Monday, February 28
Students took notes on the beginning of Into the Deep, a PBS documentary about American whaling in the 17th through 19th centuries, focusing in their notes especially on those parts of the film which refer to Herman Melville and his masterpiece Moby Dick.
HW due Wednesday:
Read pp. 311-27 in Elements of Literature, which include a biography of Herman Melville and two excerpts from Moby Dick. There will be a quiz to begin class on Wednesday over the film and the readings. Notes on the film will be turned in at that time as well.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Friday, February 18
Students turned in their Nature and Humanity essays, including rough drafts, peer edit sheets, and outlines.
Students checked out Outside Reading books.
We returned to our examination of euphemisms. (Except in 2nd period, where Mr. P read to the class from Huckleberry Finn.)
HW for the break.
Get reading in your outside reading books. Get ahead of the game -- don't let the May deadline sneak up on you!
Students turned in their Nature and Humanity essays, including rough drafts, peer edit sheets, and outlines.
Students checked out Outside Reading books.
We returned to our examination of euphemisms. (Except in 2nd period, where Mr. P read to the class from Huckleberry Finn.)
HW for the break.
Get reading in your outside reading books. Get ahead of the game -- don't let the May deadline sneak up on you!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Wednesday, February 16
Students worked together in pairs to read and comment upon each others' rough drafts, adding comments deirectly on the drafts and answering questions on a peer editing worksheet, then discussing that feedback.
Students who came to class without drafts worked writing drafts or read in their outside reading books. They took away peer editind sheets and were asked to complete the editing process outside of class with a parent, guardian, or friend.
Students received back their Outside Viewing essays from the first semester.
HW due Friday:
Final draft, along with outline, rough draft, and peer editing sheet.
Students worked together in pairs to read and comment upon each others' rough drafts, adding comments deirectly on the drafts and answering questions on a peer editing worksheet, then discussing that feedback.
Students who came to class without drafts worked writing drafts or read in their outside reading books. They took away peer editind sheets and were asked to complete the editing process outside of class with a parent, guardian, or friend.
Students received back their Outside Viewing essays from the first semester.
HW due Friday:
Final draft, along with outline, rough draft, and peer editing sheet.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Monday, February 14
Students submitted their outlines for the Nature & Society essay; they were stamped and returned. Unstamped outlines turned in with the essay on Friday can still receive up to 15 out of 20 points.
Mr. P commented on certain outlines, and the necessity to have a coherent thesis and to take a poition, even if that position doesn't clearly and simply endorse the view of one of the quotations.
HW due Tuesday:
Prepare for an in-class debate on the topic.
Wed:
Rough draft
Fri:
Final draft
Students submitted their outlines for the Nature & Society essay; they were stamped and returned. Unstamped outlines turned in with the essay on Friday can still receive up to 15 out of 20 points.
Mr. P commented on certain outlines, and the necessity to have a coherent thesis and to take a poition, even if that position doesn't clearly and simply endorse the view of one of the quotations.
HW due Tuesday:
Prepare for an in-class debate on the topic.
Wed:
Rough draft
Fri:
Final draft
Friday, February 11, 2011
Friday, February 11
We reviewed the various sources students have at their disposal for the Nature essays, characterizing them especially in terms of which of the three quotations on the assignment sheet they most closely align with.
These sources include the "Coyotes" song used at the end of Grizzly Man, the script for which is available online. Students received a handout with the lyrics to "Coyotes" (the flipside of which contains the full text of the article by Matt Patterson that the second quotation was taken from). Other sources include the excerpts from Emerson's Nature and Thoreau's Walden, the handouts on maternity among the animals and on the Nukak Maku tribe, and "The First Morning," the opening chapter of Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire (yesterday's handout).
HW due Monday:
Formal outline of the essay.
HW due Wednesday:
First draft.
HW due next Friday (Feb. 18): Final draft and turnitin.com submission.
We reviewed the various sources students have at their disposal for the Nature essays, characterizing them especially in terms of which of the three quotations on the assignment sheet they most closely align with.
These sources include the "Coyotes" song used at the end of Grizzly Man, the script for which is available online. Students received a handout with the lyrics to "Coyotes" (the flipside of which contains the full text of the article by Matt Patterson that the second quotation was taken from). Other sources include the excerpts from Emerson's Nature and Thoreau's Walden, the handouts on maternity among the animals and on the Nukak Maku tribe, and "The First Morning," the opening chapter of Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire (yesterday's handout).
HW due Monday:
Formal outline of the essay.
HW due Wednesday:
First draft.
HW due next Friday (Feb. 18): Final draft and turnitin.com submission.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Thursday, February 10
Students watched the final twenty-five minutes of Grizzly Man. Afterwards they received the assignment sheet for the essay on nature and its relation to humankind which is now due Friday, February 18 (the final day before midwinter break). We reviewed the assignment; students asked clarifying questions.
HW due Friday:
Assemble and review sources for the essay.
HW due Monday:
Formal outline of the essay.
HW due Wednesday:
First draft.
HW due next Friday (Feb. 18):
Final draft and turnitin.com submission.
Students watched the final twenty-five minutes of Grizzly Man. Afterwards they received the assignment sheet for the essay on nature and its relation to humankind which is now due Friday, February 18 (the final day before midwinter break). We reviewed the assignment; students asked clarifying questions.
HW due Friday:
Assemble and review sources for the essay.
HW due Monday:
Formal outline of the essay.
HW due Wednesday:
First draft.
HW due next Friday (Feb. 18):
Final draft and turnitin.com submission.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Wednesday, February 9
We watched another thirty minutes of Grizzly Man; afterwards students took five minutes to amplify their notes begun Tuesday.
Mr. P announced that students will receive an assignment sheet on Thursday for an essay due a week from Thursday treating the theme of Man and Nature and drawing on Thoreau, Emerson, Grizzly Man and certain handouts
Students then received two of those handouts, journalistic articles about (1) the Nukak-Maku people of Colombia and (2) animal mothers.
HW due Thursday:
Read the two handouts distributed in class today.
Tuesday, February 8
Students watched 45 minutes of Grizzly Man. Students were instructed as follows:
Grizzly Man offers different points of view on the central figure, Timothy Treadwell: that of Treadwell himself, that of the director and narrator Werner Herzog, and those of several other people who are interviewed. Please take notes which will help you to summarize what those different viewpoints are. Turn in your notes to the tray before you leave.
We watched another thirty minutes of Grizzly Man; afterwards students took five minutes to amplify their notes begun Tuesday.
Mr. P announced that students will receive an assignment sheet on Thursday for an essay due a week from Thursday treating the theme of Man and Nature and drawing on Thoreau, Emerson, Grizzly Man and certain handouts
Students then received two of those handouts, journalistic articles about (1) the Nukak-Maku people of Colombia and (2) animal mothers.
HW due Thursday:
Read the two handouts distributed in class today.
Tuesday, February 8
Students watched 45 minutes of Grizzly Man. Students were instructed as follows:
Grizzly Man offers different points of view on the central figure, Timothy Treadwell: that of Treadwell himself, that of the director and narrator Werner Herzog, and those of several other people who are interviewed. Please take notes which will help you to summarize what those different viewpoints are. Turn in your notes to the tray before you leave.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Monday, February 7
Students turned in their vocabulary homework, and we reviewed several roots and added several others.
Next, students watched ten minutes of the film Koyaanisqatsi, showing a succession of natural images followed by images of modern technology and its impact on nature, backed by a musical score by Philip Glass. After the viewing students conveyed in written words what they thought the film conveyed in images and music. Certain students read their compositions aloud and we discussed them.
Tomorrow:
Mr. P will be absent; students will watch the beginning of Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man. There are brief instances of foul language and certain descriptions -- though not depictions -- of violence (people being eaten by bears). Students who wish to be excused from viewing the film should ask the substitute teachher for an alternative assignment to be completed in the library.
Students turned in their vocabulary homework, and we reviewed several roots and added several others.
Next, students watched ten minutes of the film Koyaanisqatsi, showing a succession of natural images followed by images of modern technology and its impact on nature, backed by a musical score by Philip Glass. After the viewing students conveyed in written words what they thought the film conveyed in images and music. Certain students read their compositions aloud and we discussed them.
Tomorrow:
Mr. P will be absent; students will watch the beginning of Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man. There are brief instances of foul language and certain descriptions -- though not depictions -- of violence (people being eaten by bears). Students who wish to be excused from viewing the film should ask the substitute teachher for an alternative assignment to be completed in the library.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Thursday, February 3
We looked at walden.org, the website of the Walden Woods Project, which has preserved Thoreau's cabin site at Walden Pond, and offers abundant Thoreau-connected resources both online and onsite. We read part of what the site has to say about Thoreau's heavy influence on the modern environmentalist movement.
Mr. P then read to the class the first chapter, enitled "The First Day," from Desert Solitude by Edward Abbet, a more recent writer who has also influenced modern environmentalism, especially the movement's more radical wing. We briefly discussed the chapter, paradoxes and call for a "hard and brutal mysticism."
We looked at walden.org, the website of the Walden Woods Project, which has preserved Thoreau's cabin site at Walden Pond, and offers abundant Thoreau-connected resources both online and onsite. We read part of what the site has to say about Thoreau's heavy influence on the modern environmentalist movement.
Mr. P then read to the class the first chapter, enitled "The First Day," from Desert Solitude by Edward Abbet, a more recent writer who has also influenced modern environmentalism, especially the movement's more radical wing. We briefly discussed the chapter, paradoxes and call for a "hard and brutal mysticism."
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Wednesday, February 2
We continued our review of central concepts from the first semester. We revisited briefly the Puritan focus on God and eternity, the post-Revolutionary celebration of American Progress (via the famous Gast painting of that name), and finally the Romantic reaction to that religion of progress and the elevation of a faith in Nature.
Students then took detailed notes on the first fifteen minutes of the PBS documentary on America's National Parks ("The Scripture of Nature" and "Eden"), after which they worked in small groups to write brief statements of what they took to be the central themes of what they had watched.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Tuesday, February 1
Students wrote for five minutes describing "A Family Tree," a painting by Norman Rockwell from a 1958 Saturday Evening Post cover. We then discussed what students saw in the illustration which depicted the diverse heritage of a typical American family. We also discussed what we did not see there (any African-Americans, Asian Americans, etc.) We looked again at an article from Sunday's New York Times about young Americans asserting their pride in being racially mixed, and we speculated about whether the United States may begin to transcend color lines its ethnic admixture and what that might mean for various groups.
Students wrote for five minutes describing "A Family Tree," a painting by Norman Rockwell from a 1958 Saturday Evening Post cover. We then discussed what students saw in the illustration which depicted the diverse heritage of a typical American family. We also discussed what we did not see there (any African-Americans, Asian Americans, etc.) We looked again at an article from Sunday's New York Times about young Americans asserting their pride in being racially mixed, and we speculated about whether the United States may begin to transcend color lines its ethnic admixture and what that might mean for various groups.
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