Group Work

Students in all groups are working diligently. Interview write ups are due Wednesday. A group grade is issued for each member turning his/her interview write up in on time or earlier; an individual grade is issued for the content of the write up. Surveys must be complete and tallied by Friday. Presentations start next Monday.
Remember, too, our reading schedule of three chapters per evening, so that we finish the novel by Friday.

Group Work and Ordinary People

As we just start the group research project , which ends in a major group presentations, students are encouraged to explore group dynamics. The majority of the points in this project are group points, with each individual receiving the same points as a group. For success, students MUST communicate within their groups; they MUST hold one another accountable; they MUST help one another find individually success for the group's (and consequently their own) success.
This is new. This may be uncomfortable.
So far, I have seen most groups step up to the challenge. However, a group, or two, has yet to recognize that individually "blowing off" group time will lead to disaster. Worse, the group allowing that, even laughing at that, will crash.
GROUPS, start and continue to assign, check, and do work. Create and follow your plan. On the plus of all of this, there is dramatic freedom of choice in content, development, and style. Instead of resisting all that responsibility, embrace it as an opportunity to finally do what YOU want in school. Then do it.
Ordinary People reading schedule is also out. The final pages are due next Friday, and the test is the 19th, following the presentations that start the 15th.
Before you know it, we're at Winter Break!

Past the Life Philosophy

Now that everyone has turned in his or her life philosophy paper, I look forward to reading them. While I'm working on that, we are reading the novel, Ordinary People. Already, we are finishing chapter 9, and will have a t/f quiz on chapters 1-9 next week, early.
This unit includes a major group and research project. This is big. HUGE. Ultimately, students will be presenting findings to the class in a 30 minute presentation. To be successful, collaboration my also be successful. Work together toward the common goal. Achieve more than you could by yourself.

Transcending to the test and Dark Romantics

In mid Thoreau and with voting yesterday, I posed Thoreau's statement after our discussion on "Walden": That government which governs best, governs least. Students reacted with their opinions about that thought and applied it to the day at hand. Our "Walden" discussion clarified answers to questions, compared mankind to elements of observed nature, such as the ant battle between ants of two colors, that was brutal (can we say "civil war"?), and spun into provoking comments about man's nature. I liked how Chris put it: man's "refined brutality".
The test is moved to this Friday. Students went home to read Thoreau's biography and complete some last questions on "Walden" before we watch the Dark Romantic's, Nathaniel Hawthorne, story, "Rappuccini's Daughter". IF a student misses a day, the text is available on-line from a link on my web page. Here we will see what happens when man tries to play God and control nature.

Transcending...

The past few class days have included a great deal of lecture on what Transcendentalism is, from the philosophy, to the religion, to the literary theory. It is a new way of thinking that students may not agree with, but should understand. It truly is a way of thinking that very much still exists today (like all of our other -isms). A modern "transcendental" thinker would be Dr. Wayne Dyer, as well as others like those behind 'the secret'.
Students have worked in small groups on a worksheet on Emerson's "On Nature" (having read it last week individually) and have jigsawed his "Self-Reliance". Wednesday is a pop quiz on "Self Reliance" (main ideas include: trust thyself, non-conformity, society is against the individual, work to your full potential, and to be great is to be misunderstood).
Following that, we'll move into Thoreau's "Walden" selection in the text book. In fact, Thursday is the vocabulary quiz on the list of words and definitions I provided students. I expect that Friday we'll watch a National Geographic video with Leslie Neilson that very much mimics Thoreau. It's both gross and beautiful, the essence of nature for transcendentalists, who see all as beautiful if a person is really looking closely.

Uncharted Territory...

Here comes the hard stuff: philosophy of sorts.

We are in the middle of Romanticism...the focus on nature for truth, utilizing the 5 I's of Romanticism to get there (to truth) while surrounding by nature. Most of the Romantic literature matches our expectations by being in poem form, but not all ; furthermore, it's not "romantic" like Hallmark. It's full of flowers from nature, not hearts from Hallmark. In reaction to the Rationalists' reliance upon logic, Romantics strove to break the logic barriers and go with their guts. Their literature reflects this.
We read William Cullen Bryant's (yes, he was 16 when writing) poem, "Thanatopsis," and have a Thanatopsis Wheel project due Monday. Tonight, students are reading up on Transcendentalism, an off-shoot of Romanticism, starring Emerson and Thoreau. In a mascot-icon, Buzz Lightyear says it best, "To infinite and Beyond!" Again, all through nature. Tomorrow (sub, Thursday), students will read Emerson biography and "On Nature" selection with questions in the text book to answer. Friday, much lecture information. Part religion, part philosophy, part literary theory, transcendentalism is here. It should hurt to think about; it means you're going beyond your logic boundaries and challenging you pre-conceived concepts.

Isn't it Romantic?

Tomorrow I will collect the virtue papers. I will also collect the reading worksheet on the introduction to the American Romantic period in literature during the early 1800s. After the Puritanical truth only by God and many rules, the Rationalists reacted by finding truth from within, using Logic and Reason, and certainly acted against authority when breaking from English rule. Now, we have the Romantics reacting to the logic users by relying on emotions and intuition to find truths. No longer did the settlers stay East; westward expansion had them moving and exploring nature. This is not the Valentine's Day sort of Romantic.