Permission slips? We brainstormed a class list of "Who are we, America?" -- each student has on their own paper and I have one on the SMART Board, as well; we'll revisit this list repeatedly throughout the year to add and edit as the students see fit. Students took a few notes from the SMART Board for how to "Gut A Book" -- nonfiction/history reading strategies to make sure we are comprehending what we are reading, getting useful notes, AND being efficient (not wasting time). (See a reliable classmate.) We then set up our first note page with the unit title "Exploration and Colonization" and the subheading "Chapter 1" (there are ~4 chapters in this unit). I detailed the exact assigned reading pages, as we are triaging the top reading passages to keep the reading quantity to a reasonable amount -- more on this Monday when we will also begin the Chapter 1 reading together as a whole class...
