Cable), Internet (Facebook), Cell Phones #9 Communication: TV (Cable), Internet (Facebook), Cell Phones

#10 Money

“Pull yourself up by the bootstraps” Key Concepts: - The “American Dream” - Old saying / slogan “Pull yourself up by the bootstraps” - Class Status

1. How does the “American Dream” differ from one person to the next? Does everyone have the same opportunities? 2. Consider the American slogan “pull yourself up by the bootstraps,” which means that if you work hard enough, you can do anything. In what ways is this true or false? 3. In what ways does class status (determined by how much money a family has – upper class/ rich, middle class, working class, poor) impact the “American Dream”?