Teaching a Text:
The following lessons have been developed for the teaching of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, in a 12th grade English class.
Context: The following lessons for teaching Walden were created for the English 5870 Literature and Composition for social action class taught at Poudre High School in Fort Collins, CO:
5870 Literature and Composition for Social Action Number of semesters: 2 (10 credits) Prerequisite: None Meets requirements: 1, 2:
This course will address the history of social action initiated through literature. It will then move on to focus on how various texts (fiction, non-fiction, film, social media, etc.) have motivated resistance and social action regarding the specific issues of race, class, and gender. The course study will culminate with a student-generated service learning project that targets a specific need for local, national, or international social action. This course is a requirement for the junior or senior year of the PHS Service Learning Academy and is also open to all PHS juniors or seniors. (PHS Curriculum Guide 2015-2016)
This classroom would be focusing on environmental issues as well as looking at social action through literature. As environmental concerns are one of the most current actions in these student’s lives today the second half of the year would be focusing on current trends while the beginning of the year would look at social action trends of the past. This classroom would have on average 19 students as PHS teacher to student ratio is 19:1 (public-schools.startclass.com/). This is an upper division class, the lesson plans follow Colorado Academic standards for 12th grade reading and writing.
Scope and Sequence: The following lessons have been developed to teach Thoreau’s Walden over the course of 6 weeks. The intended weekly reading asks that student’s read on average of 50 pages a week on top of additional book club books, not included in these lesson plans. SSRW (3a.i) is intended to be used throughout the year, however has been adapted to allow students to read Walden throughout the unit. Also the digital literacies Blog writing assignment (6) is intended to be set up at the beginning of the year but will be regularly used throughout the teaching of Walden as students will regularly be asked to respond to reading through blog writing (http://ianjmccreary.livejournal.com/). The large group activity, Tea Party (3b.ii) is intended to be a pre reading activity. Following this lesson, once students begin reading the Character Bulletin Board (3a.ii) should be developed so students begin to think of Walden Pond and Thoreau as characters of the book. As students begin reading students should be taught to Make Inferences (3a.iii), and develop detailed Bookmarks (3a.iv), as during reading strategies. For students struggling with reading and making inferences, the small group activity Probable Passage (3b.i) should be taught during a SSRW as another way to think about making inferences. During the final weeks students should be taught the lesson Ecopoetics (5) to understand the power of observation in connection with mood and theme. Finally students should will be taught a lesson on Reflecting on Reading (3a.v) which will relate their reading of Walden to
Class norms adapted for teaching of Walden:
- SSRW (3a.i)
- Blog Writing (6)
Week 1:
- Tea Party (3b.ii)
- Character Bulletin Board (3.aii)
- Discussion
Week 2:
- Making Inferences (3a.iii)
o Probable Passage (3b.i)
- Development of Character Bulletin Board
- Discussion
Week 3:
- Continued Practice of Making Inferences
- Bookmarks (3a.iv)
- Development of Character Bulletin Board
- Discussion
Week 4:
- Ecopoetics (5)
- Continued Practice of Making Inferences
- Continued Practice of Bookmarks
- Development of Character Bulletin Board
Week 5:
- Reflecting on Reading (3a.v)
- Continued Practice of Making Inferences
- Continued Practice of Bookmarks
- Development of Character Bulletin Board
Week 6:
- Finish Walden
- Final papers Due
Selected Text: Thoreau, H. (2004). Walden: New Haven CT. Yale University Press.
Thoreau, Henry. Walden. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. Print.
I am choosing this text as it will be a central text to my reading list for the curriculum I am developing for my grad project. Although I have not read this book, I am aware that Walden is one of the first ecocritical texts that was written by an American author as he accounts his year at Walden Pond. While my grad project curriculum focuses on ecocriticism, this is a great text to have as a central text that I would have an entire class read together and pair with additional book club texts. The book covers a wide range of observations over Thoreau’s time spent at the pond which highlight important nuances that are observed in a wide range of other ecocritical texts.
I will be primarily focusing on the Colorado Academic Standards (CAS) because they include the Common Core Standards (CCS) which matches my grad school project. I will focus on the reading standards 2.1: Literary criticism of complex texts requires the use of analysis, interpretive, and evaluative strategies, and 2.2: Interpreting and evaluating complex informational texts require the understanding of rhetoric, critical reading, and analysis skills. This book allows me to cover both standards and can be broken down into further detail as I begin to develop this project.
My goals for this text are: to develop an understanding for ecocritical writing, demonstrate a connection between reading writing and nature, and demonstrate an understanding for reading and seeing nature with an ecocritical lens.
Author Background: Henry David Thoreau was a philosophical and nature writer also known for some of his poetry focusing on nature. He was born in Concord Massachusetts on July 2, 1817. He died on May 6 1862 of tuberculosis reciting his last words, “Now comes good sailing… Moose… Indian”. His remains can be found at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord MA. Though he died at a young age, he was comfortable with his death and told his aunt “I didn’t know we were quarreling,” after she asked if he had made peace with God.
In 1845 he stayed at Walden Pond for two years where he worked on his most famous piece of writing Walden. Thoreau is also known for his essay Civil Disobedience and books: The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, and A Yankee in Canada. Walden accounts his two years living in isolation at Walden Pond and accounts his observations over the two years along with reflections on life, politics and religion. Though he claims that he lived in isolation for these two years it is believed that he walked into the nearest town and would frequent a local pub. Civil Disobedience accounts his arrest for not paying a poll tax while A Yankee in Canada covers his beliefs on anti-slavery. While Thoreau was known for his nature writing and poetry, he also has important works commenting on governmental issues. Though Thoreau is a renowned author he did not win any awards in his lifetime but his writing has been influential to many others such as: Martin Luther King Jr., John Kennedy, Ernest Hemmingway, E.B. White, and William Butler Yeats.
After attending Harvard, Thoreau became friends with local Concord writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, who introduced him to transcendentalism, a school of thought emphasizing empirical thinking and spiritual matters over the physical world. This would later influence his major works on nature and ecocritical writing.
Information links:
biography.com/people/henry-david-thoreau-9506784#early-life
homepage.smc.edu/larsen_lyle/last_words_of_famous_authors.htm
wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau
Developing Depth, Stamina, and Passion This book will challenge some of the slower readers to increase their stamina and fluency, while challenging others to go in depth with the text. The book is 325 pages long with detailed notes from the editor. So if a student has a reading rate of 150 words per minute it will take them roughly 13 hours to read the book averaging that there are 360 words per page. This means that students will be challenged to read for roughly an hour a night to cover 25 pages each day and amount 50 pages per week on this text alone. Excluding any other homework for this class and other reading that is required, students will need to work on their reading stamina so that they can keep up with a higher pace of reading for this text. To add to this, Thoreau writes with a philosophical mindset which adds to the complexity of the book. Students will need to work on their fluency and comprehension of the book so that they can be successful in understanding the content of the text. While this is a more complex book, it would be one that would need to be read at the end of the year as students have worked throughout the year to get to a higher level of fluency and stamina.
As this is a complex text and one that many students may not be running to the shelves to grab on their own, a book talk would be a great way to introduce the book. I would begin by introducing the author, so that students would have an idea of who the author was. I would follow this up by engaging students in the content of the book starting with a book teaser. Starting at page 110-111 “My house was on the side of a hill, immediately on the edge of a large wood, in the midst of a young forest of pitch-pines and hickories… In august, the large masses of berries, which, when in flower, had attracted many wild bees, gradually assumed their bright velvety crimson hue, and by their weight again bent down and broke there tender limbs.” Using this passage I can begin to talk to students about the rich detail that Thoreau is able to draw our attention to. This level of attention will lead into a conversation about how much we truly observe on a regular day. How much of our daily observations are muted because they have become mundane? How often do we let the little things go for granted? This is only a segment of the text but do you think that it would be possible to go into so much detail if Thoreau had not spent a year in solitude? Do you think he was really in solitude the whole year? I will use this book talk as a before reading strategy to get students thinking about the text and the global issues surrounding the text.
While reading the text students will need to have conferences to make sure that they are keeping up with the reading and comprehending the text. Once a week a group of students who are having trouble with the text should meet with the instructor to go over reading strategies and help build stamina. These conferences can be as simple as going over major elements and themes that they should be catching onto or helping students comprehend what they are reading. Outside of these group conferences students should meet with the instructor once if not twice over the course of reading the book. These individual conferences should be to help understand how each student is doing keeping up with the pace and their own comprehension of the book. Using conferences will allow for instruction to slow down the pace of the read or increase it if more students are not feeling challenged by the text. In addition to these conferences on the class text, students should be asked about their outside reading in order to keep track and understand other reading needs that they would like to have meet.
Alongside conferences, students should be reflecting on their reading regularly. I believe that through blog writing students will have a great opportunity to respond to the reading and to other students. Through blogs students should respond to questions posed by the teacher, or generate their own question and respond to that. And since blog writing is a form of conversation students will be required to respond to at least one other student’s blog post. This will build a classroom community inside and outside of the classroom. By using blogs to have students respond to the text students will be generating writing that is aimed at a global audience. This form of writing will expand the students writing to a macro audience rather than a micro (teacher as primary audience) audience which meets the Colorado Academic Standards for writing. In addition to blog writing students will be asked to write a formal paper at the end of the unit in reading Walden reflecting on their own environmental practices. This paper will be structured by priming students thinking in the form of blog writing into a paper format, this will allow for the students to have the assignment to be structured in such a way that they will have scaffold instruction to the end product.
Beyond blog writing and a final paper students should be constantly reflecting on their reading. Reflection will allow students to think critically about their own reading practices and the content of what they are reading. Reflections will come in a variety of forms, blogs will be a quick way for students to have reader responses to the reading. Since blog writing is typically informal students will be invited to have these nonacademic arguments for or against a text. In addition to blog reflections, students should also practice quick writing in class as a form of reflection to get them thinking about specific aspects of the text before a class period. Other forms of reflection will include vlogs and class discussions on the text.
Conference Questions
Group (5-10 minutes):
1. What was most striking to you when you read the chapter on Economy (substitute with any chapter)?
2. What are the major themes that you are seeing in this book?
3. What do you not understand after reading this far?
4. What words are you not understanding?
5. How are you doing with keeping up with the pace of the text?
Individual Conference (2-5 minutes)
1. How are you keeping up with the pace of Walden?
2. Is there anything that you are not understanding? What can I do to help?
3. What else are you reading right now?
4. How are you doing on your outside reading?
Blog post questions:
1. Do you agree with Thoreau on his thoughts about the economy? Do men really “labor under mistake” (3)?
2. What are your thoughts on human civilization and “spiritual bread” (38-39)?
3. What do you think it would cost to build Thoreau’s cabin today? Probably not $28.12½ (47).
4. Unpack the meaning of this quote. “We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour. If we refused, or rather used up, such paltry information as we get, the oracles would distinctly inform us how this might be done” (88).
5. Do you think that you could live in solitude for a year? What would you do? What would you start to notice and write about? Try sitting alone outside somewhere quite and listen to the sounds and write your observations.
6. Do you agree with this statement “I am convinces, that if all men were to live as simply as I then did, thieving and robbery would be unknown” (167)? What evidence from the text supports this or disproves this? What can you take from your own life to argue for or against this statement?
7. Reread the paragraph starting on page 182-184 “In such a day in September… and I saw their schools dimly disappearing; so I spent a dry afternoon.” How is Thoreau capturing his observations in imagery? What details does he give about the pond? What details are lacking that are found else ware in the book?
8. What are the true harvest of your daily life? Are they “intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening” (208)?
9. How many wild creatures do you see on a daily basis? Are they wild and free? What could you be missing on a regular basis? (218).
10. What does Thoreau mean by “Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads” (274)?
11. (At any given time) What are your thoughts on the book? Do you like it or not? Why or why not? What would help make the read more enjoyable? What are you not understanding?
Written assignment:
Write a 5 page paper on your relationship to nature and the environment. Think about how Thoreau relates to his environment at Walden Pond and is able to capture the smallest details of the environment and get so much richness out of these minor details. Look back at some of your blog posts to get ideas to think about how you relate to your environment. Think about the things that you observe on a daily basis that you take for granted. How do you relate to the environment on a daily/weekly/monthly basis?
Blog questions to scaffold thinking:
1. In 500 words or more: how do you interact with nature and the environment? Are you playing sports, hiking, enjoying it for what it is, planting trees, observing wildlife?
2. In 500 words or more: how is nature and your environment different or similar?
3. Spend 10 minutes outside daily for a week in the same place. In 500 words or more: what were you able to observe in these minutes outside in your location?
4. Pick something in your environment to observe on a weekly basis (this can be a tree, a plant, a pet, a friend, anything) over the next few weeks note your observations. In 500 words or more report what you observed and the changes that you saw over a short period of time.
5. In 250 words or more: write about the sounds of your environment.
6. In 250 words or more: write about the visual aspects of your environment.
7. In 250 words or more: write about the smells and tastes of your environment.
SSRW Silent Sustained Reading/Writing (SSRW) (10-15 minutes daily)
Beers says that “as little as 15 minutes a day for SSR can impact attitudes, vocabulary fluency and comprehension” (199). Students should read for these designated 10-15 minutes a book of their own or the primary text for the class. This time is to give students the opportunity to read that they may not give themselves outside of class. Beers argues that the purpose of this is “builds vocabulary” (197), “creates interest in reading” (197), and is optimal if practiced for 10-15 minutes at least every other day (197). Having SSRW will allow for the teacher to have conferences with individual students and groups of students to help with reading practices and access student’s needs.
This can pair with a read aloud of the teacher’s choice, allowing for the teacher to build background knowledge (Beers, 197), improve listening comprehension (Beers, 197), improve listening vocabulary (Beers, 197) and offer a variation in material (Beers, 198).
During SSRW students should: Be reading the book of their choice or the primary book. If students complete a reading section or book, the remaining minutes should be spent writing a brief reflection of what they have read or responding to the text that they have read.
Journal responses:
1. What did you like about the book? What didn’t you like?
2. How did your reading of this text change your understanding of ____________?
3. Give a brief summary of the book or text?
4. How does this book relate to the class or what we are learning?
5. Write a critique of the book.
During SSRW teachers should:
- Conference with students about reading (2-4 minutes per individual conference, or 5-10 for group conferences)
- Hold guided reading group work for struggling readers to work on specific comprehension
- Interview students on reading habits and progress in class
There are three types of conferences that teachers can have during this time: monitor reading life (Kittle, 80), teach a strategy (Kittle, 82), and increase challenge and complexity (Kittle, 84). Monitoring reading life of students will allow for the teacher to understand each students reading practices to better develop strategies to help that student and the class as a whole. Teaching a strategy can be done individually or with groups to help struggling readers become more successful. Finally, increasing the challenge and complexity of students reading will allow for student to continue to become stringer readers.
Once a month Check students fluency:
1. Choose a book at students reading level.
2. Build background knowledge (if the book is the class text a background knowledge should already be established).
3. Have student read silently for 1 minute.
4. After one minute have students count the number of words that they have read.
5. Repeat two more times.
6. Average the number of words that they can read in a minute.
The goal of this not for students to aim for a high level of words per minute. This is to allow students to find out how many words a minute they can read with comprehension of what they have read. This will give students a chance to set their own reading goals for the year and track their own progress as readers.
Reading Walden This time should be spent reading Walden before class every day. Since Walden is a long text and students will be expected to read 25-30 pages before each class, they will need to be given the opportunity to read to keep up with the pace of reading. As the class reads Walden this time will need to be allotted for students who are struggling to have allotted time to keep up or complete the reading for the class. This will not be enough time for students to read the entire section so students should be informed that they should not think of this time as the only point in which they sit down and read. SSRW should be an opportunity for students to get a jump start on their nightly reading and an opportunity to writ blog responses, post to the character bulletin board and if need be complete reading the final pages of the daily reading.
Creating a Blog (80 minute lesson) Adapted from Neil Rigler (Christel, 2010,123)
http://ianjmccreary.livejournal.com/
Rationale: This is a form of writing that students should engage in throughout the year in responses to readings and develop published writing that is available for a varied audience. Similar to Rigler’s lesson “Blogging the examined Life” (Christel, 2010, 123) this lesson follows the NCTE 21st Century literacy skills as it prepares students to become “comfortable using writing as a way to express ideas, open themselves to challenges, engage in meaningful conversation about them, and see their thinking grow as a result” (Christel, 2010, 123). In preparing students for 21st Century writing, using blogs as a form of writing will allow them to write for a varied audience while also having the opportunity to respond to classmates writing in informal and formal capacities.
SSRW (10 minutes): Students should work on a book of a choice reading for 10 minutes, or write post reading reflections for the class reading log while the text is fresh in their minds.
Introduction (10-15 minutes): What is a blog?
- A website containing a writer's or group of writers' own experiences,observations, opinions, etc., and often having images and links to other websites. (dictionary.com)
- Also reference wikipedia.com on blogs
Big picture questions to ask the class:
- What is a blog and what are they useful for?
o Online publishing site in which the creator self publishes content for the world to read.
o Communication
o multimodal writing
o self-publishing
o writing for a variation of audiences
- Who writes blogs?
o Technical term for blog writers: bloggers
o Students
o Teachers
o People with special interests
o Anyone and everyone who wants to write and publish a blog
- Why write a blog?
o This is a way to self-publish without the constraints of publishers, editors or dealing with particular press.
o Generate ideas that others can comment on.
o Make connections with a larger audience.
- What are some blog sites that you know and use?
o Blogger
o Wordpress
o Blog.com
o Penzu.com
o Tumbler
o More at http://stylecaster.com/best-free-blog-sites/
- How can we as a class use blogs for communication?
o Write responses to books
o Publish papers online
o Communicate with one another through postings
o Post articles of interests
o Share ideas
Activity (15-20 minutes): Note: This activity can be expanded to a complete lesson for student unfamiliar with blogs and developed into a larger project understanding the variations and uses of blogs.
While most students will have some experience with blogs in their own lives, rather than lecture on the different types of blogs and reasons for using them have students look up different blogs and their uses. Some blogs sites may be blocked from the schools server but that should not limit students to using a google search and Wikipedia or you can direct students to the dearblogger.org link for a quick summary. Break the class into 10 groups (roughly groups of 3 or 4) and have them quickly search the 10 blogs provided below. As students look up the blog assigned to them have them answer the following questions:
- What is the purpose of this blog?
- Who would want to use this blog?
- Would this blog be appropriate for the use of our classroom? Why or why not?
Blogs
1. Wordpress.com
2. Blogger.com
3. Tumblr.com
4. Squarespace.com
5. Weebly.com
6. Medium.com
7. Hubpages.com
8. Joomla.com
9. Livejournal.com
10. Quora.com
Link to various blogs and summaries: http://www.dearblogger.org/blogger-or-wordpress-better
After each group has quickly searched for relevant information on the blog they were assigned have each group give a blurb about the blog to inform the class about what they were looking up. Each blurb should be no more than a minute.
- Blogger, is a google blogging site that allows users to publish posts and even videos and pictures. This would be a good site for our class because you can publish and have friends comment on your posts.
- Sruarespace is a professional blog site used by companies and professionals. Rather than allowing users to publish posts, this is more like a website developer tool. Since this site costs $8 and up this would not be a good site for this class to use.
Discussion and Practice (30-35 minutes): - What blog sites are do you think that you would like to use for your own publishing?
- What are the benefits of blog writing? What are the limitations?
- Based on the blurbs that we just heard and the brief research that you did on a specific blog site; what are some of the pros and cons of various blogs?
- What other blog sites do you know of and use that may be appropriate for the context of this class?
This activity is geared at introducing students to a variation of blogs so that they have an idea of what blogs are available to use. Through this activity students should have an idea of what blog sites are available for them to use. Below are the assignment sheets for two blog assignments (Appendix A, Appendix B). Students should spend the remainder of class looking at different blogs and then setting up their own account to begin blogging. This class time should be spent tinkering with the blog site to get used to using the site. As the majority of class responses will be published through the blog, students should be comfortable using the various features of the blog site that they have chosen. Grading for blogs should be completed based of the standard rubric (Appendix C) which will be used throughout the year.
Sites I prefer students to use: 1. Blogger.com: Easy to use, allows for users to develop custom page, and offers ways to publish multimodal posts.
2. Wordpress.com: Easy to use, allows for self-publishing and responses from readers.
3. Medium.com: More difficult to set up but allows for self-publishing and responses from readers
4. Livejournal.com: Easy to use and has a large readership which may allow for many a variation of different global readers, and students can embed in mood and music.
5. Sett.com: More rigid in page development but is open to a lot of users which may allow for more responses globally.
Sites Students cannot use: 1. Google+ and Facebook notes: Though these are sites that students can create posts and have users comment on they are more geared at social networking rather than creating a wall of their own posts that readers can easily access
2. Pinterest: This site is mainly used for sharing interests and links to other websites rather than have users write and publish their own ideas
3. Tumblr: This site is geared at link sharing and interests rather than self-publishing. Also many schools have blocked this site for content reasons, which will making access difficult.
4. Weebly: This would be great for students up for the challenge but is targeted at web development rather than self-publishing and receiving readers’ comments
5. Hubpages: This is primarily used for social media rather than self-publishing and responding to posts.
Exit Ticket: Students need to pair up with one to two other students (groups of 2-3). These groups will assign each students to those that they are paired with to be accountability partners. This will mean that to get full credit on regular blog posts each student is responsible for posting a response or responses to their accountability partner’s blog. This is intended to practice using multiple functions of blogs and blog writing. Later responses will require students to generate a conversation through the comments section of their blog.
Extension: Students should be invited to write one to two blog posts a week. Blog posts should be related to reading, formal writing that is extended from in class journal writing, responses to lessons, and personal writing. While students should set up blogs in the beginning of the year, they will have the opportunity write regularly as part of the class. Extending with the use of accountability partners all students should regularly be checking on partner(s) blogs and responding to posts, as blog writing does not stop at the point of publishing. Students should also be engaged in writing responses to responses to generate a conversation between a posts.
- Responses to other students posts
- Regular writing
- Responses to lessons
- Personal writing
- Paper published in a series of posts
- Multimodal writing (incorporation of video and/or pictures)
-
Appendix A Look up at least three blogs that you would consider using for the remainder of the year. You should spend more time than we did on class and figure out the pros and cons of each blog that you are considering. Once you have selected the blog of your choice create a blog using that website. Most blogs are user friendly to set up, however feel free to YouTube a tutorial on setting up a blog for your specific website. Once you have created your blog, customize the blog to represent you. I have used blogger for various reasons and each have a different look (http://ianjmccreary.blogspot.com/, http://concertrevieworegon.blogspot.com/, http://ianjmccreary.livejournal.com/). Make this your own. Once you have created your own blog I want you to generate a page or section that tells your readers about yourself. I want you to create a post or subheading telling your readers what the purpose of your blog (even though this will be used for class responses throughout the year, think of the other ways in which you will be using this blog: to timeline events of your life, share your personal writing, share life experiences, explore interests, etc.). Finally, I want you to write a post explaining why you chose this blog site over other, what others you looked at, the challenges you think may arise in the future using this blog, and what you hope to learn from using blogging as a mode of communication.
1) Create a blog from three researched blog sites
2) Customize blog to represent you
a. Change settings
b. Change backgrounds
c. Add picture of yourself
d. Add links to other pages
3) Tell readers about yourself so that they have a context of who the writer is (Do not give out personal information like your address and city and state of which you live. This information should be vague)
a. Who are you (My name is Ian McCreary, a high school student in a class focusing on digital literacies and environmental concerns.)
b. What do you like to do (I like outdoor activities like hiking and fishing.)
c. What are your interests (I like watching sports in my free time and reading. My favorite author is Mark Twain and my favorite band is Beats Antique.
4) What is the purpose of this blog?
5) First Post
a. What blogs sites did you consider when selecting a blog?
b. Why did you choose this blog?
c. What challenges do you foresee in the future using this blog? (maybe it is difficult to post videos or pictures)
d. What do you hope to learn about using this as a form of communication
Once you have created your blog and made your first post, please email me the link to your blog and post a link of your blog to the class google doc so that the rest of the class can access your blog. Follow up by finding your accountability partners blog and responding to their first post.
Appendix B Your next three blog posts will require you to post photos to your blog and write a brief reflection of where the photo is in relation to the activity that you are participating in. Each post will require that you have a photo for a different purpose in relation to being outside, these pictures should be ones that you have taken yourself not found online. Make these posts your own, remember you are not writing a paper for an assignment but rather for a public audience. Your post should meet the needs of your blog and your readers. Consider writing in different forms (narrative, memoir, reflective, expository). You can choose to be in the picture or choose not to be.[1] Though I am asking you to take photos outside this does not mean that you need to go out of your way to take a picture in the middle of nowhere. A picture at the park or your backyard will be fine, and may spark a deeper reflection. You will be graded on the standard blog rubric and all three will be weighted for one grade.
Here are the following blog posts you will be required to make in any order that you choose:
1) Picture of nature in appreciation
a. Why do you like this setting
b. What draws you to this place
c. How often do you go
d. Why is this place special
2) Picture of nature actively participating (hiking, camping, skiing, fishing, hunting)
a. Why do you like to do this activity
b. How did you get involved
c. How often do you do this activity
d. What are the benefits and issues around this activity
3) Picture of nature in an act of conservation or cultivation (planting a tree, gardening, picking up litter)
a. How did/does doing this activity make you feel
b. Why did you chose to participate in this activity
c. What are the foreseen benefits from this activity
d. Do you regularly do this activity or foresee yourself doing this regularly in the future
CATEGORY
4- Excellent
3- Good
2- Fair
1- Needs Improvement
I answer the topic question(s) in my blog entries.
I answer all of the question(s) with a clear and focused response. I flush out all of my ideas and give supporting details.
I answer the question(s) with a focused response. I do not flush out all of my ideas and lack supporting details.
I answer the question(s). I express some of my ideas and give no supported with details.
I do not answer the question(s). I do not attempt to flush my ideas or offer supporting details.
I can write in complete sentences and use capital letters appropriately.
The writer makes no errors in capitalization or punctuation, so the writing is very easy to read.
The writer makes 1 or 2 errors in capitalization or punctuation, but the writing is still easy to read.
The writer makes some errors in capitalization and punctuation that catch the reader's attention and interrupt the flow of the writing.
The writer makes several errors in capitalization and punctuation that catch the reader's attention and make the writing hard to read.
I can share information electronically by leaving feedback and comments on my classmates' blogs.
The student regularly (more than once per week) leaves specific, quality feedback for classmates.
The student regularly (once per week) leaves comments specific/high quality feedback for classmates.
Student leaves comments and feedback for other students sometimes, but less than once per week. Some feedback is too general
Student rarely leaves comments and feedback for others students OR feedback is vague ("I like your story").
Adapted from rubistar.com
Appendix C Rubric for blog
Tea Party (this is a 30 minute full class activity)
This is a pre reading strategy to invite students to begin thinking about a text before diving into the reading process. This strategy can be used before or after a book talk to generate thinking about a text. The teacher should extract 10-15 passages from the text, with an average class size of 30 there will be 2-3 overlapping quotes between each student, depending on how many quotes are selected for this activity. The teacher and every student should have their own quote so that all can participate in the activity.
Objective: - Access prior knowledge about the text
- Generate conversation about specific passages from the text
- Extrapolate ideas by making inferences about the text
The tea party (15 minutes): - Students should be walking around the classroom reading their quote to other students
- Students should be listening to other students quotes
- Brief discussions between pairs or groups of students should generate conversations based on their quotes
- Students should be making inferences about the text based on the passage they have and the passages that they listen to
- Students should discuss how their passage relates to others
Questions to consider: These questions should be put on the board or the overhead, to help prompt discussions among students.
- How does your passage relate to your partners passage?
- What do you think is going on in your passage? How does it relate to others passages?
- What do you know about the speaker?
- What do you think your passages says about the text?
- What can you infer about the text based on your passages?
- What do you know about the text?
- Can you find multiple speakers between you and your fellow classmates? (listen for word choice, tone, sentence length and any other clues that may lead to discovery about speakers)
- What themes are you noticing?
- What is the mood or your passage, and others passages?
Discussion (10 minutes): Once students have spent 15 minutes moving around the classroom discussing their passage with other, regroup the class to have a formal discussion about the activity and the text. The discussion should closely resemble the questions that students considered during the activity guided by the teacher. Students should begin to make inferences about the text and start thinking about themes they discovered during the activity.
Questions guiding discussion:
- What themes did you notice?
- After having your tea party, what can you say or infer about the text?
o What do you think this book is about?
o What do you think will happen in this book?
- What can you say about the characters in the book? Can you say anything?
Reflection: Have students write up a brief reflection of the activity, in journals or separate sheet of paper. This should guide thinking about what students have inferred about the text through completion of the activity and the discussion.
Prompt:
o What can you say about the text based on the tea party and discussion? Has this activity given any insight or thoughts about the text that you did not have before? Was this activity helpful to begin thinking about the text?
Assessment: This is a participation based activity, all students should be assessed based on participation in the tea party, the reflection can be used a tool for a formal assessment however, is intended to allow students to log their reactions and inferences to the text to be able to reference at a later time. As discussion is much shorter than the activity all students may not participate, but should be actively listening or taking notes on the discussion.
Differentiation: - Color code cards so students can pair up
- Have tea party in two circles facing one another to control volume of classroom and maintain focused groupings of students (classroom management)
- Have advanced readers read ahead to lead activity
- Pair dependent readers with advanced readers for duration of activity
Notes: - Leaving the page numbers on the passages may lead to students organizing in a larger discussion based on the numerical order of pages
- Bring in snacks for this activity to set a mood for the activity
Adaptation to Walden 1. When I wrote the folloeing passages, or rather the bulk of them I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord Massachuetts. (1)
2. But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon ploughed into the soil for compost. (3)
3. But, probably, man did not live long on the earth without discovering the convenience which there is a house, the domestic comforts, which phrase may have originally signified the satisfactions of the house more than of the family; (27)
4. There is some of the same fitness in a man’s building his own house that there is in a bird’s building its own nes.t (44)
5. The furniture, part of which I made myself and the rest cost me nothing if which I have not rendered an account, consisted of a bed, a table, a desk, three chairs, a looking glass three inches in diameter, a pair of tongs and andirons, a kettle, a skillet and a frying pan, a dimple washer, a wash bowl, two knives and forks, three plates, one cup, one spoon, a jug for oil, a jug for molasses, and a japanned. (62-63)
6. I found thus that I had been a rich man without any damage to my poverty. (79)
7. I did not need to go out doors to take the air, for the atmosphere within had lost none of its freshness. It was not so much within doors as behind a door where I sat, even in the rainiest weather. (82)
8. My house was on the side of a hill, immediately on the edge of the larger wood in the midst of a young forest of pitch pines and hickories, and half a dozen rods from the pond, to which a narrow footpath led down the hill. (110)
9. I am more alone than ever. For the rest of the long afternoon, perhaps, my meditations are interrupted only by the faint rattle of a carriage or team along the distant highway. (119)
10. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude… Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows. (131)
11. “By George! I can enjoy myself well enough here chopping; I want no better spot.” (141)
12. “Satisfied!” said he; “some men are satisfied with one thing, and some with another. One man perhaps, if he has got enough will be satisfied wo sit all day with his back to the fire and his belly to the table, by George!” (144)
13. I came to love my rows, my beans, though so many more than I wanted. They attached me to the earth, and so I got strength like Antæus. (150)
14. But, looking directly down into our waters from a boat, they are seen to be of very different colors. Walden is blue at one time and green at another, even from the same point of view. (171)
15. Walden, the same woodland lake that I discovered so many years ago; where a forest was cut down last winter another is springing up by its shore as lustily as ever. (186)
16. A man will not need to study history to find out what is best for his own culture.
17. Nature is hard to be overcome, but she must be overcome. (212)
18. Alas! how little does the memory of these human inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape! (256)
19. Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads. (274)
20. I do not say that John or Jonathan, that this generation or the next, will realize all this; but such is the character of that morrow which mere lapse of time can never make to dawn. The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star. (325)
Character Bulletin Board Adapted from Kylene Beers When Kids Can’t Read (134)
Instructional Strategies This is a class wide project that should be added to over the course of reading of Walden. As kids are reading and taking notes with book marks, they will begin to notice different elements about Thoreau as a character. Since Thoreau is the only round and developed character in the text it will be important to make sure that students are getting a clear understanding of him as a character as they read. Also it is important to note that Walden Pond can be seen as a character as Thoreau.
SSRW (10 minutes) Students should read Walden for 10 minutes. As this is a long text, this time should be allotted to allow students the opportunity to keep up with the reading.
Introduction (15 minutes) - A character bulletin board is an interactive way that we as a class will create a depiction of Thoreau to understand him as a character, and Walden Pond to think of the landscape as a character.
- In most instances we would have the opportunity to generate a collage of character bulletin boards for all the characters, but for this book we are going to be making a character sketch of Thoreau and of Walden Pond.
o How can we think of the landscape as a character?
§ What are the its physical features
§ How does Thoreau interact with the landscape?
o Read Setting or Landscape as A Character by Nancy Niles https://secondwindpub.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/setting-or-landscape-as-a-character/
§ Landscape can: change a person, set the mood of a scene, be different in different parts of the landscape (like elements of a city), it can be the antagonist like in The Devils Highway or protagonist (maybe we will see this in Walden)
Build a character Bulletin Board (45 minutes) Materials:
- Personal computer for each student
- Printer
- Poster board
- Markers
- Glue
- Magazines
- Post-it-notes
- Optional: This is a good opportunity for all students to participate on building a dingle picture using a google doc. Students can collaborate by finding pictures and then posting them to on document so that they can all communicate at the same time.
Divide the class into two groups, one group will develop a depiction of Walden Pond and the other will create a depiction of Thoreau. By this point students should have begun reading the book and should have an idea of Walden Pond as a character and Thoreau as a character. Though there are pictures of both online students should find a creative way to make a character sketch of Thoreau and Walden Pond.
Ideas for students:
o Make a collage of real pictures, or representations of the character
o Make a collage from a collection of pictures
o Draw out pictures of each character
Select passages that are representative of Thoreau and Walden Pond as a character and write them on post-it-notes, and add them to the character bulletin board. These can follow a theme that is seen throughout the book, be a description, infer different aspects about their characters, or represent instances of change about the character.
Thoreau:
- I took particular pleasure in breaking this ground, for in almost all latitudes men dig into the earth for an equitable temperature. (43)
o Looking at personal attitudes, inferring that he likes to do physical labor
- I have learned that the swiftest traveler is he that goes by foot (51)
o Personal attitudes and belief, may also infer that he likes to walk
- It was fit that I should live on rice, mainly, who love so well the philosophy of India. To meet the objections of some inveterate cavillers, I may as well state, that if I dined out occasionally, as I always had done, and I trust shall have opportunities to do again, it was frequently to the detriment of my domestic arrangements. (59)
o Eating habits
- I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. (131)
o Description of living style
- I found myself, and still find, an instinct toward a higher, or, as it named, spiritual life, as do men, and another toward a primitive rank and savage one, (202)
o Spiritual beliefs/connection with hunter gatherer instinct
Walden Pond:
- I have thought that Walden Pond would be a good place for business, not solely on account of the railroad and the ice trade; it offers advantages which it may not be good policy to divulge; it is a good port and a good foundation. (20)
o Commerce around pond
- Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. (86)
o Affecting mood of Thoreau
- I have seen our river, when, the landscape being covered with snow, both water and ice were almost green as grass. (171)
o Physical description in winter
- The scenery of Walden is on a humble scale, and, though beautiful, does not approach to grandeur, nor can it much concern one who has not frequented it or lived by the shore; yet this pond is so remarkable for its depth and purity as to merit a particular description. (170)
o Physical description
- Walden, the same woodland lake that I discovered so many years ago; where a forest was cut down last winter another is springing up by its shore as lustily as ever; (186)
o Ability to grow and heal, changes over time
Conclusion (10 minutes) Have each group present their work to the class briefly. After students have generated their character bulletin boards and practiced making post-it-notes, hand out the assignment sheet (Appendix A) that will carry out this activity through the completion of the book. Students will be tasked to continue to add to the bulletin board as they read Walden. Weekly return to the bulletin board to review what students have been posting. If the class begins to notice themes or patters makes a section that all the post-it-notes under that theme or pattern can be placed under.
Differentiation - Have students generate their own character bulletin boards
- Make as an online assignment using google tools (google docs, picsa), or wikispaces
- Keep students in groups and task the groups to look only for characteristics of Thoreau or Walden Pond
Extension - Bridge into the final writing assignment
- Generate writing assignment or blog post talking about characterization
Appendix A Assignment:
You will be responsible to continue adding to the bulletin board as we read the book. This will be an opportunity for you to collaborate as a class to generate a detailed character sketch. As we read Walden you will be responsible for contributing to the character bulletin board. Post-it-notes will be provided in class, you will either need to write these up before class or take one home to bring to class the following day. You will be responsible for contributing 10 pieces to the bulletin board (5 on Thoreau, 5 on Walden Pond) but you are more than welcome to contribute more. An A on this assignment will require 9-10 complete and thoughtful post it notes, a B will require 8 complete and thoughtful post-it-notes, a C will require 7 thoughtful and complete post-it notes. If you notice that you have the same or similar passage as someone else that is fine, your description should and will be different, I should not see a pattern that you are copying others post-it-notes you will be confronted about academic integrity.
On the front of the post it not you need to write your passage with the page number and a brief descriptor as to what is being characterized. On the back please write your name, a possible theme or reoccurring idea, and number the post-it-note in the order in which you have written it (just number 1-10 and do not worry that you may have 1,2,3,6,8 on Walden and 4,5,7,9,10 on Thoreau). Please note that some passages are long so you may need to tape two post-it-notes together. Once you have written you post-it-note add it to the bulletin board for future discussions.
Front Back
Making Inferences Adapted from Assessment Portfolio
Standard
Colorado Academic Standards: 12th Grade Reading and Writing:
2.2c Use reading and note-taking strategies (outlining, mapping systems, skimming, scanning, key word search) to organize information and make connections within and across informational texts.
2.2e Obtain and use information from text and text features (index, bold or italicized text, subheadings, graphics) to answer questions, perform specific tasks, or identify and solve problems
3.2b Select and build context for language appropriate to content (technical, formal)
3.2d Select appropriate and relevant information (excluding extraneous details) to set context
3.3c Seek and use an appropriate style guide to govern conventions for a particular audience and purpose
Instructional Strategies
Day 1 SSRW (10 minutes)
Students should read Walden for 10 minutes. As this is a long text, this time should be allotted to allow students the opportunity to keep up with the reading.
Define inference (15 minutes):
1) the act or process of reaching a conclusion about something from known facts or evidence (http://www.merriam-webster.com/)
2) a conclusion or opinion that is formed because of known facts or evidence (http://www.merriam-webster.com/)
Overarching question to discuss as a class:
§ How can we transfer the practice of making inferences into our reading practices?
Discussion on the meaning of signs (see figure 1-4) (20 minutes):
- What does each sign convey?
- What meaning do you draw from these signs?
- When you see this sign how do you feel?
- What can you infer when you see this sign?
Practice/In-class write up (20 minutes):
- What can you infer when you see this sign? (see figure 5)
- Where might this sign be found?
- How does this sign make you feel?
- What can you infer when you see this sign? On a dumpster? On a building? On a door?
Blog Post (15 minutes carrying over as homework):
- Find a sign that you see every day but others may not? A stop sign would not meet this requirement. Make an inference to its meaning. What does it mean globally? What does it mean personally? How do you interact with this sign? How do others interact with this sign?
Day 2
SSRW (10 minutes):
Students should read Walden for 10 minutes. As this is a long text, this time should be allotted to allow students the opportunity to keep up with the reading.
Discussion:
1) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to30AJm2epQ (5 minutes as review):
2) Fritschmann, Schumaker, & Deshler Overview Prompt list (Appendix A.1, Supplementary handout Appendix A.1-A.3) (10 minutes):
a. What are “Big Picture Questions”?
b. What are “Prediction Questions”?
c. What are “Clarification Questions”?
Read Aloud Walden (25 minutes):
- Model think out loud (2003, Beers, 123) (Appendix B)
§ What kind of questions am I asking as I read? Big picture, comprehension, predictive comprehension. (2007, Fritschmann, 90)
§ What do you know? (2007, Fritschmann, 90)
§ What are the clues? (2007, Fritschmann, 90)
§ As you speak write out your dialogue so that students can see what it is you are thinking (2003, Beers, 123)
o What are “Big Picture Questions”?
o What are “Prediction Questions”?
o What are “Clarification Questions”?
Practice (20 minutes):
1) Select a paragraph or two that you have read today and try making predictive questions about the passage. (Reading of Thoreau pages 6-13)
2) Practice making inferences using the graphic organizer (Appendix C and D) to visualize your thought process
Blog Post (10 minutes carrying over as homework):
- How does making an inference aid your reading comprehension and understanding of a text? Is this a strategy that you find easy to do in your head or is this a skill that you actively practice while you are reading?
Day 3
SSRW (10 minutes)
Students should read Walden for 10 minutes. As this is a long text, this time should be allotted to allow students the opportunity to keep up with the reading.
Review (10 minutes)
Review the terms that we have talked about over the past two days. This is time to get students thinking about the strategy they have just worked on and begin thinking about how they can apply this to future reading.
o What is an inference?
- the act or process of reaching a conclusion about something from known facts or evidence (http://www.merriam-webster.com/)
- a conclusion or opinion that is formed because of known facts or evidence (http://www.merriam-webster.com/)
o What are some big picture questions?
- What themes and motifs are there around wildlife?
- What is the soul of the pond?
o What are some predictive questions?
- Will Thoreau build a garden as a source of food?
- How will the Pond have deeper meaning for Thoreau?
o What are some clarification questions?
- When did Thoreau live at Walden Pond?
- What were his reasons for living at the pond?
Discussion (20 minutes):
Display selected passage below on overhead and practice as a class using the skills learned over the past two days. This is a whole class activity, inviting students to practice what they have learned.
What can we infer from this passage? (2003, Beers, 63)
“The only house I had been the owner of before, if I except a boat, was a tent, which I used occasionally when making excursions in the summer, and this is still rolled up in my garret; but the boat, after passing from hand to hand, has gone down the stream of time. With this more substantial shelter about me, I had made some progress toward settling in the world. This frame, so slightly clad, was a sort of crystallization around me, and reacted on the builder. It was suggestive somewhat as a picture in outlines. I did not need to go outdoors to take the air, for the atmosphere within had lost none of its freshness. It was not so much within doors as behind a door where I sat, even in the rainiest weather.” (2004, Thoreau, 82)
- Who is speaking? (Big picture)
o Thoreau
§ How do we know that?
· The use of first person. Thoreau is the narrator.
- Where are they? (Big picture/ Clarification)
o He must be in his cabin at Walden Pond
§ How do we know this?
· He references that the only house he had been the owner of before, this uses past tense referencing he now is living in his cabin.
- What is going to happen next? (Prediction)
o There will be a change in weather.
§ How do we know this/why are you predicting this?
· He mentions that he enjoyed the fresh air even in the rainiest weather.
- What does the word atmosphere mean? (Clarification)
o The surrounding area of his cabin.
§ How do we know this?
· Thoreau is talking about the frest air that surrounds his cabin.
o Additional questions in Appendix A.1
- What else can we infer about this passage?
Practice (15 minutes):
Display passage on overhead with prompting questions. Students should spend 10 minutes on this by themselves. The final 5 minutes they should share their information with a partner and discuss their similarities and differences.
“The heroic books, even if printed in the character of our mother tongue, will always be in a language dead to degenerate times; and will laboriously seek the meaning of each word and line, conjecturing a larger sense than common use permits out of what wisdom and valor and generosity we have” (2004, Thoreau, 98).
- Who is speaking?
- Who are they addressing?
- Are there any words you don’t understand?
- How does the definition of certain words change the meaning?
- What does the author believe?
- What is the author arguing for?
- How does the author view the world?
Blog Response (15 minutes carrying over as homework):
1) Find an article on any topic that you would like.
2) Read the article, practice making inferences as you read, frequently stopping to write down thoughts and questions
3) Post a link to the article on your blog
4) Post your thoughts and notes that you have taken (if you have handwritten notes, taking a picture of these notes and uploading the image is just fine)
5) Respond to these questions
a. How did making inferences help your understanding of the text?
b. What types of inferences were you making?
c. Was this a useful strategy for your own reading practices?
Assessment tools
The blog posts are my form of assessment. As they are a required part of class writing students will be required to complete blog responses in class and as homework as a part of their participation for the class. There is an attached rubric (Appendix E) that roughly outlines what is expected of the students. As each blog requires a different type of response the rubric is very general. Students should expect and read responses from the teacher on their blog posts. This type of communication should both allow the teacher to assess the students work as a form of conferencing and work as a tool to assess students’ needs individually and as a class. As students respond to the required blog post they will give insight to the instructor to their needs as a student and will be demonstrating that they are practicing the skill. With the first blog post students will be practicing inference skills that they use every day, while the second blog focuses on students attention to their own needs as a reader. The second blog highlights student’s needs as they offer direct feedback of this reading strategy. The last blog fully assess the skill of inferring as students will fully practice this skill on their own without aid from classmates. With responses from this blog the instructor will be able assess that all students are practicing this skill proficiently.
Figures
Figure 1 (image provided by Google images)
Figure 2 (image provided by Google images)
Figure 3 (image provided by Google images)
Figure 4 (image provided by Google images)
Figure 5 (image provided by Google images)
Figure 6 (image provided by Google Images
Appendix A.1
Appendix A.2
Appendix A.3
Appendix B Near the end of March[I1] , 1845, I borrowed[I2] an axe and went down to the woods by Walden[I3] Pond, nearest to where I intended to build[I4] my house, and began to cut down some tall, arrowy white pines, still in their youth, for timber[I5] . It is difficult to begin without borrowing[I6] , but perhaps it is the most generous course thus to permit your fellow-men to have an interest in your enterprise. The owner of the axe, [I7] as he released his hold on it, said that it was the apple of his eye; but I returned it sharper than I received it.[I8] It was a pleasant hillside where I worked, covered with pine woods, through which I looked out on the pond, and a small open field in the woods where pines and hickories were springing up. The ice in the pond was [I9] not yet dissolved, though there were some open spaces, and it was all dark-colored and saturated with water. There were some slight flurries of snow during the days that I worked there; but for the most part when I came out on to the railroad, on my way home[I10] , its yellow sand-heap stretched away gleaming in the hazy atmosphere, and the rails shone in the spring sun, and I heard the lark and pewee and other birds [I11] already come to commence another year with us. They were pleasant spring [I12] days, in which the winter of man's discontent was thawing as well as the earth, and the life that had lain torpid began to stretch itself. One day, [I13] when my axe had come off and I had cut a green hickory for a wedge, driving it with a stone, and had placed the whole to soak in a pond-hole in order to swell the wood, I saw a striped snake [I14] run into the water, and he lay on the bottom, apparently without inconvenience, as long as I stayed there, or more than a quarter of an hour; perhaps because he had not yet fairly come out of the torpid state. It appeared to me that for a like reason men remain in their present low and primitive condition[I15] ; but if they should feel the influence [I16] of the spring of springs arousing them, they would of necessity rise to a higher and more ethereal life. I had previously seen the snakes i[I17] n frosty mornings in my path with portions of their bodies still numb and inflexible, waiting for the sun to thaw them. On the 1st [I18] of April it rained and melted the ice, and in the early part of the day, which was very foggy, I heard a stray[I19] goose groping about over the pond and cackling as if lost, or like the spirit of the fog.[I20] (Thoreau, 2004, 39-40)
Appendix C Making Inferences Graphic Organizer Walden
Textual Evidence
Question
Prior Knowledge
Inference
I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous, I may almost say, as to attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of servitude called Negro Slavery, there are so many keen and subtle masters that enslave both North and South. It is hard to have a Southern overseer; it is worse to have a Northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself. (6)
Will slavery play a role in throughout the book as a theme? This is a comment against slavery and judging men who are slavery owners.
The Emancipation Proclamation had already been signed and the US was in the tail end of the Civil War. As Thoreau was living in the north he would have more than likely been against slavery.
Big Picture
Slavery as a theme occurring through the book? What other kinds of slavery may we see? Are we slaves to our lives, livelihood?
I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do. We may waive just so much care of ourselves as we honestly bestow elsewhere. Nature is as well adapted to our weakness as to our strength. (10)
Should we trust nature if it knows our weaknesses and strengths? Is Thoreau going to find a way to make peace living in the woods alone?
Depending on the situation humans can die in the wilderness. Nature does know our strengths and weaknesses and we should be aware of this.
Predictive
Thoreau will find a way to live in nature without dying. As he write this book to recount his time spent at Walden Pond he must have found a way to fight the elements.
By the words, necessary of life, I mean whatever, of all that man obtains by his own exertions, has been from the first, or from long use has become, so important to human life that few, if any, whether from savageness, or poverty, or philosophy, ever attempt to do without it. To many creatures there is in this sense but one necessary of life, Food. (11-12)
Are there more necessities of life than Food? What other things are more important than food?
People need food, water, and shelter to survive. There should be more necessities than just food for survival.
Big Picture/Predictive:
Thoreau is making a grand statement. Following this passage must be some sort of clarification to what the necessities of life are.
The grand necessity, then, for our bodies, is to keep warm, to keep the vital heat in us. What pains we accordingly take, not only with our Food, and Clothing, and Shelter, but with our beds, which are our night-clothes, robbing the nests and breasts of birds to prepare this shelter within a shelter, as the mole has its bed of grass and leaves at the end of its burrow! The poor man is wont to complain that this is a cold world; and to cold, no less physical than social, we refer directly a great part of our ails. (13)
There is more for survival than just food. What other elements could Thoreau talk about in this passage to clarify what he needs to survive at Walden Pond?
Thoreau is planning to build a cabin, he must be asserting that this is a need for survival in the woods.
Clarification
Thoreau is clarifying that he needs to build a shelter for survival. Without a shelter he would not be able survive the elements over his time spent at Walden Pond.
Adapted from yale.edu
Appendix D Making Inferences Graphic Organizer
Textual Evidence
Question
Prior Knowledge
Inference
Adapted from yale.edu
Appendix E
Rubric for blog Responses
CATEGORY
4- Excellent
3- Good
2- Fair
1- Needs Improvement
I answer the topic question(s) in my blog entries.
I answer all of the question(s) with a clear and focused response. I flush out all of my ideas and give supporting details.
I answer the question(s) with a focused response. I do not flush out all of my ideas and lack supporting details.
I answer the question(s). I express some of my ideas and give no supported with details.
I do not answer the question(s). I do not attempt to flush my ideas or offer supporting details.
I can write in complete sentences and use capital letters appropriately.
The writer makes no errors in capitalization or punctuation, so the writing is very easy to read.
The writer makes 1 or 2 errors in capitalization or punctuation, but the writing is still easy to read.
The writer makes some errors in capitalization and punctuation that catch the reader's attention and interrupt the flow of the writing.
The writer makes several errors in capitalization and punctuation that catch the reader's attention and make the writing hard to read.
I can share information electronically by leaving feedback and comments on my classmates' blogs.
The student regularly (more than once per week) leaves specific, quality feedback for classmates.
The student regularly (once per week) leaves comments specific/high quality feedback for classmates.
Student leaves comments and feedback for other students sometimes, but less than once per week. Some feedback is too general
Student rarely leaves comments and feedback for others students OR feedback is vague ("I like your story").
Adapted from rubistar.com
Probable Passage (Small group activity to for readers struggling with Making Inferences) Adapted from Kylene Beers When Kids Can’t Read (87-88)
10-15 minute activity
Introduction Students having trouble making inferences may need a more visual and direct way to make inferences. With these students it will be best to pull them aside for a mini lesson and demonstrate how they can describe a passage, understand the problem, make a prediction and think of the possible outcome. This can be done during SSRW so that students can continue to work with the text under guidance during regular class time.
Instructional Strategies - Introduce students to terms (2-3 minutes)
- Select a passage and model (5 minutes)
- Allow students to practice (5-8 minutes)
Introduction to terms (2-3 minutes) All definitions provided by google.com
- Character: a person in a novel, play, or movie
- Setting: the place or type of surroundings where something is positioned or where an event takes place.
- Problem: a matter or situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome.
- Gist Statement or prediction: a thing predicted; a forecast
- Outcomes: the way a thing turns out; a consequence
Select a passage and model (5 minutes) Appendix A works through the notes that are indicated on this passage and models what students should be noting as they work through the probable passage.
Hand out worksheet (Appendix B) and model reading and note taking on the instructor’s worksheet.
Walden (126)
There is commonly sufficient space about us. Our horizon is never quite at our elbows. The thick wood is not just at our door, nor the pond, but somewhat is always clearing, familiar and worn by us, appropriated and fenced in some way, and reclaimed from Nature. For what reason have I [I21] this vast range and circuit, some square miles of unfrequented forest, for my privacy, abandoned to me by men? My nearest neighbor is a mile distant, and no house is visible from any place but the hill-tops within half a mile of my own. I have my horizon bounded by woods all to myself; a distant view of the railroad where it touches the pond on the one hand, and of the fence which skirts the woodland road on the other. But for the most part it is as solitary where I live as on the prairies.[I22] It is as much Asia or Africa as New England. I have, as it were, my own sun and moon and stars, and a little world all to myself. At night there was never a traveler passed my house, or knocked at my door, more than if I were the first or last man; unless it were in the spring, [I23] when at long intervals some came from the village to fish for pouts--they plainly fished much more in the Walden Pond of their own natures, and baited their hooks with darkness--[I24] but they soon retreated, usually with light baskets, and left "the world to darkness and to me," and the black kernel of the night was never profaned by any human neighborhood. I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark, though the witches are all hung, and Christianity and candles have been introduced[I25]
Practice (5-8 minutes) Have students select their own passage, either one they have already read or the following passage to practice making the probable passage. If students need more assistance this activity allows for one on one interactions as this is intended for groups of students of up to 5.
Appendix A Adapted from education.ky.gov
Probable Passage
Setting Characters Problem
when at long intervals some came from the village to fish for pouts—they plainly fished much more in the Walden Pond of their own natures, and baited their hooks with darkness
Thoreau
Use of “I” indicating that the narrator is speaking in the first person
Setting in Walden Pond
woodland road
fished much more in the Walden Pond
Gist Statement
___Thoreau has an issues with so many people fishing at the pond, as stated earlier in the chapter he likes his solitude, so having so many people at the pond may lead to a conflict of interest as he likes to be alone. _____________________________________________________________
What actions will Thoreau take if any?
Look up these words.
Solitary
profaned
Thoreau may address these issues with individuals so that he can have the pond to his self.
Change in season may force people to stop visiting the pond
Outcomes Unknown words To discover
How
I Now Know…
___Thoreau likes to be alone and he is constantly observing those that come to the pond as he indicates how and when they are leaving the pond ____________________________________
Appendix B Adapted from education.ky.gov
Probable Passage
Setting Characters Problem
Gist Statement
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Outcomes Unknown words To discover
How
I Now Know…
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Book Marks” Adapted from Assessment Portfolio
Standard Colorado Academic Standards 12 grade reading and writing:
1.1.a. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks. (CCSS: SL.11-12.4)
1.1e. Choose specific words and word order for intended effect and meaning
2.2.a Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem. (CCSS: RI.11-12.7)
2.2.b Use reading and note-taking strategies (outlining, mapping systems, skimming, scanning, key word search) to organize information and make connections within and across informational texts
2.2c Use semantic cues, signal words, and transitions to identify text structures (such as critique, proposition/support, inductive/deductive) and to summarize central ideas and supporting details
Instructional Strategies SSRW (10 minutes)
Students should read Walden for 10 minutes. As this is a long text, this time should be allotted to allow students the opportunity to keep up with the reading.
Discussion (15 minutes):
Have students generate a word wall on the board focusing on the chapter Where I Lived, and What I Lived For (78-96) (Appendix A). This should be an open discussion to show the entire class what others are marking in a text and discover common practices amongst all. Final version of this word wall should be copied down with all of student responses and published to the classroom webpage. If students do not take notes or mark their texts then the word wall should be generated by the instructor using these bullet points and then questions should prompt student thinking as to why one would mark or note these things.
Big Question: What do students mark as they read?
This is a list of ideas that students should be generating. As they come up with ideas try prompting their thinking as to why they are making these marks in texts or taking notes on these things. The word wall should generate things that students take note of, but the prompting questions should guide their thinking towards why they are making these decisions.
o Words (Why mark words?)
§ Words seem to indicate themes and patterns. In this passage see a theme of richness and poverty in relation to death. Is Thoreau making a larger comment on the true richness of life?
o Questions (What questions are you asking? Big picture? Comprehension? Predictive? [see “Making Inferences”])
§ Who does Thoreau Judge?
§ What is Thoreau saying about life and death?
§ What is divine life in Thoreau’s mind?
o Textual evidence to a theme (How do you know that you have found a theme?)
§ Looking at life, Thoreau talks about richness on page 79, then he beging to talk about being “awake” and what it truly means to be awake not in relation to sleep but in life, pages 87-88. Following this he makes a comment as to how he does not want to fritter away life on page 89.
o Quotes (What type of quotes? Passages? Dialogue?)
§ Not many quotes outside Thoreau writing down thoughts
§ “I found thus that I had been a rich man without any damage to my poverty” (79)
§ “There are none happy in the world but beings who enjoy freely a vast horizon” – Damodara (85)
§ “There are millions awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion” (87)
o Difference in speaker/voice (What does shifts in tone of voice, point of view indicate to a reader?)
§ Shift in voice from talking about Thoreau’s own living to making a judgement about society and life (78-82)
§ Shift in voice about perception of being alive compared to being “awake” (92-94)
§ Shift in voice about what absolute existence in comparison what we crave (95-96)
o Important time registers (How are you marking time as you are reading the text?)
§ Thoreau doesn’t change time in this passage or does not indicate that there is a shift in time. In the previous chapter he gave good clues to the shift in month or season. This seems more like a stream of conscious passage.
Demonstrate (20 minutes):
On a text show how dependent readers may mark a text based on the discussion. Select a text from newsela.com and put on overhead, or Smart Board. Mark the text with the appropriate indicators that the reader is thinking (think out loud strategy Beers, 119) indicate what each mark means. Use different colors for: time, words, questions, textual evidence, quotes, speaker’s voice, time registers. See Appendix B for a detailed demonstration of what this will look like on a class overhead. As the text is highlighted for specific registers there are comments to the right of the document to show the thinking process as to why one would highlight specific elements of the text
- We are going to use specific tools to make this easier especially with larger texts, such at Walden. As you can see this may take too long to do to the entire text and we may never get through the whole text. Having Bookmarks can make this process a lot easier and will allow for you to have all of the information at hand when you need to reference a part of the text rather than thumb through the entire Open Bookmark template from class webpage and save it as a shared google doc (Appendix C and D).
Practice (25 minutes):
Have students select a passage from Where I Lived, and What I Lived For in Walden, to begin taking detailed book mark on a passage.
- This is going to be practice that you will be able to reference later. Work on taking detailed notes as you read the passage. Remember you will be looking for voice, theme, quotes, words, and questions. These can be things that you find interesting, things that you will find useful. Remember to think about the types of questions that we discussed while making inferences, these same questions will useful when you notice questions or have questions about the text. We are going to practice making book cards in class, which we will return to doing as we continue to read Walden.
Have students practice marking the specific qualities of the text on the template as a google doc. Students should be looking for: time, words, questions, textual evidence, quotes, speaker’s voice, time registers as discussed in class. Students do not need to worry about the page in this case since they are reading an article based on the web. Once students are reading a text in a book they should be marking the page number from where the cue comes from.
Blog Post (10 minutes):
Students should reflect on this strategy through a blog post.
- How will this strategy help your reading?
- What can you take away from practicing this in your own reading?
- Will this be beneficial to your own reading?
o What can you take away from this if you do not think it will be beneficial?
- How else can you apply this strategy in your own work outside of this class?
- How will practicing this help you succeed in reading?
Assessment Tools
Student s will be assigned to practice writing book marks throughout the reading of an entire text. Bookmarks should be completed weekly and will not need to be emailed to the instructor as long as students have shared the document with the instructor. If students want they should have the option of submitting email versions, however this form of submission can lead to late submissions. Students will be graded based on the developed rubric (Appendix E). They will be checked for completeness and practice of critical thinking strategies and making inferences from text (see pre-reading strategies). The in class practice time should invite students to fill out as many of the spaces on the template for the selected article as practice and submit to teacher as email along with a copy of the article that they have marked as an indirect assessment. This submission will allow for the teacher to make an assessment on the skill before moving onto the graded assignment that students will working on as they read the text.
Each submission should demonstrate more thought and critical thinking as they get more practice. Students will be graded on Book Cards once a week and should aim for 25 entries per card. With each week the teacher should note areas needing improvement for the class so that they can return to specific skills used while taking notes.
Appendix A Word Wall:
Rich in proportion (79)
Rich[I26] without damage to poverty (79)
Buy greedily (81)
Abode (81)
Outdoors/freshness (82)
Garden and the oarchard (82)
Value[I27] as a neighbor (84)
Earth is not continent but insular (85)
Squatted[I28] (86)
Nature Herself [I29] (86)
Despaired of life (87)
Mornings I am awake and there is dawn (87)
Millions are awake[I30] (87)
Divine life (87)
Keep ourselves awake [I31] (88)
I did not wish to live what was not life (88)
Our life is frittered away by detail [I32] (89)
Wasted life[I33] (90)
Absolute existence (94)
Men, who fail to live (94)
The track is laid for us (95)
Life (96)
Death (96)
We crave reality (96)
I judge [I34] (96)
Appendix B Walden (86-88)
Words
Questions
Theme
Quotes
Voice
Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal [I35] simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. I h[I36] ave been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks. [I37] I got up early and bathed in the pond; that was a religious exercise, and one of the best things which I did. They say that characters were engraven on the bathing tub of King Tching Thang to this effect: "Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again."[I38] I can understand that. Morning brings back the heroic ages. I was as much affected by the faint hum of a mosquito making its invisible and unimaginable [I39] tour through my apartment at earliest dawn, when I was sitting with door and windows open, as I could be by any trumpet that ever sang of fame. It was Homer's requiem; itself an Iliad and Odyssey [I40] in the air, singing its own wrath and wanderings. There was something cosmical [I41] about it; a standing advertisement, till forbidden, of the everlasting vigor and fertility of the world. The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour. Then there is least somnolence [I42] in us; and for an hour, at least, some part of us awakes [I43] which slumbers all the rest of the day and night. Little is to be expected of that day, if it can be called a day, to which we are not awakened by our Genius, but by the mechanical nudgings of some servitor, are not awakened by our own newly acquired force and aspirations from within, accompanied by the undulations of celestial music, instead of factory bells, and a fragrance filling [I44] the air — to a higher life than we fell asleep from; and thus the darkness bear its fruit, and prove itself to be good, no less than the light. That man who does not believe that each day contains an earlier, more sacred, and auroral hour than he has yet profaned, [I45] has despaired of life, and is pursuing a descending and darkening way. After a partial cessation of his sensuous life, [I46] the soul of man, or its organs rather, are reinvigorated each day, and his Genius tries again what noble life [I47] it can make. All memorable events, I should say, transpire in morning time and in a morning atmosphere. The Vedas say,[I48] "[I49] All intelligences awake with the morning." Poetry and art, and the fairest and most memorable of the actions of men, date from such an hour. [I50] All poets and heroes, like Memnon, are the children of Aurora, and emit their music at sunrise. To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning. It matters not what the clocks say or the attitudes and labors of men. Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me. Moral reform [I51] is the effort to throw off sleep. Why is it that men give so poor an account of their day if they have not been slumbering? [I52] They are not such poor calculators. If they had not been overcome with drowsiness, they would have performed something. The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or [I53] divine life. To be awake is to be alive. [I54] I have never yet met a man who was quite awake.[I55] How [I56] could I have looked him in the face?
We must learn to reawaken [I57] and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. [I58] I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour. [I59] If we refused, or rather used up, such paltry information as we get, the oracles would distinctly inform us how this might be done. [I60]
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.[I61] I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary.[I62] I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life,[I63] to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it,[I64] whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever."[I65]
Appendix C Book Mark Template
Walden Where I Lived, and What I Lived For (90)
? Mark
Mark My Words
Marking Time
Mark Who
Mark Quote
Name:
Name:
Name:
Name:
Book Walden
Book: Walden
Book: Walden
Book: Walden
Book: Walden
Page_90__
Why should we live with such a hurry and waste life?
Authorial question
Page_90__
Wasted life
- Emphasis on theme
Page__X_
Do not see any indication of time in this passage
Page_90__
If I should only give a few pulls at the parash bellrope, as for a fire that is…
- Thoreau is the only speaker in this section
Page_90__
But if we stay at home and mind our business, who will want railroads? We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us
- Ideas that work is wasting our lives
Page_90__
As for work we haven’t any consequence
- What kind of consequence
Page_90__
Consequence
The idea of wasting life in relation to the theme of living and being awake
Page___
Page_90__
“I am glad to know that it takes a gang of men for every five miles to keep the sleepers down”
- Thoreau is relating to the theme of work and life in relation to wasting life
Page_90__
Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry
- In relation to us wasting our lives on fravilous and pointless worries.
Page___
Page__90_
Sleepers
- People who are wasting there lives
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
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Template adapted from when Kids Can't Read (309-312)
Appendix D Book Mark Template
? Mark
Mark My Words
Marking Time
Mark Who
Mark Quote
Name:
Name:
Name:
Name:
Book
Book
Book
Book
Book
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
Page___
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Template adapted from when Kids Can't Read (309-312)
Appendix E Rubric for Bookmarks
CATEGORY
4
3
2
1
Completed all bookmark strategies
Student completed book mark entries
Student completed most book mark entries
student completed half of book mark entries
Student completed less than half of book mark entries
Indicated the page number
Student indicated all page numbers
Student indicated most of the page numbers
Student failed to indicate most page numbers
Student did not indicate page numbers
Practiced inferring strategies
Student demonstrated strong critical though and practiced inferring about specific passages, quotes, voice, time and questions
Student demonstrated critical though and practiced inferring about specific passages, quotes, voice, time and questions
Student practiced inferring about specific passages, quotes, voice, time and questions
Student failed to practiced inferring about specific passages, quotes, voice, time and questions
Followed up on new words
Student sought definition from dictionary and contextualized the word in own writing and from text
Student sought definition from dictionary and contextualized the word.
Student sought definition from dictionary
Student failed to find definition of specific word
Adapted from rubistar.com
Awareness About Our Environment
By: Sylvia Stults
Broken bottles and charred pieces of glass
Wadded up newspapers tossed on the grass
Pouring of concrete and tearing out trees
This is the environment that surrounds me?
Poisons and insecticides sprayed on our food
Oceans filling with thick oil crude
All sea life destined to a slow awful doom
These are the things we are to consume?
Mills pumping out iron expelling yellow fumes
Airlines emitting caustic gases from fuels
Weapons of destruction tested at desolate sites
And this is the air that's to sustain life?
There has to be something that someone can do
Like raise the awareness to those around you
That if we don't heed the problem at hand
It's your life that's at stake, the destruction of man.
Source: http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/awareness-about-our-environment#ixzz3XOLilFiP
Family Friend Poems
Rhyme in Ecopeorty (Designed for 80 minute class period):
Objectives:
- Notice rhyme scheme
- Differentiate between types of rhyme
- Understand relationship between rhyme and theme
- Notice shifting tones in mood
Introduction to poem (5-10 minutes):
Explain to students that a form of poetry is called ecopoetry. This form of poetry is geared at environmental concerns. Some ecopoetry focuses on environmental destruction while others highlight instances in the environment, like the changing colors of a leaf. Thematically this form of poetry pays close attention to the environment, but uses different conventions and topics to understand environmental concerns.
Discussion (10-15 minutes): Engage students in a discussion that primes thinking about their environment and there natural surroundings and their impact on the environment. This discussion should start off broad and begin to narrow its focus. If students start with a tree, the discussion lead into noticing the change in seasons which causes the leaves to fall. Their impact may be raking up the leaves in the fall (are we taking away nutrients that the tree would normally have returned to it in the forest?). Building a tree house in the tree, all be it a cool fort, what harm is being done to the tree? We log forests so those trees do not get a chance to live, this do not get a chance to consume carbon dioxide that we are putting into the air, so what benefits do we get from killing the tree compared to the resources that we gain? Students should generate topics on their own and try to dive into one or two topics in depth.
Prompting Questions:
- What do you see around your immediate environment?
- How do you visualize your resources (water, electricity, oil, food, consumer items)? Where does it come from? How are these things processed?
- What does it take to run a car or even turn on a light?
Reading (10-15 minutes):
Invite the students to read the poem quietly, this should take no more than 2 minutes, during this reading students do not need to mark the poem, but are more than welcome to do so if they like, and should just familiarize themselves with the poem. Following this silent reading the teacher should read aloud once. While the poem is read students should mark the poem with the things that they notice, on first glance students may notice theme and thematic stanzas, rhyming couplets, and questions in the poem. Following the reading aloud done by the instructor three volunteers will be needed to recite the poem:
Reader 1
Reader 2
Reader 3
For students having trouble accessing the poem or not noticing themes, rhyming or questions, this reading these aspects of the poem. As reader 1 and 2 take on a couplet each through the reading, this rhyming scheme should become more apparent. Having a third reader will call attention to the break in the rhyme scheme and highlight the near rhyme.
Close Reading (25-30 minutes): First invite students to discuss what they noticed in the reading of the poem. This discussion should lead toward noticing rhyme and themes. This poem has 4 stanzas with rhyming couplets. Stanza 3 calls attention to an interruption of this rhyme scheme as it has imperfect rhymes which is jarring to the reader.
Rhyme: This poem uses an abab rhyming couplet scheme. In rhyming each couplet Stults uses a variety of rhymes. Lines 1 and 2 have a perfect rhyme, lines 3 and 4 have an assonant rhyme, stanza 2 has two couplets with a one-syllable rhyme, stanza 3 has two imperfect rhymes, and stanza 4 has assonant rhyming couplets.
Define the types of rhyme used (5-10minutes)( http://www.public.asu.edu/): - perfect rhyme: These terms refer to the immediately recognizable norm: true/blue, mountain/fountain.
- imperfect rhyme: These are all general terms referring to rhymes that are close but not exact: lap/shape, glorious/nefarious.
- assonant rhyme: Rhyming with similar vowels, different consonants: dip/limp, man/prank
- consonant rhyme: Rhyming with similar consonants, different vowels: limp/lump, bit/bet
- one-syllable rhyme: The norm, in which rhyme occurs on the final stressed syllables: One two, / Buckle my shoe
- identical rhyme: A word rhymes with itself, as in Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could not Stop for Death": We paused before a house that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground--
The Roof was scarcely visible--
The Cornice--in the Ground.
Discussion of rhyme (5-10 minutes): Students should discuss how the use of rhymes affect the poem, give meaning to each stanza and couplet, and call the reader’s attention to themes in the poem.
Guiding questions:
- How does the use of rhymes affect the reading of the poem?
- What is the purpose of using imperfect rhymes in stanza 3?
- How does using an imperfect/assonant rhyme on lines 8 and 9 affect the reading of the poem as it breaks or adds to the rhyming the rhyming scheme?
- How does the rhyming scheme call attention to the theme of the poem?
- What does the rhyme tell about the theme of the poem?
- What does the rhyme tell about the mood of the poem?
Noticing mood and theme (5-10 minutes): As this is eco-poetry, the thematic element is geared towards the environment. This poem focuses on the destruction of the environment and concludes with a call to action in the final stanza. Noticing rhyme pairs the theme of the poem with content (environment) and concern (destruction). Charred glass and grass are two items that typically would not fit together and are a sign of concern. Similarly, crude is not a word that one would associate with food, especially when associating crude with oil.
Guiding questions:
- What other rhyming couplets call attention to theme?
- Are there any other themes that you notice?
- What is the mood of the poem? As there is a shift in the poem in the last stanza, does this change the mood?
After reading (10-15 minutes):
Following the discussion students should practice writing by adding a stanza to the poem. Students should think about the use of rhymes, in connection to theme and mood. Also consider where they place the new stanza. Placing a stanza between stanzas 3 and 4 may include adding an additional imperfect rhyming stanza or continue the abab rhyming pattern. This also may highlight the imperfect/assonant rhyme on lines 8 and 9.
Prompt: Write an additional stanza for this poem. Think about the rhyming pattern as you write this stanza and consider the placement of where your additional stanza will go. Also keep in mind how your rhyming couplets reflect the theme of the poem. Choosing words like plant and ant add to the theme of environment but your qualifying words may give more meaning, such as a dead plant in relation to destroying the home of an ant. Once you are finished with your stanza write a paragraph explaining where you would insert this stanza and how your stanza adds to the poem.
Example:
I sold my car, I only ride a bike
My source of entertainment is to hike
I sort my trash in recycling bins and all
But is it enough for all?
I would insert this at the end of the poem as the fifth stanza. While the fourth stanza is a call to action this stanza is an example of one individual taking small steps in helping the environment. The rhyming of bike and hike call attention to minimal impact of these activities on the environment, while using an identical rhyme at the end calls attention to the two different forms of inclusion through the use of all. This adds a response to the call to action in stanza 4 and makes the mood of the poem more hopeful as it demonstrates one individual making life changes.
Book Bridge: This is a great example of ecopeotry and there are many more poems like this and follow this form of poetry, http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/ and http://www.eco-poetry.org/ are two websites that have large collections of poetry in this style of poetry. This poem bridges will with Thoreau’s Walden as it explores issues between man and nature. An additional book to pair with this poem pairs with Elizabeth Kolbert’s Field Notes from a Catastrophe and Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia as both books draw connections between human impacts on the environment.
Extensions/adaptation:
- Generate a three columns on the board for micro, meso, and macro and discuss how the poem addresses each level of understanding
- Perform the poem with a variation of readers, 2 readers, 4 readers
- Include additional ecopoems to extend relations between theme and styles of poetry
- Include additional rhyming poem to extend relation between rhyming and theme
- Tag poem to understand ideas around mood
Reflecting on Reading Adapted from Assessment Portfolio
Standard Colorado Academic Standards: 12th Grade Reading and Writing:
2.1c Evaluate the influence of historical context on the form, style, and point of view of a written work
2.1d Analyze and relate a literary work to source documents of its literary period or to critical perspectives
2.1e Evaluate how literary components impact meaning (such as tone, symbolism, irony, extended metaphor, satire, hyperbole)
2.2c Use reading and note-taking strategies (outlining, mapping systems, skimming, scanning, key word search) to organize information and make connections within and across informational texts
3.1a Use a range of elaboration techniques (such as questioning, comparing, connecting, interpreting, analyzing, or describing) to establish and express point of view and theme
3.1b Create a clear and coherent, logically consistent structure appropriate to the chosen literary genre (biographical account, short story, personal narrative, narrative poem or song, parody of particular narrative style, play script)
3.1c Develop context, character/narrator motivation, problem/conflict and resolution, and descriptive details/examples to support and express theme
Instructional Strategies Students will be reflecting on the reading of Walden, reflecting on the specifics of the book that they liked, did not like, what was important to the text and what from the text helped them understand the world from a different perspective. The goal of this is not to focus on the details that prove a student read a text but rather focus on reflective practices from reading a text. Students will be invited to respond to the text while offering textual; evidence to support their claims. This form of reflection follows a similar form of Walden as Thoreau writes in reflection about the two years he spent at Walden Pond.
SSRW (10 minutes):
Students should read Walden for 10 minutes. As this is a long text, this time should be allotted to allow students the opportunity to keep up with the reading. As this is the end of the unit, students who have finished reading Walden are free to read outside reading instead.
Introduction (10 minutes):
As a class come up with a working definition to Reflect, Aesthetic, and Efferent. Once the class has developed their own definition display the terms on an overhead.
Terms:
- Reflect: think deeply or carefully about. (google.com)
- Aesthetic: a set of principles underlying and guiding the work of a particular artist or artistic movement. (google.com)
- Efferent: conducted or conducting outward or away from something (for nerves, the central nervous system; for blood vessels, the organ supplied). (google.com)
Discussion (20 minutes):
Prompt discussion based on the terms. This should introduce students to the idea of reflecting on their reading from two different stances. Students should begin to formulate ideas on how they can take on different stances when reflecting on their reading.
- How can we reflect on our reading from an aesthetic stance?
- How Did Thoreau reflect on his time at Walden Pond from an aesthetic stance?
- What chapters could be labeled as aesthetic?
o Sounds, Solitude, The Bean Field, The Village, The Ponds, House Warming, The Pond in Winter, Spring
- How can we reflect on our reading from an efferent stance?
- How Did Thoreau reflect on his time at Walden Pond from an efferent stance?
- What chapters could be labeled as taking an efferent stance?
o Economy, Where I lived, and What I Lived For, Reading, Visitors, Baker Farm, Higher Laws (consider his arrest at the time of writing this chapter), Baker Farm,
- Are these different stances different? How So? Why not?
- How are Thoreau’s aesthetic reflections different from his efferent reflections? Think about his chapter on Economy compared to his chapter on The Ponds.
- What are some questions that we would ask if we took an aesthetic stance? Efferent stance?
- What do our surrounds look like? (aesthetic)
- How does Thoreau interact with his surroundings (efferent)
- What forms and techniques are used in writing? (aesthetic)
- In what ways does Thoreau use writing to reflect inward and outward? (efferent)
- What are our visual and spatial cues? (aesthetic)
- How does Thoreau relate to his environment? (efferent)
- How is the landscape formed? (aesthetic)
- Can you take both stances at the same time?
- In what ways does Thoreau change the landscape? (efferent/aesthetic)
- Are there any other stances you can think of? What are they? Do they relate to these two stances?
- What stance would you take if you are making an opinion?
- What stance are you making if you make a value judgement?
Introduction to Gibbs reflective cycle (10 minutes):
This cycle (Figure 1) moves ones thinking from aesthetic to efferent by looking for the basics of the aesthetic into the efferent by looking for analysis. Students who are having trouble with the two terms should be invited into further discussion showing how the two are related and can be separate. This cycle demonstrates how one type of thinking leads to the next and how they are interrelated. Appendix A is a worksheet in which students can work through this understanding. Appendix is an example of how this works when looking at a text.
- Description: write what happened?
- Feelings: how do these events make you feel?
- Evaluate: how are you evaluating the situation?
- Analyze: what is you analysis of this?
- Conclusion: do you have any concluding thoughts?
- Action: between your analysis and conclusion what would you do differently and from the original outcome?
Practice (30 minutes):
Students should spend the remainder of the class reflecting on Walden. This is intended to get students thinking about the text on a deeper level. Students should consider what type of stance they are taking as they reflect. As each student may have a different response to the text and relate to the text differently they are encouraged to explore the text in any way that they would like. Students are not required to write in complete sentences as they brainstorm but rather respond in any way that is helpful to their writing process. This practice in class is aimed at allowing student to begin thinking about a text critically. Questions (Appendix C) to guide student thinking are adapted from Kylene Beers (271-273) and should be posted on the class webpage and projected on the overhead for all students to have a visual reference Students should refer to their book cards (see Book Cards assessment) for textual evidence and review any inferences that they have made over the course of reading the text. Halfway through the practice and brainstorming session students should be directed to the assignment (Appendix D) which should be published on the classroom webpage.
Students should think about how they would place these questions on the Gibbs Reflective cycle. If students want to they can answer the questions in a circle mirroring the cycle based on the questions that they answer. These reflective questions should prompt thinking about the text work as brainstorming for the assignment.
Assessment Tools
The blog post will assess that students are reflecting on their reading from a critical standpoint. As this will be a formal post students should be aiming write a complete well thought out entry. The assessment is looking for students to reflect on the text they have read, give textual evidence, take a stance towards their reflection and make a though out suggestion about the text for other readers. Students will be assessed based on the rubric found in Appendix I. This rubric has been designed to look at students writing for their practices reflecting on their reading. Prior to this students can be asked to submit their brainstorming strategies as a pre-assessment tool to find out where students need help. This can be submitted as a google doc or email which will allow the educator follow up where students still need help. Once students have completed this assignment, they can continue to practice this strategy in a class collaborative reading log in which they will reflect on their outside reading texts. This format will be a great strategy to reuse as students will be asked to follow up on their outside texts with some form of writing for themselves and the class.
Figures
Figure 1 (image provided by Google Images)
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C Reflective Questions for Brainstorming
Personal Response:
- What are your first thoughts about this text? What in the text caused these thoughts?
- What emotions or feelings did you have while reading the text? Identify the parts that caused those feelings?
- Did anything in the text remind you of anything in your life?
- What confused you or surprised you in this text?
- As you read the text, describe how you felt. For example, were you bored, caught up, thinking about characters, thinking about how you might react if in the same situation, enjoying the authors writing style, or enjoying the humor or suspense?
Reflection on the Plot:
- What went on in the story?
- What were the turning points in this plot for you? Why?
- What idea or image or situation meant the most to you as you read this text? Why?
- If this story were to continue, what do you think would happen next? Why?
- Evaluate this plot on a scale of 1 to 4 with 1 being “Not worth recommending” and 4 being “Everyone should read this” and tell why you gave it the rating you did.
Reflection on Characters and Setting:
- What characters did you most enjoy/least enjoy? Why?
- Did any of the character remind you of yourself? Why?
- If you could take on any of the qualities of any of the characters in this text, what qualities would those be? Why?
- What is the setting of the text? Was it important to the text? Why or why not?
- Does the setting remind you of a place you know?
- Did the setting affect what the characters did or didn’t do?
Appendix D Assignment:
Please write a reflection blog post on the following text. This blog post should be 750-1000 words reflecting in the text that we have just read. Please use the practice that we have done in class to help guide your thinking. You should include: the stance that you are taking on the text (aesthetic or efferent), point to specific aspects of the text that support your stance (directly referencing the book or summary), evaluate the text based on your stance, analyze the text based on your stance, and suggest why or why not someone should read the text based on your stance. Responses do not need to follow this order and should be your own thoughts.
Appendix I Rubric for Reflective Blog Post
CATEGORY
4
3
2
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Addresses stance that student is taking
Student clearly addresses the stance that they are taking on the text to position the reader in an appropriate context.
Student addresses the stance that they are taking on the text to position the reader in an appropriate context.
Student to addresses the stance that they are taking.
Student fails to addresses the stance that they are taking on the text to position the reader in an appropriate context.
References the text
Student references the text multiple times through direct quotes or summary to give the reader a clear understanding of the parts of the text they are talking about.
Student references the text through direct quotes or summary to give the reader a clear understanding of the parts of the text they are talking about.
Student hints to the text giving the reader a clear understanding of the parts of the text they are talking about.
Student fails to reference the text through direct quotations or summary.
Evaluates and analyzes text
Student offers a strong evaluation and goes in depth with analysis of the text based on the stance that they are taking that is clear to the reader and author’s purpose.
Student offers a full evaluation and analyzes the text based on the stance that they are taking that is clear to the reader and author’s purpose.
Student offers a weak evaluation and poorly analyzes the text based on the stance that they are taking that is clear to the reader and author’s purpose.
Student fails to offer an evaluation and analyze the text based on the stance that they are taking.
Offers recommendation of the text
Student gives a clear and focused recommendation of the text based on the stance they are taking.
Student gives recommendation of the text based on the stance they are taking.
Student gives a unclear and unfocused recommendation of the text based on the stance they are taking.
Student fails to give a clear and focused recommendation of the text.
Adapted from rubistar.com
[1] Note: Taking recent pictures that you have taken or were in will make this assignment a lot easier when it comes to the reflection piece. If you take a picture from your youth or from a long time ago it will be harder to write an honest and relevant reflection.
[I1]We are looking at the month of March in 1845
[I2]Borrowing an ax, Thoreau, must not have a lot of money, considering he is building his own cabin and does not own his own ax.
[I3]Clarification of place.
[I4]Building his own house, Thoreau must have carpentry skills? Are there any skills that he may show?
[I5]Why attention to detail on the types of trees? Will there be more attention to the nature around him?
[I6]Thoreau doesn’t like to borrow, but he is. What does this say about his character.
[I7]Will we get to meet the owner of the ax?
[I8]Testament to character. Thoreau returns property in better condition than borrowed.
[I9]Attention to detail in the pond. Will the pond have more importance as a theme? Importance of place, we are set by Walden Pond.
[I10]Detail in relation to place. The pond is near some sort of civilization.
[I11]Relation to wildlife? What other elements of wildlife is Thoreau bringing to light?
[I12]What is the theme of spring going to impact as a theme in the book? Will there be attention to all the seasons?
[I13]What other issues did Thoreau have with building his cabin?
[I14]More wildlife. Will we see more as a reoccurring theme or element?
[I15]What is the primitive and low condition of man
[I16]What is the influence of spring?
[I17]Are snakes conveying a deeper meaning in this scene
[I18]We have changed months, how long will this build take him?
[I19]How will birds act as a theme?
[I20]Does the pond have a spirit? Will the pond become a reoccurring theme?
[I21]Use of I indicating the narrator, character is Thoreau
[I22]Setting of solitude at Walden Pond
[I23]People coming in the spring to fish, possible problem
[I24]Problem of too much fishing
[I25]Is he happy that people are leaving him in darkness? Prediction
[I26]Theme of rich and greed
[I27]Idea of value. What does Thoreau value if not monetary means?
[I28]Is Thoreau squatting in the land?
[I29]Personification of nature
[I30]Theme of being awake, maybe in relation to divine life
[I31]How do we keep ourselves awake
[I32]How is life frittered away by detail?
[I33]Different comment on life
[I34]Thoreau is judging whom? Himself?
[I35]Looking at simplicity
[I36]
[I37]Do I need to know about Greek literature to get this passage?
[I38]Use of others words to make a point
[I39]Just a good word and idea, unimaginable tour through my apartment.
[I40]Continual theme of Greek ideas and writing
[I41]How does this word relate to what he is saying?
[I42]Look up.
[I43]Noticing idea / theme of being awake. Not in relation to sleep.
[I44]Good use of words
[I45]Sacred may be a theme, what is the auroral hour? Profaned is a good word
[I46]I have seen this word repeated multiple time, may be a theme
[I47]Must be a theme we are talking about life again
[I48]External quotes
[I49]How is this possible?
[I50]Using analysis to unpack quote he just used
[I51]Theme of life/moral reform
[I52]Authorial question
[I53]Good quote on being awake in relation to living
[I54]Strong voice!!!
[I55]Continuing theme of divine life and being awake
[I56]Authorial question
[I57]Idea of being awaken or understanding life
[I58]Good authorial quote on how we must reawaken ourselves
[I59]What is the most elevated and critical hour in which man “makes his life”
[I60]Quote on our refusal
[I61]Answering the question as to why Thoreau went to Walden Pond.
[I62]Thoreau making reference as to how he wanted to live his own life.
[I63]Comment on how Thoreau is relating to the idea od divine life
[I64]Comment on others idea about life and morality.
[I65]Change in tone to Christian voice/shift from Greek language.
The following lessons have been developed for the teaching of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, in a 12th grade English class.
Context: The following lessons for teaching Walden were created for the English 5870 Literature and Composition for social action class taught at Poudre High School in Fort Collins, CO:
5870 Literature and Composition for Social Action Number of semesters: 2 (10 credits) Prerequisite: None Meets requirements: 1, 2:
This course will address the history of social action initiated through literature. It will then move on to focus on how various texts (fiction, non-fiction, film, social media, etc.) have motivated resistance and social action regarding the specific issues of race, class, and gender. The course study will culminate with a student-generated service learning project that targets a specific need for local, national, or international social action. This course is a requirement for the junior or senior year of the PHS Service Learning Academy and is also open to all PHS juniors or seniors. (PHS Curriculum Guide 2015-2016)
This classroom would be focusing on environmental issues as well as looking at social action through literature. As environmental concerns are one of the most current actions in these student’s lives today the second half of the year would be focusing on current trends while the beginning of the year would look at social action trends of the past. This classroom would have on average 19 students as PHS teacher to student ratio is 19:1 (public-schools.startclass.com/). This is an upper division class, the lesson plans follow Colorado Academic standards for 12th grade reading and writing.
Scope and Sequence: The following lessons have been developed to teach Thoreau’s Walden over the course of 6 weeks. The intended weekly reading asks that student’s read on average of 50 pages a week on top of additional book club books, not included in these lesson plans. SSRW (3a.i) is intended to be used throughout the year, however has been adapted to allow students to read Walden throughout the unit. Also the digital literacies Blog writing assignment (6) is intended to be set up at the beginning of the year but will be regularly used throughout the teaching of Walden as students will regularly be asked to respond to reading through blog writing (http://ianjmccreary.livejournal.com/). The large group activity, Tea Party (3b.ii) is intended to be a pre reading activity. Following this lesson, once students begin reading the Character Bulletin Board (3a.ii) should be developed so students begin to think of Walden Pond and Thoreau as characters of the book. As students begin reading students should be taught to Make Inferences (3a.iii), and develop detailed Bookmarks (3a.iv), as during reading strategies. For students struggling with reading and making inferences, the small group activity Probable Passage (3b.i) should be taught during a SSRW as another way to think about making inferences. During the final weeks students should be taught the lesson Ecopoetics (5) to understand the power of observation in connection with mood and theme. Finally students should will be taught a lesson on Reflecting on Reading (3a.v) which will relate their reading of Walden to
Class norms adapted for teaching of Walden:
- SSRW (3a.i)
- Blog Writing (6)
Week 1:
- Tea Party (3b.ii)
- Character Bulletin Board (3.aii)
- Discussion
Week 2:
- Making Inferences (3a.iii)
o Probable Passage (3b.i)
- Development of Character Bulletin Board
- Discussion
Week 3:
- Continued Practice of Making Inferences
- Bookmarks (3a.iv)
- Development of Character Bulletin Board
- Discussion
Week 4:
- Ecopoetics (5)
- Continued Practice of Making Inferences
- Continued Practice of Bookmarks
- Development of Character Bulletin Board
Week 5:
- Reflecting on Reading (3a.v)
- Continued Practice of Making Inferences
- Continued Practice of Bookmarks
- Development of Character Bulletin Board
Week 6:
- Finish Walden
- Final papers Due
Selected Text: Thoreau, H. (2004). Walden: New Haven CT. Yale University Press.
Thoreau, Henry. Walden. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. Print.
I am choosing this text as it will be a central text to my reading list for the curriculum I am developing for my grad project. Although I have not read this book, I am aware that Walden is one of the first ecocritical texts that was written by an American author as he accounts his year at Walden Pond. While my grad project curriculum focuses on ecocriticism, this is a great text to have as a central text that I would have an entire class read together and pair with additional book club texts. The book covers a wide range of observations over Thoreau’s time spent at the pond which highlight important nuances that are observed in a wide range of other ecocritical texts.
I will be primarily focusing on the Colorado Academic Standards (CAS) because they include the Common Core Standards (CCS) which matches my grad school project. I will focus on the reading standards 2.1: Literary criticism of complex texts requires the use of analysis, interpretive, and evaluative strategies, and 2.2: Interpreting and evaluating complex informational texts require the understanding of rhetoric, critical reading, and analysis skills. This book allows me to cover both standards and can be broken down into further detail as I begin to develop this project.
My goals for this text are: to develop an understanding for ecocritical writing, demonstrate a connection between reading writing and nature, and demonstrate an understanding for reading and seeing nature with an ecocritical lens.
Author Background: Henry David Thoreau was a philosophical and nature writer also known for some of his poetry focusing on nature. He was born in Concord Massachusetts on July 2, 1817. He died on May 6 1862 of tuberculosis reciting his last words, “Now comes good sailing… Moose… Indian”. His remains can be found at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord MA. Though he died at a young age, he was comfortable with his death and told his aunt “I didn’t know we were quarreling,” after she asked if he had made peace with God.
In 1845 he stayed at Walden Pond for two years where he worked on his most famous piece of writing Walden. Thoreau is also known for his essay Civil Disobedience and books: The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, and A Yankee in Canada. Walden accounts his two years living in isolation at Walden Pond and accounts his observations over the two years along with reflections on life, politics and religion. Though he claims that he lived in isolation for these two years it is believed that he walked into the nearest town and would frequent a local pub. Civil Disobedience accounts his arrest for not paying a poll tax while A Yankee in Canada covers his beliefs on anti-slavery. While Thoreau was known for his nature writing and poetry, he also has important works commenting on governmental issues. Though Thoreau is a renowned author he did not win any awards in his lifetime but his writing has been influential to many others such as: Martin Luther King Jr., John Kennedy, Ernest Hemmingway, E.B. White, and William Butler Yeats.
After attending Harvard, Thoreau became friends with local Concord writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, who introduced him to transcendentalism, a school of thought emphasizing empirical thinking and spiritual matters over the physical world. This would later influence his major works on nature and ecocritical writing.
Information links:
biography.com/people/henry-david-thoreau-9506784#early-life
homepage.smc.edu/larsen_lyle/last_words_of_famous_authors.htm
wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau
Developing Depth, Stamina, and Passion This book will challenge some of the slower readers to increase their stamina and fluency, while challenging others to go in depth with the text. The book is 325 pages long with detailed notes from the editor. So if a student has a reading rate of 150 words per minute it will take them roughly 13 hours to read the book averaging that there are 360 words per page. This means that students will be challenged to read for roughly an hour a night to cover 25 pages each day and amount 50 pages per week on this text alone. Excluding any other homework for this class and other reading that is required, students will need to work on their reading stamina so that they can keep up with a higher pace of reading for this text. To add to this, Thoreau writes with a philosophical mindset which adds to the complexity of the book. Students will need to work on their fluency and comprehension of the book so that they can be successful in understanding the content of the text. While this is a more complex book, it would be one that would need to be read at the end of the year as students have worked throughout the year to get to a higher level of fluency and stamina.
As this is a complex text and one that many students may not be running to the shelves to grab on their own, a book talk would be a great way to introduce the book. I would begin by introducing the author, so that students would have an idea of who the author was. I would follow this up by engaging students in the content of the book starting with a book teaser. Starting at page 110-111 “My house was on the side of a hill, immediately on the edge of a large wood, in the midst of a young forest of pitch-pines and hickories… In august, the large masses of berries, which, when in flower, had attracted many wild bees, gradually assumed their bright velvety crimson hue, and by their weight again bent down and broke there tender limbs.” Using this passage I can begin to talk to students about the rich detail that Thoreau is able to draw our attention to. This level of attention will lead into a conversation about how much we truly observe on a regular day. How much of our daily observations are muted because they have become mundane? How often do we let the little things go for granted? This is only a segment of the text but do you think that it would be possible to go into so much detail if Thoreau had not spent a year in solitude? Do you think he was really in solitude the whole year? I will use this book talk as a before reading strategy to get students thinking about the text and the global issues surrounding the text.
While reading the text students will need to have conferences to make sure that they are keeping up with the reading and comprehending the text. Once a week a group of students who are having trouble with the text should meet with the instructor to go over reading strategies and help build stamina. These conferences can be as simple as going over major elements and themes that they should be catching onto or helping students comprehend what they are reading. Outside of these group conferences students should meet with the instructor once if not twice over the course of reading the book. These individual conferences should be to help understand how each student is doing keeping up with the pace and their own comprehension of the book. Using conferences will allow for instruction to slow down the pace of the read or increase it if more students are not feeling challenged by the text. In addition to these conferences on the class text, students should be asked about their outside reading in order to keep track and understand other reading needs that they would like to have meet.
Alongside conferences, students should be reflecting on their reading regularly. I believe that through blog writing students will have a great opportunity to respond to the reading and to other students. Through blogs students should respond to questions posed by the teacher, or generate their own question and respond to that. And since blog writing is a form of conversation students will be required to respond to at least one other student’s blog post. This will build a classroom community inside and outside of the classroom. By using blogs to have students respond to the text students will be generating writing that is aimed at a global audience. This form of writing will expand the students writing to a macro audience rather than a micro (teacher as primary audience) audience which meets the Colorado Academic Standards for writing. In addition to blog writing students will be asked to write a formal paper at the end of the unit in reading Walden reflecting on their own environmental practices. This paper will be structured by priming students thinking in the form of blog writing into a paper format, this will allow for the students to have the assignment to be structured in such a way that they will have scaffold instruction to the end product.
Beyond blog writing and a final paper students should be constantly reflecting on their reading. Reflection will allow students to think critically about their own reading practices and the content of what they are reading. Reflections will come in a variety of forms, blogs will be a quick way for students to have reader responses to the reading. Since blog writing is typically informal students will be invited to have these nonacademic arguments for or against a text. In addition to blog reflections, students should also practice quick writing in class as a form of reflection to get them thinking about specific aspects of the text before a class period. Other forms of reflection will include vlogs and class discussions on the text.
Conference Questions
Group (5-10 minutes):
1. What was most striking to you when you read the chapter on Economy (substitute with any chapter)?
2. What are the major themes that you are seeing in this book?
3. What do you not understand after reading this far?
4. What words are you not understanding?
5. How are you doing with keeping up with the pace of the text?
Individual Conference (2-5 minutes)
1. How are you keeping up with the pace of Walden?
2. Is there anything that you are not understanding? What can I do to help?
3. What else are you reading right now?
4. How are you doing on your outside reading?
Blog post questions:
1. Do you agree with Thoreau on his thoughts about the economy? Do men really “labor under mistake” (3)?
2. What are your thoughts on human civilization and “spiritual bread” (38-39)?
3. What do you think it would cost to build Thoreau’s cabin today? Probably not $28.12½ (47).
4. Unpack the meaning of this quote. “We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour. If we refused, or rather used up, such paltry information as we get, the oracles would distinctly inform us how this might be done” (88).
5. Do you think that you could live in solitude for a year? What would you do? What would you start to notice and write about? Try sitting alone outside somewhere quite and listen to the sounds and write your observations.
6. Do you agree with this statement “I am convinces, that if all men were to live as simply as I then did, thieving and robbery would be unknown” (167)? What evidence from the text supports this or disproves this? What can you take from your own life to argue for or against this statement?
7. Reread the paragraph starting on page 182-184 “In such a day in September… and I saw their schools dimly disappearing; so I spent a dry afternoon.” How is Thoreau capturing his observations in imagery? What details does he give about the pond? What details are lacking that are found else ware in the book?
8. What are the true harvest of your daily life? Are they “intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening” (208)?
9. How many wild creatures do you see on a daily basis? Are they wild and free? What could you be missing on a regular basis? (218).
10. What does Thoreau mean by “Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads” (274)?
11. (At any given time) What are your thoughts on the book? Do you like it or not? Why or why not? What would help make the read more enjoyable? What are you not understanding?
Written assignment:
Write a 5 page paper on your relationship to nature and the environment. Think about how Thoreau relates to his environment at Walden Pond and is able to capture the smallest details of the environment and get so much richness out of these minor details. Look back at some of your blog posts to get ideas to think about how you relate to your environment. Think about the things that you observe on a daily basis that you take for granted. How do you relate to the environment on a daily/weekly/monthly basis?
Blog questions to scaffold thinking:
1. In 500 words or more: how do you interact with nature and the environment? Are you playing sports, hiking, enjoying it for what it is, planting trees, observing wildlife?
2. In 500 words or more: how is nature and your environment different or similar?
3. Spend 10 minutes outside daily for a week in the same place. In 500 words or more: what were you able to observe in these minutes outside in your location?
4. Pick something in your environment to observe on a weekly basis (this can be a tree, a plant, a pet, a friend, anything) over the next few weeks note your observations. In 500 words or more report what you observed and the changes that you saw over a short period of time.
5. In 250 words or more: write about the sounds of your environment.
6. In 250 words or more: write about the visual aspects of your environment.
7. In 250 words or more: write about the smells and tastes of your environment.
SSRW Silent Sustained Reading/Writing (SSRW) (10-15 minutes daily)
Beers says that “as little as 15 minutes a day for SSR can impact attitudes, vocabulary fluency and comprehension” (199). Students should read for these designated 10-15 minutes a book of their own or the primary text for the class. This time is to give students the opportunity to read that they may not give themselves outside of class. Beers argues that the purpose of this is “builds vocabulary” (197), “creates interest in reading” (197), and is optimal if practiced for 10-15 minutes at least every other day (197). Having SSRW will allow for the teacher to have conferences with individual students and groups of students to help with reading practices and access student’s needs.
This can pair with a read aloud of the teacher’s choice, allowing for the teacher to build background knowledge (Beers, 197), improve listening comprehension (Beers, 197), improve listening vocabulary (Beers, 197) and offer a variation in material (Beers, 198).
During SSRW students should: Be reading the book of their choice or the primary book. If students complete a reading section or book, the remaining minutes should be spent writing a brief reflection of what they have read or responding to the text that they have read.
Journal responses:
1. What did you like about the book? What didn’t you like?
2. How did your reading of this text change your understanding of ____________?
3. Give a brief summary of the book or text?
4. How does this book relate to the class or what we are learning?
5. Write a critique of the book.
During SSRW teachers should:
- Conference with students about reading (2-4 minutes per individual conference, or 5-10 for group conferences)
- Hold guided reading group work for struggling readers to work on specific comprehension
- Interview students on reading habits and progress in class
There are three types of conferences that teachers can have during this time: monitor reading life (Kittle, 80), teach a strategy (Kittle, 82), and increase challenge and complexity (Kittle, 84). Monitoring reading life of students will allow for the teacher to understand each students reading practices to better develop strategies to help that student and the class as a whole. Teaching a strategy can be done individually or with groups to help struggling readers become more successful. Finally, increasing the challenge and complexity of students reading will allow for student to continue to become stringer readers.
Once a month Check students fluency:
1. Choose a book at students reading level.
2. Build background knowledge (if the book is the class text a background knowledge should already be established).
3. Have student read silently for 1 minute.
4. After one minute have students count the number of words that they have read.
5. Repeat two more times.
6. Average the number of words that they can read in a minute.
The goal of this not for students to aim for a high level of words per minute. This is to allow students to find out how many words a minute they can read with comprehension of what they have read. This will give students a chance to set their own reading goals for the year and track their own progress as readers.
Reading Walden This time should be spent reading Walden before class every day. Since Walden is a long text and students will be expected to read 25-30 pages before each class, they will need to be given the opportunity to read to keep up with the pace of reading. As the class reads Walden this time will need to be allotted for students who are struggling to have allotted time to keep up or complete the reading for the class. This will not be enough time for students to read the entire section so students should be informed that they should not think of this time as the only point in which they sit down and read. SSRW should be an opportunity for students to get a jump start on their nightly reading and an opportunity to writ blog responses, post to the character bulletin board and if need be complete reading the final pages of the daily reading.
Creating a Blog (80 minute lesson) Adapted from Neil Rigler (Christel, 2010,123)
http://ianjmccreary.livejournal.com/
Rationale: This is a form of writing that students should engage in throughout the year in responses to readings and develop published writing that is available for a varied audience. Similar to Rigler’s lesson “Blogging the examined Life” (Christel, 2010, 123) this lesson follows the NCTE 21st Century literacy skills as it prepares students to become “comfortable using writing as a way to express ideas, open themselves to challenges, engage in meaningful conversation about them, and see their thinking grow as a result” (Christel, 2010, 123). In preparing students for 21st Century writing, using blogs as a form of writing will allow them to write for a varied audience while also having the opportunity to respond to classmates writing in informal and formal capacities.
SSRW (10 minutes): Students should work on a book of a choice reading for 10 minutes, or write post reading reflections for the class reading log while the text is fresh in their minds.
Introduction (10-15 minutes): What is a blog?
- A website containing a writer's or group of writers' own experiences,observations, opinions, etc., and often having images and links to other websites. (dictionary.com)
- Also reference wikipedia.com on blogs
Big picture questions to ask the class:
- What is a blog and what are they useful for?
o Online publishing site in which the creator self publishes content for the world to read.
o Communication
o multimodal writing
o self-publishing
o writing for a variation of audiences
- Who writes blogs?
o Technical term for blog writers: bloggers
o Students
o Teachers
o People with special interests
o Anyone and everyone who wants to write and publish a blog
- Why write a blog?
o This is a way to self-publish without the constraints of publishers, editors or dealing with particular press.
o Generate ideas that others can comment on.
o Make connections with a larger audience.
- What are some blog sites that you know and use?
o Blogger
o Wordpress
o Blog.com
o Penzu.com
o Tumbler
o More at http://stylecaster.com/best-free-blog-sites/
- How can we as a class use blogs for communication?
o Write responses to books
o Publish papers online
o Communicate with one another through postings
o Post articles of interests
o Share ideas
Activity (15-20 minutes): Note: This activity can be expanded to a complete lesson for student unfamiliar with blogs and developed into a larger project understanding the variations and uses of blogs.
While most students will have some experience with blogs in their own lives, rather than lecture on the different types of blogs and reasons for using them have students look up different blogs and their uses. Some blogs sites may be blocked from the schools server but that should not limit students to using a google search and Wikipedia or you can direct students to the dearblogger.org link for a quick summary. Break the class into 10 groups (roughly groups of 3 or 4) and have them quickly search the 10 blogs provided below. As students look up the blog assigned to them have them answer the following questions:
- What is the purpose of this blog?
- Who would want to use this blog?
- Would this blog be appropriate for the use of our classroom? Why or why not?
Blogs
1. Wordpress.com
2. Blogger.com
3. Tumblr.com
4. Squarespace.com
5. Weebly.com
6. Medium.com
7. Hubpages.com
8. Joomla.com
9. Livejournal.com
10. Quora.com
Link to various blogs and summaries: http://www.dearblogger.org/blogger-or-wordpress-better
After each group has quickly searched for relevant information on the blog they were assigned have each group give a blurb about the blog to inform the class about what they were looking up. Each blurb should be no more than a minute.
- Blogger, is a google blogging site that allows users to publish posts and even videos and pictures. This would be a good site for our class because you can publish and have friends comment on your posts.
- Sruarespace is a professional blog site used by companies and professionals. Rather than allowing users to publish posts, this is more like a website developer tool. Since this site costs $8 and up this would not be a good site for this class to use.
Discussion and Practice (30-35 minutes): - What blog sites are do you think that you would like to use for your own publishing?
- What are the benefits of blog writing? What are the limitations?
- Based on the blurbs that we just heard and the brief research that you did on a specific blog site; what are some of the pros and cons of various blogs?
- What other blog sites do you know of and use that may be appropriate for the context of this class?
This activity is geared at introducing students to a variation of blogs so that they have an idea of what blogs are available to use. Through this activity students should have an idea of what blog sites are available for them to use. Below are the assignment sheets for two blog assignments (Appendix A, Appendix B). Students should spend the remainder of class looking at different blogs and then setting up their own account to begin blogging. This class time should be spent tinkering with the blog site to get used to using the site. As the majority of class responses will be published through the blog, students should be comfortable using the various features of the blog site that they have chosen. Grading for blogs should be completed based of the standard rubric (Appendix C) which will be used throughout the year.
Sites I prefer students to use: 1. Blogger.com: Easy to use, allows for users to develop custom page, and offers ways to publish multimodal posts.
2. Wordpress.com: Easy to use, allows for self-publishing and responses from readers.
3. Medium.com: More difficult to set up but allows for self-publishing and responses from readers
4. Livejournal.com: Easy to use and has a large readership which may allow for many a variation of different global readers, and students can embed in mood and music.
5. Sett.com: More rigid in page development but is open to a lot of users which may allow for more responses globally.
Sites Students cannot use: 1. Google+ and Facebook notes: Though these are sites that students can create posts and have users comment on they are more geared at social networking rather than creating a wall of their own posts that readers can easily access
2. Pinterest: This site is mainly used for sharing interests and links to other websites rather than have users write and publish their own ideas
3. Tumblr: This site is geared at link sharing and interests rather than self-publishing. Also many schools have blocked this site for content reasons, which will making access difficult.
4. Weebly: This would be great for students up for the challenge but is targeted at web development rather than self-publishing and receiving readers’ comments
5. Hubpages: This is primarily used for social media rather than self-publishing and responding to posts.
Exit Ticket: Students need to pair up with one to two other students (groups of 2-3). These groups will assign each students to those that they are paired with to be accountability partners. This will mean that to get full credit on regular blog posts each student is responsible for posting a response or responses to their accountability partner’s blog. This is intended to practice using multiple functions of blogs and blog writing. Later responses will require students to generate a conversation through the comments section of their blog.
Extension: Students should be invited to write one to two blog posts a week. Blog posts should be related to reading, formal writing that is extended from in class journal writing, responses to lessons, and personal writing. While students should set up blogs in the beginning of the year, they will have the opportunity write regularly as part of the class. Extending with the use of accountability partners all students should regularly be checking on partner(s) blogs and responding to posts, as blog writing does not stop at the point of publishing. Students should also be engaged in writing responses to responses to generate a conversation between a posts.
- Responses to other students posts
- Regular writing
- Responses to lessons
- Personal writing
- Paper published in a series of posts
- Multimodal writing (incorporation of video and/or pictures)
-
Appendix A Look up at least three blogs that you would consider using for the remainder of the year. You should spend more time than we did on class and figure out the pros and cons of each blog that you are considering. Once you have selected the blog of your choice create a blog using that website. Most blogs are user friendly to set up, however feel free to YouTube a tutorial on setting up a blog for your specific website. Once you have created your blog, customize the blog to represent you. I have used blogger for various reasons and each have a different look (http://ianjmccreary.blogspot.com/, http://concertrevieworegon.blogspot.com/, http://ianjmccreary.livejournal.com/). Make this your own. Once you have created your own blog I want you to generate a page or section that tells your readers about yourself. I want you to create a post or subheading telling your readers what the purpose of your blog (even though this will be used for class responses throughout the year, think of the other ways in which you will be using this blog: to timeline events of your life, share your personal writing, share life experiences, explore interests, etc.). Finally, I want you to write a post explaining why you chose this blog site over other, what others you looked at, the challenges you think may arise in the future using this blog, and what you hope to learn from using blogging as a mode of communication.
1) Create a blog from three researched blog sites
2) Customize blog to represent you
a. Change settings
b. Change backgrounds
c. Add picture of yourself
d. Add links to other pages
3) Tell readers about yourself so that they have a context of who the writer is (Do not give out personal information like your address and city and state of which you live. This information should be vague)
a. Who are you (My name is Ian McCreary, a high school student in a class focusing on digital literacies and environmental concerns.)
b. What do you like to do (I like outdoor activities like hiking and fishing.)
c. What are your interests (I like watching sports in my free time and reading. My favorite author is Mark Twain and my favorite band is Beats Antique.
4) What is the purpose of this blog?
5) First Post
a. What blogs sites did you consider when selecting a blog?
b. Why did you choose this blog?
c. What challenges do you foresee in the future using this blog? (maybe it is difficult to post videos or pictures)
d. What do you hope to learn about using this as a form of communication
Once you have created your blog and made your first post, please email me the link to your blog and post a link of your blog to the class google doc so that the rest of the class can access your blog. Follow up by finding your accountability partners blog and responding to their first post.
Appendix B Your next three blog posts will require you to post photos to your blog and write a brief reflection of where the photo is in relation to the activity that you are participating in. Each post will require that you have a photo for a different purpose in relation to being outside, these pictures should be ones that you have taken yourself not found online. Make these posts your own, remember you are not writing a paper for an assignment but rather for a public audience. Your post should meet the needs of your blog and your readers. Consider writing in different forms (narrative, memoir, reflective, expository). You can choose to be in the picture or choose not to be.[1] Though I am asking you to take photos outside this does not mean that you need to go out of your way to take a picture in the middle of nowhere. A picture at the park or your backyard will be fine, and may spark a deeper reflection. You will be graded on the standard blog rubric and all three will be weighted for one grade.
Here are the following blog posts you will be required to make in any order that you choose:
1) Picture of nature in appreciation
a. Why do you like this setting
b. What draws you to this place
c. How often do you go
d. Why is this place special
2) Picture of nature actively participating (hiking, camping, skiing, fishing, hunting)
a. Why do you like to do this activity
b. How did you get involved
c. How often do you do this activity
d. What are the benefits and issues around this activity
3) Picture of nature in an act of conservation or cultivation (planting a tree, gardening, picking up litter)
a. How did/does doing this activity make you feel
b. Why did you chose to participate in this activity
c. What are the foreseen benefits from this activity
d. Do you regularly do this activity or foresee yourself doing this regularly in the future
CATEGORY
4- Excellent
3- Good
2- Fair
1- Needs Improvement
I answer the topic question(s) in my blog entries.
I answer all of the question(s) with a clear and focused response. I flush out all of my ideas and give supporting details.
I answer the question(s) with a focused response. I do not flush out all of my ideas and lack supporting details.
I answer the question(s). I express some of my ideas and give no supported with details.
I do not answer the question(s). I do not attempt to flush my ideas or offer supporting details.
I can write in complete sentences and use capital letters appropriately.
The writer makes no errors in capitalization or punctuation, so the writing is very easy to read.
The writer makes 1 or 2 errors in capitalization or punctuation, but the writing is still easy to read.
The writer makes some errors in capitalization and punctuation that catch the reader's attention and interrupt the flow of the writing.
The writer makes several errors in capitalization and punctuation that catch the reader's attention and make the writing hard to read.
I can share information electronically by leaving feedback and comments on my classmates' blogs.
The student regularly (more than once per week) leaves specific, quality feedback for classmates.
The student regularly (once per week) leaves comments specific/high quality feedback for classmates.
Student leaves comments and feedback for other students sometimes, but less than once per week. Some feedback is too general
Student rarely leaves comments and feedback for others students OR feedback is vague ("I like your story").
Adapted from rubistar.com
Appendix C Rubric for blog
Tea Party (this is a 30 minute full class activity)
This is a pre reading strategy to invite students to begin thinking about a text before diving into the reading process. This strategy can be used before or after a book talk to generate thinking about a text. The teacher should extract 10-15 passages from the text, with an average class size of 30 there will be 2-3 overlapping quotes between each student, depending on how many quotes are selected for this activity. The teacher and every student should have their own quote so that all can participate in the activity.
Objective: - Access prior knowledge about the text
- Generate conversation about specific passages from the text
- Extrapolate ideas by making inferences about the text
The tea party (15 minutes): - Students should be walking around the classroom reading their quote to other students
- Students should be listening to other students quotes
- Brief discussions between pairs or groups of students should generate conversations based on their quotes
- Students should be making inferences about the text based on the passage they have and the passages that they listen to
- Students should discuss how their passage relates to others
Questions to consider: These questions should be put on the board or the overhead, to help prompt discussions among students.
- How does your passage relate to your partners passage?
- What do you think is going on in your passage? How does it relate to others passages?
- What do you know about the speaker?
- What do you think your passages says about the text?
- What can you infer about the text based on your passages?
- What do you know about the text?
- Can you find multiple speakers between you and your fellow classmates? (listen for word choice, tone, sentence length and any other clues that may lead to discovery about speakers)
- What themes are you noticing?
- What is the mood or your passage, and others passages?
Discussion (10 minutes): Once students have spent 15 minutes moving around the classroom discussing their passage with other, regroup the class to have a formal discussion about the activity and the text. The discussion should closely resemble the questions that students considered during the activity guided by the teacher. Students should begin to make inferences about the text and start thinking about themes they discovered during the activity.
Questions guiding discussion:
- What themes did you notice?
- After having your tea party, what can you say or infer about the text?
o What do you think this book is about?
o What do you think will happen in this book?
- What can you say about the characters in the book? Can you say anything?
Reflection: Have students write up a brief reflection of the activity, in journals or separate sheet of paper. This should guide thinking about what students have inferred about the text through completion of the activity and the discussion.
Prompt:
o What can you say about the text based on the tea party and discussion? Has this activity given any insight or thoughts about the text that you did not have before? Was this activity helpful to begin thinking about the text?
Assessment: This is a participation based activity, all students should be assessed based on participation in the tea party, the reflection can be used a tool for a formal assessment however, is intended to allow students to log their reactions and inferences to the text to be able to reference at a later time. As discussion is much shorter than the activity all students may not participate, but should be actively listening or taking notes on the discussion.
Differentiation: - Color code cards so students can pair up
- Have tea party in two circles facing one another to control volume of classroom and maintain focused groupings of students (classroom management)
- Have advanced readers read ahead to lead activity
- Pair dependent readers with advanced readers for duration of activity
Notes: - Leaving the page numbers on the passages may lead to students organizing in a larger discussion based on the numerical order of pages
- Bring in snacks for this activity to set a mood for the activity
Adaptation to Walden 1. When I wrote the folloeing passages, or rather the bulk of them I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord Massachuetts. (1)
2. But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon ploughed into the soil for compost. (3)
3. But, probably, man did not live long on the earth without discovering the convenience which there is a house, the domestic comforts, which phrase may have originally signified the satisfactions of the house more than of the family; (27)
4. There is some of the same fitness in a man’s building his own house that there is in a bird’s building its own nes.t (44)
5. The furniture, part of which I made myself and the rest cost me nothing if which I have not rendered an account, consisted of a bed, a table, a desk, three chairs, a looking glass three inches in diameter, a pair of tongs and andirons, a kettle, a skillet and a frying pan, a dimple washer, a wash bowl, two knives and forks, three plates, one cup, one spoon, a jug for oil, a jug for molasses, and a japanned. (62-63)
6. I found thus that I had been a rich man without any damage to my poverty. (79)
7. I did not need to go out doors to take the air, for the atmosphere within had lost none of its freshness. It was not so much within doors as behind a door where I sat, even in the rainiest weather. (82)
8. My house was on the side of a hill, immediately on the edge of the larger wood in the midst of a young forest of pitch pines and hickories, and half a dozen rods from the pond, to which a narrow footpath led down the hill. (110)
9. I am more alone than ever. For the rest of the long afternoon, perhaps, my meditations are interrupted only by the faint rattle of a carriage or team along the distant highway. (119)
10. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude… Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows. (131)
11. “By George! I can enjoy myself well enough here chopping; I want no better spot.” (141)
12. “Satisfied!” said he; “some men are satisfied with one thing, and some with another. One man perhaps, if he has got enough will be satisfied wo sit all day with his back to the fire and his belly to the table, by George!” (144)
13. I came to love my rows, my beans, though so many more than I wanted. They attached me to the earth, and so I got strength like Antæus. (150)
14. But, looking directly down into our waters from a boat, they are seen to be of very different colors. Walden is blue at one time and green at another, even from the same point of view. (171)
15. Walden, the same woodland lake that I discovered so many years ago; where a forest was cut down last winter another is springing up by its shore as lustily as ever. (186)
16. A man will not need to study history to find out what is best for his own culture.
17. Nature is hard to be overcome, but she must be overcome. (212)
18. Alas! how little does the memory of these human inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape! (256)
19. Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads. (274)
20. I do not say that John or Jonathan, that this generation or the next, will realize all this; but such is the character of that morrow which mere lapse of time can never make to dawn. The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star. (325)
Character Bulletin Board Adapted from Kylene Beers When Kids Can’t Read (134)
Instructional Strategies This is a class wide project that should be added to over the course of reading of Walden. As kids are reading and taking notes with book marks, they will begin to notice different elements about Thoreau as a character. Since Thoreau is the only round and developed character in the text it will be important to make sure that students are getting a clear understanding of him as a character as they read. Also it is important to note that Walden Pond can be seen as a character as Thoreau.
SSRW (10 minutes) Students should read Walden for 10 minutes. As this is a long text, this time should be allotted to allow students the opportunity to keep up with the reading.
Introduction (15 minutes) - A character bulletin board is an interactive way that we as a class will create a depiction of Thoreau to understand him as a character, and Walden Pond to think of the landscape as a character.
- In most instances we would have the opportunity to generate a collage of character bulletin boards for all the characters, but for this book we are going to be making a character sketch of Thoreau and of Walden Pond.
o How can we think of the landscape as a character?
§ What are the its physical features
§ How does Thoreau interact with the landscape?
o Read Setting or Landscape as A Character by Nancy Niles https://secondwindpub.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/setting-or-landscape-as-a-character/
§ Landscape can: change a person, set the mood of a scene, be different in different parts of the landscape (like elements of a city), it can be the antagonist like in The Devils Highway or protagonist (maybe we will see this in Walden)
Build a character Bulletin Board (45 minutes) Materials:
- Personal computer for each student
- Printer
- Poster board
- Markers
- Glue
- Magazines
- Post-it-notes
- Optional: This is a good opportunity for all students to participate on building a dingle picture using a google doc. Students can collaborate by finding pictures and then posting them to on document so that they can all communicate at the same time.
Divide the class into two groups, one group will develop a depiction of Walden Pond and the other will create a depiction of Thoreau. By this point students should have begun reading the book and should have an idea of Walden Pond as a character and Thoreau as a character. Though there are pictures of both online students should find a creative way to make a character sketch of Thoreau and Walden Pond.
Ideas for students:
o Make a collage of real pictures, or representations of the character
o Make a collage from a collection of pictures
o Draw out pictures of each character
Select passages that are representative of Thoreau and Walden Pond as a character and write them on post-it-notes, and add them to the character bulletin board. These can follow a theme that is seen throughout the book, be a description, infer different aspects about their characters, or represent instances of change about the character.
Thoreau:
- I took particular pleasure in breaking this ground, for in almost all latitudes men dig into the earth for an equitable temperature. (43)
o Looking at personal attitudes, inferring that he likes to do physical labor
- I have learned that the swiftest traveler is he that goes by foot (51)
o Personal attitudes and belief, may also infer that he likes to walk
- It was fit that I should live on rice, mainly, who love so well the philosophy of India. To meet the objections of some inveterate cavillers, I may as well state, that if I dined out occasionally, as I always had done, and I trust shall have opportunities to do again, it was frequently to the detriment of my domestic arrangements. (59)
o Eating habits
- I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. (131)
o Description of living style
- I found myself, and still find, an instinct toward a higher, or, as it named, spiritual life, as do men, and another toward a primitive rank and savage one, (202)
o Spiritual beliefs/connection with hunter gatherer instinct
Walden Pond:
- I have thought that Walden Pond would be a good place for business, not solely on account of the railroad and the ice trade; it offers advantages which it may not be good policy to divulge; it is a good port and a good foundation. (20)
o Commerce around pond
- Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. (86)
o Affecting mood of Thoreau
- I have seen our river, when, the landscape being covered with snow, both water and ice were almost green as grass. (171)
o Physical description in winter
- The scenery of Walden is on a humble scale, and, though beautiful, does not approach to grandeur, nor can it much concern one who has not frequented it or lived by the shore; yet this pond is so remarkable for its depth and purity as to merit a particular description. (170)
o Physical description
- Walden, the same woodland lake that I discovered so many years ago; where a forest was cut down last winter another is springing up by its shore as lustily as ever; (186)
o Ability to grow and heal, changes over time
Conclusion (10 minutes) Have each group present their work to the class briefly. After students have generated their character bulletin boards and practiced making post-it-notes, hand out the assignment sheet (Appendix A) that will carry out this activity through the completion of the book. Students will be tasked to continue to add to the bulletin board as they read Walden. Weekly return to the bulletin board to review what students have been posting. If the class begins to notice themes or patters makes a section that all the post-it-notes under that theme or pattern can be placed under.
Differentiation - Have students generate their own character bulletin boards
- Make as an online assignment using google tools (google docs, picsa), or wikispaces
- Keep students in groups and task the groups to look only for characteristics of Thoreau or Walden Pond
Extension - Bridge into the final writing assignment
- Generate writing assignment or blog post talking about characterization
Appendix A Assignment:
You will be responsible to continue adding to the bulletin board as we read the book. This will be an opportunity for you to collaborate as a class to generate a detailed character sketch. As we read Walden you will be responsible for contributing to the character bulletin board. Post-it-notes will be provided in class, you will either need to write these up before class or take one home to bring to class the following day. You will be responsible for contributing 10 pieces to the bulletin board (5 on Thoreau, 5 on Walden Pond) but you are more than welcome to contribute more. An A on this assignment will require 9-10 complete and thoughtful post it notes, a B will require 8 complete and thoughtful post-it-notes, a C will require 7 thoughtful and complete post-it notes. If you notice that you have the same or similar passage as someone else that is fine, your description should and will be different, I should not see a pattern that you are copying others post-it-notes you will be confronted about academic integrity.
On the front of the post it not you need to write your passage with the page number and a brief descriptor as to what is being characterized. On the back please write your name, a possible theme or reoccurring idea, and number the post-it-note in the order in which you have written it (just number 1-10 and do not worry that you may have 1,2,3,6,8 on Walden and 4,5,7,9,10 on Thoreau). Please note that some passages are long so you may need to tape two post-it-notes together. Once you have written you post-it-note add it to the bulletin board for future discussions.
Front Back
Making Inferences Adapted from Assessment Portfolio
Standard
Colorado Academic Standards: 12th Grade Reading and Writing:
2.2c Use reading and note-taking strategies (outlining, mapping systems, skimming, scanning, key word search) to organize information and make connections within and across informational texts.
2.2e Obtain and use information from text and text features (index, bold or italicized text, subheadings, graphics) to answer questions, perform specific tasks, or identify and solve problems
3.2b Select and build context for language appropriate to content (technical, formal)
3.2d Select appropriate and relevant information (excluding extraneous details) to set context
3.3c Seek and use an appropriate style guide to govern conventions for a particular audience and purpose
Instructional Strategies
Day 1 SSRW (10 minutes)
Students should read Walden for 10 minutes. As this is a long text, this time should be allotted to allow students the opportunity to keep up with the reading.
Define inference (15 minutes):
1) the act or process of reaching a conclusion about something from known facts or evidence (http://www.merriam-webster.com/)
2) a conclusion or opinion that is formed because of known facts or evidence (http://www.merriam-webster.com/)
Overarching question to discuss as a class:
§ How can we transfer the practice of making inferences into our reading practices?
Discussion on the meaning of signs (see figure 1-4) (20 minutes):
- What does each sign convey?
- What meaning do you draw from these signs?
- When you see this sign how do you feel?
- What can you infer when you see this sign?
Practice/In-class write up (20 minutes):
- What can you infer when you see this sign? (see figure 5)
- Where might this sign be found?
- How does this sign make you feel?
- What can you infer when you see this sign? On a dumpster? On a building? On a door?
Blog Post (15 minutes carrying over as homework):
- Find a sign that you see every day but others may not? A stop sign would not meet this requirement. Make an inference to its meaning. What does it mean globally? What does it mean personally? How do you interact with this sign? How do others interact with this sign?
Day 2
SSRW (10 minutes):
Students should read Walden for 10 minutes. As this is a long text, this time should be allotted to allow students the opportunity to keep up with the reading.
Discussion:
1) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to30AJm2epQ (5 minutes as review):
2) Fritschmann, Schumaker, & Deshler Overview Prompt list (Appendix A.1, Supplementary handout Appendix A.1-A.3) (10 minutes):
a. What are “Big Picture Questions”?
b. What are “Prediction Questions”?
c. What are “Clarification Questions”?
Read Aloud Walden (25 minutes):
- Model think out loud (2003, Beers, 123) (Appendix B)
§ What kind of questions am I asking as I read? Big picture, comprehension, predictive comprehension. (2007, Fritschmann, 90)
§ What do you know? (2007, Fritschmann, 90)
§ What are the clues? (2007, Fritschmann, 90)
§ As you speak write out your dialogue so that students can see what it is you are thinking (2003, Beers, 123)
o What are “Big Picture Questions”?
o What are “Prediction Questions”?
o What are “Clarification Questions”?
Practice (20 minutes):
1) Select a paragraph or two that you have read today and try making predictive questions about the passage. (Reading of Thoreau pages 6-13)
2) Practice making inferences using the graphic organizer (Appendix C and D) to visualize your thought process
Blog Post (10 minutes carrying over as homework):
- How does making an inference aid your reading comprehension and understanding of a text? Is this a strategy that you find easy to do in your head or is this a skill that you actively practice while you are reading?
Day 3
SSRW (10 minutes)
Students should read Walden for 10 minutes. As this is a long text, this time should be allotted to allow students the opportunity to keep up with the reading.
Review (10 minutes)
Review the terms that we have talked about over the past two days. This is time to get students thinking about the strategy they have just worked on and begin thinking about how they can apply this to future reading.
o What is an inference?
- the act or process of reaching a conclusion about something from known facts or evidence (http://www.merriam-webster.com/)
- a conclusion or opinion that is formed because of known facts or evidence (http://www.merriam-webster.com/)
o What are some big picture questions?
- What themes and motifs are there around wildlife?
- What is the soul of the pond?
o What are some predictive questions?
- Will Thoreau build a garden as a source of food?
- How will the Pond have deeper meaning for Thoreau?
o What are some clarification questions?
- When did Thoreau live at Walden Pond?
- What were his reasons for living at the pond?
Discussion (20 minutes):
Display selected passage below on overhead and practice as a class using the skills learned over the past two days. This is a whole class activity, inviting students to practice what they have learned.
What can we infer from this passage? (2003, Beers, 63)
“The only house I had been the owner of before, if I except a boat, was a tent, which I used occasionally when making excursions in the summer, and this is still rolled up in my garret; but the boat, after passing from hand to hand, has gone down the stream of time. With this more substantial shelter about me, I had made some progress toward settling in the world. This frame, so slightly clad, was a sort of crystallization around me, and reacted on the builder. It was suggestive somewhat as a picture in outlines. I did not need to go outdoors to take the air, for the atmosphere within had lost none of its freshness. It was not so much within doors as behind a door where I sat, even in the rainiest weather.” (2004, Thoreau, 82)
- Who is speaking? (Big picture)
o Thoreau
§ How do we know that?
· The use of first person. Thoreau is the narrator.
- Where are they? (Big picture/ Clarification)
o He must be in his cabin at Walden Pond
§ How do we know this?
· He references that the only house he had been the owner of before, this uses past tense referencing he now is living in his cabin.
- What is going to happen next? (Prediction)
o There will be a change in weather.
§ How do we know this/why are you predicting this?
· He mentions that he enjoyed the fresh air even in the rainiest weather.
- What does the word atmosphere mean? (Clarification)
o The surrounding area of his cabin.
§ How do we know this?
· Thoreau is talking about the frest air that surrounds his cabin.
o Additional questions in Appendix A.1
- What else can we infer about this passage?
Practice (15 minutes):
Display passage on overhead with prompting questions. Students should spend 10 minutes on this by themselves. The final 5 minutes they should share their information with a partner and discuss their similarities and differences.
“The heroic books, even if printed in the character of our mother tongue, will always be in a language dead to degenerate times; and will laboriously seek the meaning of each word and line, conjecturing a larger sense than common use permits out of what wisdom and valor and generosity we have” (2004, Thoreau, 98).
- Who is speaking?
- Who are they addressing?
- Are there any words you don’t understand?
- How does the definition of certain words change the meaning?
- What does the author believe?
- What is the author arguing for?
- How does the author view the world?
Blog Response (15 minutes carrying over as homework):
1) Find an article on any topic that you would like.
2) Read the article, practice making inferences as you read, frequently stopping to write down thoughts and questions
3) Post a link to the article on your blog
4) Post your thoughts and notes that you have taken (if you have handwritten notes, taking a picture of these notes and uploading the image is just fine)
5) Respond to these questions
a. How did making inferences help your understanding of the text?
b. What types of inferences were you making?
c. Was this a useful strategy for your own reading practices?
Assessment tools
The blog posts are my form of assessment. As they are a required part of class writing students will be required to complete blog responses in class and as homework as a part of their participation for the class. There is an attached rubric (Appendix E) that roughly outlines what is expected of the students. As each blog requires a different type of response the rubric is very general. Students should expect and read responses from the teacher on their blog posts. This type of communication should both allow the teacher to assess the students work as a form of conferencing and work as a tool to assess students’ needs individually and as a class. As students respond to the required blog post they will give insight to the instructor to their needs as a student and will be demonstrating that they are practicing the skill. With the first blog post students will be practicing inference skills that they use every day, while the second blog focuses on students attention to their own needs as a reader. The second blog highlights student’s needs as they offer direct feedback of this reading strategy. The last blog fully assess the skill of inferring as students will fully practice this skill on their own without aid from classmates. With responses from this blog the instructor will be able assess that all students are practicing this skill proficiently.
Figures
Figure 1 (image provided by Google images)
Figure 2 (image provided by Google images)
Figure 3 (image provided by Google images)
Figure 4 (image provided by Google images)
Figure 5 (image provided by Google images)
Figure 6 (image provided by Google Images
Appendix A.1
Appendix A.2
Appendix A.3
Appendix B Near the end of March[I1] , 1845, I borrowed[I2] an axe and went down to the woods by Walden[I3] Pond, nearest to where I intended to build[I4] my house, and began to cut down some tall, arrowy white pines, still in their youth, for timber[I5] . It is difficult to begin without borrowing[I6] , but perhaps it is the most generous course thus to permit your fellow-men to have an interest in your enterprise. The owner of the axe, [I7] as he released his hold on it, said that it was the apple of his eye; but I returned it sharper than I received it.[I8] It was a pleasant hillside where I worked, covered with pine woods, through which I looked out on the pond, and a small open field in the woods where pines and hickories were springing up. The ice in the pond was [I9] not yet dissolved, though there were some open spaces, and it was all dark-colored and saturated with water. There were some slight flurries of snow during the days that I worked there; but for the most part when I came out on to the railroad, on my way home[I10] , its yellow sand-heap stretched away gleaming in the hazy atmosphere, and the rails shone in the spring sun, and I heard the lark and pewee and other birds [I11] already come to commence another year with us. They were pleasant spring [I12] days, in which the winter of man's discontent was thawing as well as the earth, and the life that had lain torpid began to stretch itself. One day, [I13] when my axe had come off and I had cut a green hickory for a wedge, driving it with a stone, and had placed the whole to soak in a pond-hole in order to swell the wood, I saw a striped snake [I14] run into the water, and he lay on the bottom, apparently without inconvenience, as long as I stayed there, or more than a quarter of an hour; perhaps because he had not yet fairly come out of the torpid state. It appeared to me that for a like reason men remain in their present low and primitive condition[I15] ; but if they should feel the influence [I16] of the spring of springs arousing them, they would of necessity rise to a higher and more ethereal life. I had previously seen the snakes i[I17] n frosty mornings in my path with portions of their bodies still numb and inflexible, waiting for the sun to thaw them. On the 1st [I18] of April it rained and melted the ice, and in the early part of the day, which was very foggy, I heard a stray[I19] goose groping about over the pond and cackling as if lost, or like the spirit of the fog.[I20] (Thoreau, 2004, 39-40)
Appendix C Making Inferences Graphic Organizer Walden
Textual Evidence
Question
Prior Knowledge
Inference
I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous, I may almost say, as to attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of servitude called Negro Slavery, there are so many keen and subtle masters that enslave both North and South. It is hard to have a Southern overseer; it is worse to have a Northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself. (6)
Will slavery play a role in throughout the book as a theme? This is a comment against slavery and judging men who are slavery owners.
The Emancipation Proclamation had already been signed and the US was in the tail end of the Civil War. As Thoreau was living in the north he would have more than likely been against slavery.
Big Picture
Slavery as a theme occurring through the book? What other kinds of slavery may we see? Are we slaves to our lives, livelihood?
I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do. We may waive just so much care of ourselves as we honestly bestow elsewhere. Nature is as well adapted to our weakness as to our strength. (10)
Should we trust nature if it knows our weaknesses and strengths? Is Thoreau going to find a way to make peace living in the woods alone?
Depending on the situation humans can die in the wilderness. Nature does know our strengths and weaknesses and we should be aware of this.
Predictive
Thoreau will find a way to live in nature without dying. As he write this book to recount his time spent at Walden Pond he must have found a way to fight the elements.
By the words, necessary of life, I mean whatever, of all that man obtains by his own exertions, has been from the first, or from long use has become, so important to human life that few, if any, whether from savageness, or poverty, or philosophy, ever attempt to do without it. To many creatures there is in this sense but one necessary of life, Food. (11-12)
Are there more necessities of life than Food? What other things are more important than food?
People need food, water, and shelter to survive. There should be more necessities than just food for survival.
Big Picture/Predictive:
Thoreau is making a grand statement. Following this passage must be some sort of clarification to what the necessities of life are.
The grand necessity, then, for our bodies, is to keep warm, to keep the vital heat in us. What pains we accordingly take, not only with our Food, and Clothing, and Shelter, but with our beds, which are our night-clothes, robbing the nests and breasts of birds to prepare this shelter within a shelter, as the mole has its bed of grass and leaves at the end of its burrow! The poor man is wont to complain that this is a cold world; and to cold, no less physical than social, we refer directly a great part of our ails. (13)
There is more for survival than just food. What other elements could Thoreau talk about in this passage to clarify what he needs to survive at Walden Pond?
Thoreau is planning to build a cabin, he must be asserting that this is a need for survival in the woods.
Clarification
Thoreau is clarifying that he needs to build a shelter for survival. Without a shelter he would not be able survive the elements over his time spent at Walden Pond.
Adapted from yale.edu
Appendix D Making Inferences Graphic Organizer
Textual Evidence
Question
Prior Knowledge
Inference
Adapted from yale.edu
Appendix E
Rubric for blog Responses
CATEGORY
4- Excellent
3- Good
2- Fair
1- Needs Improvement
I answer the topic question(s) in my blog entries.
I answer all of the question(s) with a clear and focused response. I flush out all of my ideas and give supporting details.
I answer the question(s) with a focused response. I do not flush out all of my ideas and lack supporting details.
I answer the question(s). I express some of my ideas and give no supported with details.
I do not answer the question(s). I do not attempt to flush my ideas or offer supporting details.
I can write in complete sentences and use capital letters appropriately.
The writer makes no errors in capitalization or punctuation, so the writing is very easy to read.
The writer makes 1 or 2 errors in capitalization or punctuation, but the writing is still easy to read.
The writer makes some errors in capitalization and punctuation that catch the reader's attention and interrupt the flow of the writing.
The writer makes several errors in capitalization and punctuation that catch the reader's attention and make the writing hard to read.
I can share information electronically by leaving feedback and comments on my classmates' blogs.
The student regularly (more than once per week) leaves specific, quality feedback for classmates.
The student regularly (once per week) leaves comments specific/high quality feedback for classmates.
Student leaves comments and feedback for other students sometimes, but less than once per week. Some feedback is too general
Student rarely leaves comments and feedback for others students OR feedback is vague ("I like your story").
Adapted from rubistar.com
Probable Passage (Small group activity to for readers struggling with Making Inferences) Adapted from Kylene Beers When Kids Can’t Read (87-88)
10-15 minute activity
Introduction Students having trouble making inferences may need a more visual and direct way to make inferences. With these students it will be best to pull them aside for a mini lesson and demonstrate how they can describe a passage, understand the problem, make a prediction and think of the possible outcome. This can be done during SSRW so that students can continue to work with the text under guidance during regular class time.
Instructional Strategies - Introduce students to terms (2-3 minutes)
- Select a passage and model (5 minutes)
- Allow students to practice (5-8 minutes)
Introduction to terms (2-3 minutes) All definitions provided by google.com
- Character: a person in a novel, play, or movie
- Setting: the place or type of surroundings where something is positioned or where an event takes place.
- Problem: a matter or situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome.
- Gist Statement or prediction: a thing predicted; a forecast
- Outcomes: the way a thing turns out; a consequence
Select a passage and model (5 minutes) Appendix A works through the notes that are indicated on this passage and models what students should be noting as they work through the probable passage.
Hand out worksheet (Appendix B) and model reading and note taking on the instructor’s worksheet.
Walden (126)
There is commonly sufficient space about us. Our horizon is never quite at our elbows. The thick wood is not just at our door, nor the pond, but somewhat is always clearing, familiar and worn by us, appropriated and fenced in some way, and reclaimed from Nature. For what reason have I [I21] this vast range and circuit, some square miles of unfrequented forest, for my privacy, abandoned to me by men? My nearest neighbor is a mile distant, and no house is visible from any place but the hill-tops within half a mile of my own. I have my horizon bounded by woods all to myself; a distant view of the railroad where it touches the pond on the one hand, and of the fence which skirts the woodland road on the other. But for the most part it is as solitary where I live as on the prairies.[I22] It is as much Asia or Africa as New England. I have, as it were, my own sun and moon and stars, and a little world all to myself. At night there was never a traveler passed my house, or knocked at my door, more than if I were the first or last man; unless it were in the spring, [I23] when at long intervals some came from the village to fish for pouts--they plainly fished much more in the Walden Pond of their own natures, and baited their hooks with darkness--[I24] but they soon retreated, usually with light baskets, and left "the world to darkness and to me," and the black kernel of the night was never profaned by any human neighborhood. I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark, though the witches are all hung, and Christianity and candles have been introduced[I25]
Practice (5-8 minutes) Have students select their own passage, either one they have already read or the following passage to practice making the probable passage. If students need more assistance this activity allows for one on one interactions as this is intended for groups of students of up to 5.
Appendix A Adapted from education.ky.gov
Probable Passage
Setting Characters Problem
when at long intervals some came from the village to fish for pouts—they plainly fished much more in the Walden Pond of their own natures, and baited their hooks with darkness
Thoreau
Use of “I” indicating that the narrator is speaking in the first person
Setting in Walden Pond
woodland road
fished much more in the Walden Pond
Gist Statement
___Thoreau has an issues with so many people fishing at the pond, as stated earlier in the chapter he likes his solitude, so having so many people at the pond may lead to a conflict of interest as he likes to be alone. _____________________________________________________________
What actions will Thoreau take if any?
Look up these words.
Solitary
profaned
Thoreau may address these issues with individuals so that he can have the pond to his self.
Change in season may force people to stop visiting the pond
Outcomes Unknown words To discover
How
I Now Know…
___Thoreau likes to be alone and he is constantly observing those that come to the pond as he indicates how and when they are leaving the pond ____________________________________
Appendix B Adapted from education.ky.gov
Probable Passage
Setting Characters Problem
Gist Statement
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Outcomes Unknown words To discover
How
I Now Know…
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Book Marks” Adapted from Assessment Portfolio
Standard Colorado Academic Standards 12 grade reading and writing:
1.1.a. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks. (CCSS: SL.11-12.4)
1.1e. Choose specific words and word order for intended effect and meaning
2.2.a Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem. (CCSS: RI.11-12.7)
2.2.b Use reading and note-taking strategies (outlining, mapping systems, skimming, scanning, key word search) to organize information and make connections within and across informational texts
2.2c Use semantic cues, signal words, and transitions to identify text structures (such as critique, proposition/support, inductive/deductive) and to summarize central ideas and supporting details
Instructional Strategies SSRW (10 minutes)
Students should read Walden for 10 minutes. As this is a long text, this time should be allotted to allow students the opportunity to keep up with the reading.
Discussion (15 minutes):
Have students generate a word wall on the board focusing on the chapter Where I Lived, and What I Lived For (78-96) (Appendix A). This should be an open discussion to show the entire class what others are marking in a text and discover common practices amongst all. Final version of this word wall should be copied down with all of student responses and published to the classroom webpage. If students do not take notes or mark their texts then the word wall should be generated by the instructor using these bullet points and then questions should prompt student thinking as to why one would mark or note these things.
Big Question: What do students mark as they read?
This is a list of ideas that students should be generating. As they come up with ideas try prompting their thinking as to why they are making these marks in texts or taking notes on these things. The word wall should generate things that students take note of, but the prompting questions should guide their thinking towards why they are making these decisions.
o Words (Why mark words?)
§ Words seem to indicate themes and patterns. In this passage see a theme of richness and poverty in relation to death. Is Thoreau making a larger comment on the true richness of life?
o Questions (What questions are you asking? Big picture? Comprehension? Predictive? [see “Making Inferences”])
§ Who does Thoreau Judge?
§ What is Thoreau saying about life and death?
§ What is divine life in Thoreau’s mind?
o Textual evidence to a theme (How do you know that you have found a theme?)
§ Looking at life, Thoreau talks about richness on page 79, then he beging to talk about being “awake” and what it truly means to be awake not in relation to sleep but in life, pages 87-88. Following this he makes a comment as to how he does not want to fritter away life on page 89.
o Quotes (What type of quotes? Passages? Dialogue?)
§ Not many quotes outside Thoreau writing down thoughts
§ “I found thus that I had been a rich man without any damage to my poverty” (79)
§ “There are none happy in the world but beings who enjoy freely a vast horizon” – Damodara (85)
§ “There are millions awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion” (87)
o Difference in speaker/voice (What does shifts in tone of voice, point of view indicate to a reader?)
§ Shift in voice from talking about Thoreau’s own living to making a judgement about society and life (78-82)
§ Shift in voice about perception of being alive compared to being “awake” (92-94)
§ Shift in voice about what absolute existence in comparison what we crave (95-96)
o Important time registers (How are you marking time as you are reading the text?)
§ Thoreau doesn’t change time in this passage or does not indicate that there is a shift in time. In the previous chapter he gave good clues to the shift in month or season. This seems more like a stream of conscious passage.
Demonstrate (20 minutes):
On a text show how dependent readers may mark a text based on the discussion. Select a text from newsela.com and put on overhead, or Smart Board. Mark the text with the appropriate indicators that the reader is thinking (think out loud strategy Beers, 119) indicate what each mark means. Use different colors for: time, words, questions, textual evidence, quotes, speaker’s voice, time registers. See Appendix B for a detailed demonstration of what this will look like on a class overhead. As the text is highlighted for specific registers there are comments to the right of the document to show the thinking process as to why one would highlight specific elements of the text
- We are going to use specific tools to make this easier especially with larger texts, such at Walden. As you can see this may take too long to do to the entire text and we may never get through the whole text. Having Bookmarks can make this process a lot easier and will allow for you to have all of the information at hand when you need to reference a part of the text rather than thumb through the entire Open Bookmark template from class webpage and save it as a shared google doc (Appendix C and D).
Practice (25 minutes):
Have students select a passage from Where I Lived, and What I Lived For in Walden, to begin taking detailed book mark on a passage.
- This is going to be practice that you will be able to reference later. Work on taking detailed notes as you read the passage. Remember you will be looking for voice, theme, quotes, words, and questions. These can be things that you find interesting, things that you will find useful. Remember to think about the types of questions that we discussed while making inferences, these same questions will useful when you notice questions or have questions about the text. We are going to practice making book cards in class, which we will return to doing as we continue to read Walden.
Have students practice marking the specific qualities of the text on the template as a google doc. Students should be looking for: time, words, questions, textual evidence, quotes, speaker’s voice, time registers as discussed in class. Students do not need to worry about the page in this case since they are reading an article based on the web. Once students are reading a text in a book they should be marking the page number from where the cue comes from.
Blog Post (10 minutes):
Students should reflect on this strategy through a blog post.
- How will this strategy help your reading?
- What can you take away from practicing this in your own reading?
- Will this be beneficial to your own reading?
o What can you take away from this if you do not think it will be beneficial?
- How else can you apply this strategy in your own work outside of this class?
- How will practicing this help you succeed in reading?
Assessment Tools
Student s will be assigned to practice writing book marks throughout the reading of an entire text. Bookmarks should be completed weekly and will not need to be emailed to the instructor as long as students have shared the document with the instructor. If students want they should have the option of submitting email versions, however this form of submission can lead to late submissions. Students will be graded based on the developed rubric (Appendix E). They will be checked for completeness and practice of critical thinking strategies and making inferences from text (see pre-reading strategies). The in class practice time should invite students to fill out as many of the spaces on the template for the selected article as practice and submit to teacher as email along with a copy of the article that they have marked as an indirect assessment. This submission will allow for the teacher to make an assessment on the skill before moving onto the graded assignment that students will working on as they read the text.
Each submission should demonstrate more thought and critical thinking as they get more practice. Students will be graded on Book Cards once a week and should aim for 25 entries per card. With each week the teacher should note areas needing improvement for the class so that they can return to specific skills used while taking notes.
Appendix A Word Wall:
Rich in proportion (79)
Rich[I26] without damage to poverty (79)
Buy greedily (81)
Abode (81)
Outdoors/freshness (82)
Garden and the oarchard (82)
Value[I27] as a neighbor (84)
Earth is not continent but insular (85)
Squatted[I28] (86)
Nature Herself [I29] (86)
Despaired of life (87)
Mornings I am awake and there is dawn (87)
Millions are awake[I30] (87)
Divine life (87)
Keep ourselves awake [I31] (88)
I did not wish to live what was not life (88)
Our life is frittered away by detail [I32] (89)
Wasted life[I33] (90)
Absolute existence (94)
Men, who fail to live (94)
The track is laid for us (95)
Life (96)
Death (96)
We crave reality (96)
I judge [I34] (96)
Appendix B Walden (86-88)
Words
Questions
Theme
Quotes
Voice
Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal [I35] simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. I h[I36] ave been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks. [I37] I got up early and bathed in the pond; that was a religious exercise, and one of the best things which I did. They say that characters were engraven on the bathing tub of King Tching Thang to this effect: "Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again."[I38] I can understand that. Morning brings back the heroic ages. I was as much affected by the faint hum of a mosquito making its invisible and unimaginable [I39] tour through my apartment at earliest dawn, when I was sitting with door and windows open, as I could be by any trumpet that ever sang of fame. It was Homer's requiem; itself an Iliad and Odyssey [I40] in the air, singing its own wrath and wanderings. There was something cosmical [I41] about it; a standing advertisement, till forbidden, of the everlasting vigor and fertility of the world. The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour. Then there is least somnolence [I42] in us; and for an hour, at least, some part of us awakes [I43] which slumbers all the rest of the day and night. Little is to be expected of that day, if it can be called a day, to which we are not awakened by our Genius, but by the mechanical nudgings of some servitor, are not awakened by our own newly acquired force and aspirations from within, accompanied by the undulations of celestial music, instead of factory bells, and a fragrance filling [I44] the air — to a higher life than we fell asleep from; and thus the darkness bear its fruit, and prove itself to be good, no less than the light. That man who does not believe that each day contains an earlier, more sacred, and auroral hour than he has yet profaned, [I45] has despaired of life, and is pursuing a descending and darkening way. After a partial cessation of his sensuous life, [I46] the soul of man, or its organs rather, are reinvigorated each day, and his Genius tries again what noble life [I47] it can make. All memorable events, I should say, transpire in morning time and in a morning atmosphere. The Vedas say,[I48] "[I49] All intelligences awake with the morning." Poetry and art, and the fairest and most memorable of the actions of men, date from such an hour. [I50] All poets and heroes, like Memnon, are the children of Aurora, and emit their music at sunrise. To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning. It matters not what the clocks say or the attitudes and labors of men. Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me. Moral reform [I51] is the effort to throw off sleep. Why is it that men give so poor an account of their day if they have not been slumbering? [I52] They are not such poor calculators. If they had not been overcome with drowsiness, they would have performed something. The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or [I53] divine life. To be awake is to be alive. [I54] I have never yet met a man who was quite awake.[I55] How [I56] could I have looked him in the face?
We must learn to reawaken [I57] and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. [I58] I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour. [I59] If we refused, or rather used up, such paltry information as we get, the oracles would distinctly inform us how this might be done. [I60]
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.[I61] I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary.[I62] I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life,[I63] to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it,[I64] whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever."[I65]
Appendix C Book Mark Template
Walden Where I Lived, and What I Lived For (90)
? Mark
Mark My Words
Marking Time
Mark Who
Mark Quote
Name:
Name:
Name:
Name:
Book Walden
Book: Walden
Book: Walden
Book: Walden
Book: Walden
Page_90__
Why should we live with such a hurry and waste life?
Authorial question
Page_90__
Wasted life
- Emphasis on theme
Page__X_
Do not see any indication of time in this passage
Page_90__
If I should only give a few pulls at the parash bellrope, as for a fire that is…
- Thoreau is the only speaker in this section
Page_90__
But if we stay at home and mind our business, who will want railroads? We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us
- Ideas that work is wasting our lives
Page_90__
As for work we haven’t any consequence
- What kind of consequence
Page_90__
Consequence
The idea of wasting life in relation to the theme of living and being awake
Page___
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“I am glad to know that it takes a gang of men for every five miles to keep the sleepers down”
- Thoreau is relating to the theme of work and life in relation to wasting life
Page_90__
Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry
- In relation to us wasting our lives on fravilous and pointless worries.
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Sleepers
- People who are wasting there lives
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Template adapted from when Kids Can't Read (309-312)
Appendix D Book Mark Template
? Mark
Mark My Words
Marking Time
Mark Who
Mark Quote
Name:
Name:
Name:
Name:
Book
Book
Book
Book
Book
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Template adapted from when Kids Can't Read (309-312)
Appendix E Rubric for Bookmarks
CATEGORY
4
3
2
1
Completed all bookmark strategies
Student completed book mark entries
Student completed most book mark entries
student completed half of book mark entries
Student completed less than half of book mark entries
Indicated the page number
Student indicated all page numbers
Student indicated most of the page numbers
Student failed to indicate most page numbers
Student did not indicate page numbers
Practiced inferring strategies
Student demonstrated strong critical though and practiced inferring about specific passages, quotes, voice, time and questions
Student demonstrated critical though and practiced inferring about specific passages, quotes, voice, time and questions
Student practiced inferring about specific passages, quotes, voice, time and questions
Student failed to practiced inferring about specific passages, quotes, voice, time and questions
Followed up on new words
Student sought definition from dictionary and contextualized the word in own writing and from text
Student sought definition from dictionary and contextualized the word.
Student sought definition from dictionary
Student failed to find definition of specific word
Adapted from rubistar.com
Awareness About Our Environment
By: Sylvia Stults
Broken bottles and charred pieces of glass
Wadded up newspapers tossed on the grass
Pouring of concrete and tearing out trees
This is the environment that surrounds me?
Poisons and insecticides sprayed on our food
Oceans filling with thick oil crude
All sea life destined to a slow awful doom
These are the things we are to consume?
Mills pumping out iron expelling yellow fumes
Airlines emitting caustic gases from fuels
Weapons of destruction tested at desolate sites
And this is the air that's to sustain life?
There has to be something that someone can do
Like raise the awareness to those around you
That if we don't heed the problem at hand
It's your life that's at stake, the destruction of man.
Source: http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/awareness-about-our-environment#ixzz3XOLilFiP
Family Friend Poems
Rhyme in Ecopeorty (Designed for 80 minute class period):
Objectives:
- Notice rhyme scheme
- Differentiate between types of rhyme
- Understand relationship between rhyme and theme
- Notice shifting tones in mood
Introduction to poem (5-10 minutes):
Explain to students that a form of poetry is called ecopoetry. This form of poetry is geared at environmental concerns. Some ecopoetry focuses on environmental destruction while others highlight instances in the environment, like the changing colors of a leaf. Thematically this form of poetry pays close attention to the environment, but uses different conventions and topics to understand environmental concerns.
Discussion (10-15 minutes): Engage students in a discussion that primes thinking about their environment and there natural surroundings and their impact on the environment. This discussion should start off broad and begin to narrow its focus. If students start with a tree, the discussion lead into noticing the change in seasons which causes the leaves to fall. Their impact may be raking up the leaves in the fall (are we taking away nutrients that the tree would normally have returned to it in the forest?). Building a tree house in the tree, all be it a cool fort, what harm is being done to the tree? We log forests so those trees do not get a chance to live, this do not get a chance to consume carbon dioxide that we are putting into the air, so what benefits do we get from killing the tree compared to the resources that we gain? Students should generate topics on their own and try to dive into one or two topics in depth.
Prompting Questions:
- What do you see around your immediate environment?
- How do you visualize your resources (water, electricity, oil, food, consumer items)? Where does it come from? How are these things processed?
- What does it take to run a car or even turn on a light?
Reading (10-15 minutes):
Invite the students to read the poem quietly, this should take no more than 2 minutes, during this reading students do not need to mark the poem, but are more than welcome to do so if they like, and should just familiarize themselves with the poem. Following this silent reading the teacher should read aloud once. While the poem is read students should mark the poem with the things that they notice, on first glance students may notice theme and thematic stanzas, rhyming couplets, and questions in the poem. Following the reading aloud done by the instructor three volunteers will be needed to recite the poem:
Reader 1
Reader 2
Reader 3
For students having trouble accessing the poem or not noticing themes, rhyming or questions, this reading these aspects of the poem. As reader 1 and 2 take on a couplet each through the reading, this rhyming scheme should become more apparent. Having a third reader will call attention to the break in the rhyme scheme and highlight the near rhyme.
Close Reading (25-30 minutes): First invite students to discuss what they noticed in the reading of the poem. This discussion should lead toward noticing rhyme and themes. This poem has 4 stanzas with rhyming couplets. Stanza 3 calls attention to an interruption of this rhyme scheme as it has imperfect rhymes which is jarring to the reader.
Rhyme: This poem uses an abab rhyming couplet scheme. In rhyming each couplet Stults uses a variety of rhymes. Lines 1 and 2 have a perfect rhyme, lines 3 and 4 have an assonant rhyme, stanza 2 has two couplets with a one-syllable rhyme, stanza 3 has two imperfect rhymes, and stanza 4 has assonant rhyming couplets.
Define the types of rhyme used (5-10minutes)( http://www.public.asu.edu/): - perfect rhyme: These terms refer to the immediately recognizable norm: true/blue, mountain/fountain.
- imperfect rhyme: These are all general terms referring to rhymes that are close but not exact: lap/shape, glorious/nefarious.
- assonant rhyme: Rhyming with similar vowels, different consonants: dip/limp, man/prank
- consonant rhyme: Rhyming with similar consonants, different vowels: limp/lump, bit/bet
- one-syllable rhyme: The norm, in which rhyme occurs on the final stressed syllables: One two, / Buckle my shoe
- identical rhyme: A word rhymes with itself, as in Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could not Stop for Death": We paused before a house that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground--
The Roof was scarcely visible--
The Cornice--in the Ground.
Discussion of rhyme (5-10 minutes): Students should discuss how the use of rhymes affect the poem, give meaning to each stanza and couplet, and call the reader’s attention to themes in the poem.
Guiding questions:
- How does the use of rhymes affect the reading of the poem?
- What is the purpose of using imperfect rhymes in stanza 3?
- How does using an imperfect/assonant rhyme on lines 8 and 9 affect the reading of the poem as it breaks or adds to the rhyming the rhyming scheme?
- How does the rhyming scheme call attention to the theme of the poem?
- What does the rhyme tell about the theme of the poem?
- What does the rhyme tell about the mood of the poem?
Noticing mood and theme (5-10 minutes): As this is eco-poetry, the thematic element is geared towards the environment. This poem focuses on the destruction of the environment and concludes with a call to action in the final stanza. Noticing rhyme pairs the theme of the poem with content (environment) and concern (destruction). Charred glass and grass are two items that typically would not fit together and are a sign of concern. Similarly, crude is not a word that one would associate with food, especially when associating crude with oil.
Guiding questions:
- What other rhyming couplets call attention to theme?
- Are there any other themes that you notice?
- What is the mood of the poem? As there is a shift in the poem in the last stanza, does this change the mood?
After reading (10-15 minutes):
Following the discussion students should practice writing by adding a stanza to the poem. Students should think about the use of rhymes, in connection to theme and mood. Also consider where they place the new stanza. Placing a stanza between stanzas 3 and 4 may include adding an additional imperfect rhyming stanza or continue the abab rhyming pattern. This also may highlight the imperfect/assonant rhyme on lines 8 and 9.
Prompt: Write an additional stanza for this poem. Think about the rhyming pattern as you write this stanza and consider the placement of where your additional stanza will go. Also keep in mind how your rhyming couplets reflect the theme of the poem. Choosing words like plant and ant add to the theme of environment but your qualifying words may give more meaning, such as a dead plant in relation to destroying the home of an ant. Once you are finished with your stanza write a paragraph explaining where you would insert this stanza and how your stanza adds to the poem.
Example:
I sold my car, I only ride a bike
My source of entertainment is to hike
I sort my trash in recycling bins and all
But is it enough for all?
I would insert this at the end of the poem as the fifth stanza. While the fourth stanza is a call to action this stanza is an example of one individual taking small steps in helping the environment. The rhyming of bike and hike call attention to minimal impact of these activities on the environment, while using an identical rhyme at the end calls attention to the two different forms of inclusion through the use of all. This adds a response to the call to action in stanza 4 and makes the mood of the poem more hopeful as it demonstrates one individual making life changes.
Book Bridge: This is a great example of ecopeotry and there are many more poems like this and follow this form of poetry, http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/ and http://www.eco-poetry.org/ are two websites that have large collections of poetry in this style of poetry. This poem bridges will with Thoreau’s Walden as it explores issues between man and nature. An additional book to pair with this poem pairs with Elizabeth Kolbert’s Field Notes from a Catastrophe and Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia as both books draw connections between human impacts on the environment.
Extensions/adaptation:
- Generate a three columns on the board for micro, meso, and macro and discuss how the poem addresses each level of understanding
- Perform the poem with a variation of readers, 2 readers, 4 readers
- Include additional ecopoems to extend relations between theme and styles of poetry
- Include additional rhyming poem to extend relation between rhyming and theme
- Tag poem to understand ideas around mood
Reflecting on Reading Adapted from Assessment Portfolio
Standard Colorado Academic Standards: 12th Grade Reading and Writing:
2.1c Evaluate the influence of historical context on the form, style, and point of view of a written work
2.1d Analyze and relate a literary work to source documents of its literary period or to critical perspectives
2.1e Evaluate how literary components impact meaning (such as tone, symbolism, irony, extended metaphor, satire, hyperbole)
2.2c Use reading and note-taking strategies (outlining, mapping systems, skimming, scanning, key word search) to organize information and make connections within and across informational texts
3.1a Use a range of elaboration techniques (such as questioning, comparing, connecting, interpreting, analyzing, or describing) to establish and express point of view and theme
3.1b Create a clear and coherent, logically consistent structure appropriate to the chosen literary genre (biographical account, short story, personal narrative, narrative poem or song, parody of particular narrative style, play script)
3.1c Develop context, character/narrator motivation, problem/conflict and resolution, and descriptive details/examples to support and express theme
Instructional Strategies Students will be reflecting on the reading of Walden, reflecting on the specifics of the book that they liked, did not like, what was important to the text and what from the text helped them understand the world from a different perspective. The goal of this is not to focus on the details that prove a student read a text but rather focus on reflective practices from reading a text. Students will be invited to respond to the text while offering textual; evidence to support their claims. This form of reflection follows a similar form of Walden as Thoreau writes in reflection about the two years he spent at Walden Pond.
SSRW (10 minutes):
Students should read Walden for 10 minutes. As this is a long text, this time should be allotted to allow students the opportunity to keep up with the reading. As this is the end of the unit, students who have finished reading Walden are free to read outside reading instead.
Introduction (10 minutes):
As a class come up with a working definition to Reflect, Aesthetic, and Efferent. Once the class has developed their own definition display the terms on an overhead.
Terms:
- Reflect: think deeply or carefully about. (google.com)
- Aesthetic: a set of principles underlying and guiding the work of a particular artist or artistic movement. (google.com)
- Efferent: conducted or conducting outward or away from something (for nerves, the central nervous system; for blood vessels, the organ supplied). (google.com)
Discussion (20 minutes):
Prompt discussion based on the terms. This should introduce students to the idea of reflecting on their reading from two different stances. Students should begin to formulate ideas on how they can take on different stances when reflecting on their reading.
- How can we reflect on our reading from an aesthetic stance?
- How Did Thoreau reflect on his time at Walden Pond from an aesthetic stance?
- What chapters could be labeled as aesthetic?
o Sounds, Solitude, The Bean Field, The Village, The Ponds, House Warming, The Pond in Winter, Spring
- How can we reflect on our reading from an efferent stance?
- How Did Thoreau reflect on his time at Walden Pond from an efferent stance?
- What chapters could be labeled as taking an efferent stance?
o Economy, Where I lived, and What I Lived For, Reading, Visitors, Baker Farm, Higher Laws (consider his arrest at the time of writing this chapter), Baker Farm,
- Are these different stances different? How So? Why not?
- How are Thoreau’s aesthetic reflections different from his efferent reflections? Think about his chapter on Economy compared to his chapter on The Ponds.
- What are some questions that we would ask if we took an aesthetic stance? Efferent stance?
- What do our surrounds look like? (aesthetic)
- How does Thoreau interact with his surroundings (efferent)
- What forms and techniques are used in writing? (aesthetic)
- In what ways does Thoreau use writing to reflect inward and outward? (efferent)
- What are our visual and spatial cues? (aesthetic)
- How does Thoreau relate to his environment? (efferent)
- How is the landscape formed? (aesthetic)
- Can you take both stances at the same time?
- In what ways does Thoreau change the landscape? (efferent/aesthetic)
- Are there any other stances you can think of? What are they? Do they relate to these two stances?
- What stance would you take if you are making an opinion?
- What stance are you making if you make a value judgement?
Introduction to Gibbs reflective cycle (10 minutes):
This cycle (Figure 1) moves ones thinking from aesthetic to efferent by looking for the basics of the aesthetic into the efferent by looking for analysis. Students who are having trouble with the two terms should be invited into further discussion showing how the two are related and can be separate. This cycle demonstrates how one type of thinking leads to the next and how they are interrelated. Appendix A is a worksheet in which students can work through this understanding. Appendix is an example of how this works when looking at a text.
- Description: write what happened?
- Feelings: how do these events make you feel?
- Evaluate: how are you evaluating the situation?
- Analyze: what is you analysis of this?
- Conclusion: do you have any concluding thoughts?
- Action: between your analysis and conclusion what would you do differently and from the original outcome?
Practice (30 minutes):
Students should spend the remainder of the class reflecting on Walden. This is intended to get students thinking about the text on a deeper level. Students should consider what type of stance they are taking as they reflect. As each student may have a different response to the text and relate to the text differently they are encouraged to explore the text in any way that they would like. Students are not required to write in complete sentences as they brainstorm but rather respond in any way that is helpful to their writing process. This practice in class is aimed at allowing student to begin thinking about a text critically. Questions (Appendix C) to guide student thinking are adapted from Kylene Beers (271-273) and should be posted on the class webpage and projected on the overhead for all students to have a visual reference Students should refer to their book cards (see Book Cards assessment) for textual evidence and review any inferences that they have made over the course of reading the text. Halfway through the practice and brainstorming session students should be directed to the assignment (Appendix D) which should be published on the classroom webpage.
Students should think about how they would place these questions on the Gibbs Reflective cycle. If students want to they can answer the questions in a circle mirroring the cycle based on the questions that they answer. These reflective questions should prompt thinking about the text work as brainstorming for the assignment.
Assessment Tools
The blog post will assess that students are reflecting on their reading from a critical standpoint. As this will be a formal post students should be aiming write a complete well thought out entry. The assessment is looking for students to reflect on the text they have read, give textual evidence, take a stance towards their reflection and make a though out suggestion about the text for other readers. Students will be assessed based on the rubric found in Appendix I. This rubric has been designed to look at students writing for their practices reflecting on their reading. Prior to this students can be asked to submit their brainstorming strategies as a pre-assessment tool to find out where students need help. This can be submitted as a google doc or email which will allow the educator follow up where students still need help. Once students have completed this assignment, they can continue to practice this strategy in a class collaborative reading log in which they will reflect on their outside reading texts. This format will be a great strategy to reuse as students will be asked to follow up on their outside texts with some form of writing for themselves and the class.
Figures
Figure 1 (image provided by Google Images)
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C Reflective Questions for Brainstorming
Personal Response:
- What are your first thoughts about this text? What in the text caused these thoughts?
- What emotions or feelings did you have while reading the text? Identify the parts that caused those feelings?
- Did anything in the text remind you of anything in your life?
- What confused you or surprised you in this text?
- As you read the text, describe how you felt. For example, were you bored, caught up, thinking about characters, thinking about how you might react if in the same situation, enjoying the authors writing style, or enjoying the humor or suspense?
Reflection on the Plot:
- What went on in the story?
- What were the turning points in this plot for you? Why?
- What idea or image or situation meant the most to you as you read this text? Why?
- If this story were to continue, what do you think would happen next? Why?
- Evaluate this plot on a scale of 1 to 4 with 1 being “Not worth recommending” and 4 being “Everyone should read this” and tell why you gave it the rating you did.
Reflection on Characters and Setting:
- What characters did you most enjoy/least enjoy? Why?
- Did any of the character remind you of yourself? Why?
- If you could take on any of the qualities of any of the characters in this text, what qualities would those be? Why?
- What is the setting of the text? Was it important to the text? Why or why not?
- Does the setting remind you of a place you know?
- Did the setting affect what the characters did or didn’t do?
Appendix D Assignment:
Please write a reflection blog post on the following text. This blog post should be 750-1000 words reflecting in the text that we have just read. Please use the practice that we have done in class to help guide your thinking. You should include: the stance that you are taking on the text (aesthetic or efferent), point to specific aspects of the text that support your stance (directly referencing the book or summary), evaluate the text based on your stance, analyze the text based on your stance, and suggest why or why not someone should read the text based on your stance. Responses do not need to follow this order and should be your own thoughts.
Appendix I Rubric for Reflective Blog Post
CATEGORY
4
3
2
1
Addresses stance that student is taking
Student clearly addresses the stance that they are taking on the text to position the reader in an appropriate context.
Student addresses the stance that they are taking on the text to position the reader in an appropriate context.
Student to addresses the stance that they are taking.
Student fails to addresses the stance that they are taking on the text to position the reader in an appropriate context.
References the text
Student references the text multiple times through direct quotes or summary to give the reader a clear understanding of the parts of the text they are talking about.
Student references the text through direct quotes or summary to give the reader a clear understanding of the parts of the text they are talking about.
Student hints to the text giving the reader a clear understanding of the parts of the text they are talking about.
Student fails to reference the text through direct quotations or summary.
Evaluates and analyzes text
Student offers a strong evaluation and goes in depth with analysis of the text based on the stance that they are taking that is clear to the reader and author’s purpose.
Student offers a full evaluation and analyzes the text based on the stance that they are taking that is clear to the reader and author’s purpose.
Student offers a weak evaluation and poorly analyzes the text based on the stance that they are taking that is clear to the reader and author’s purpose.
Student fails to offer an evaluation and analyze the text based on the stance that they are taking.
Offers recommendation of the text
Student gives a clear and focused recommendation of the text based on the stance they are taking.
Student gives recommendation of the text based on the stance they are taking.
Student gives a unclear and unfocused recommendation of the text based on the stance they are taking.
Student fails to give a clear and focused recommendation of the text.
Adapted from rubistar.com
[1] Note: Taking recent pictures that you have taken or were in will make this assignment a lot easier when it comes to the reflection piece. If you take a picture from your youth or from a long time ago it will be harder to write an honest and relevant reflection.
[I1]We are looking at the month of March in 1845
[I2]Borrowing an ax, Thoreau, must not have a lot of money, considering he is building his own cabin and does not own his own ax.
[I3]Clarification of place.
[I4]Building his own house, Thoreau must have carpentry skills? Are there any skills that he may show?
[I5]Why attention to detail on the types of trees? Will there be more attention to the nature around him?
[I6]Thoreau doesn’t like to borrow, but he is. What does this say about his character.
[I7]Will we get to meet the owner of the ax?
[I8]Testament to character. Thoreau returns property in better condition than borrowed.
[I9]Attention to detail in the pond. Will the pond have more importance as a theme? Importance of place, we are set by Walden Pond.
[I10]Detail in relation to place. The pond is near some sort of civilization.
[I11]Relation to wildlife? What other elements of wildlife is Thoreau bringing to light?
[I12]What is the theme of spring going to impact as a theme in the book? Will there be attention to all the seasons?
[I13]What other issues did Thoreau have with building his cabin?
[I14]More wildlife. Will we see more as a reoccurring theme or element?
[I15]What is the primitive and low condition of man
[I16]What is the influence of spring?
[I17]Are snakes conveying a deeper meaning in this scene
[I18]We have changed months, how long will this build take him?
[I19]How will birds act as a theme?
[I20]Does the pond have a spirit? Will the pond become a reoccurring theme?
[I21]Use of I indicating the narrator, character is Thoreau
[I22]Setting of solitude at Walden Pond
[I23]People coming in the spring to fish, possible problem
[I24]Problem of too much fishing
[I25]Is he happy that people are leaving him in darkness? Prediction
[I26]Theme of rich and greed
[I27]Idea of value. What does Thoreau value if not monetary means?
[I28]Is Thoreau squatting in the land?
[I29]Personification of nature
[I30]Theme of being awake, maybe in relation to divine life
[I31]How do we keep ourselves awake
[I32]How is life frittered away by detail?
[I33]Different comment on life
[I34]Thoreau is judging whom? Himself?
[I35]Looking at simplicity
[I36]
[I37]Do I need to know about Greek literature to get this passage?
[I38]Use of others words to make a point
[I39]Just a good word and idea, unimaginable tour through my apartment.
[I40]Continual theme of Greek ideas and writing
[I41]How does this word relate to what he is saying?
[I42]Look up.
[I43]Noticing idea / theme of being awake. Not in relation to sleep.
[I44]Good use of words
[I45]Sacred may be a theme, what is the auroral hour? Profaned is a good word
[I46]I have seen this word repeated multiple time, may be a theme
[I47]Must be a theme we are talking about life again
[I48]External quotes
[I49]How is this possible?
[I50]Using analysis to unpack quote he just used
[I51]Theme of life/moral reform
[I52]Authorial question
[I53]Good quote on being awake in relation to living
[I54]Strong voice!!!
[I55]Continuing theme of divine life and being awake
[I56]Authorial question
[I57]Idea of being awaken or understanding life
[I58]Good authorial quote on how we must reawaken ourselves
[I59]What is the most elevated and critical hour in which man “makes his life”
[I60]Quote on our refusal
[I61]Answering the question as to why Thoreau went to Walden Pond.
[I62]Thoreau making reference as to how he wanted to live his own life.
[I63]Comment on how Thoreau is relating to the idea od divine life
[I64]Comment on others idea about life and morality.
[I65]Change in tone to Christian voice/shift from Greek language.