HAVING FILLED IN SOME of the gaps in our background knowledge about how Americans perceive nature, and what they think of “wilderness,” students will start formulating a working claim about American environmental literature. Having studied various essays, chapters of books, poems, paintings, songs, ect., what is the MOST important thing to know about how Americans understand our natural world? Knowing this, what do you realize about the way Americans write about nature? Students will begin consolidating notes from the packet of materials on American envornomental literature.

MONDAY

Click on the image above to get to the NPR story on Woody Gutherie’s song.

Returning to Woody Gutherie’s song, “This Land is My Land,” a song studied and sung by millions of Americans when children. What does this song teach us about how Americans see our natural world? We will finish the news story about the song, watch Pete Seeger and Bruce Springstein’s performance of the song at the 2008 presidential inaugriation, and then explicate the lyrics.
HW: Returning to Kraukauer and Hamilton. How do these writers see nature, as compared to the way Gutherie sees nature? As compared to how Muir sees nature? Creating a mind-map of your thoughts on paper.

TUESDAY

Writing day: lecture on formulating a claim and organizing an argument. The importance of writing as a form of thinking in planning a paper. We will also learn about the ethos of research communities, and why writing research must be public and shared if it is to be meaningful.
HW: Reading and annotating Muir’s essay “A Wind Storm in the Forest.”

WEDNESDAY

Discussion on Muir’s essay. We will practice Great Books format of discussion notes, and these notes will be collected and graded.
HW: Reading an annotating Aldo Leopold’s essay, “A Good Oak.”

THURSDAY

Discussion on Leopold’s essay. We will practice Great Books format of discussion notes, and these notes will be collected and graded.
HW: Reading Grahame-Smith’s “Boy: Exceptional Child.”

FRIDAY

Forming research circles, sharing annotations and revising notes and preliminary claims about how American writers view nature. Time permitting, we will begin a documentary that we will finish next week, finishing our unit on environmental literature.
HW: Reading the long essay by Thoreau, “Walking.” What is the writer’s view of the natural world, and what it contributes to the American spirit?