Unit VI: 1840-1855: Mental Power Lifting Transcendentalism, Anti-Transcendentalism and Naturalism
Thursday, 1/4:
Went over classroom policies.
Assigned (on schoology)student-written poem: Due 1/20, can be a narrative, an ode, apostrophe, a cut up, surrealism, a response to another poem.
1. You must write at least 15 lines (or be multiple poems)
2. You must incorporate 5 different devices; you must identify the device next to the line in parenthesis. If the device is sound-based (alliteration, assonance, consonance), then you must underline the letters, which create the device. If it is a symbol or an allusion, you must indicate what is being symbolized or to what you are alluding. Otherwise, please underline the words which create the device.
3. You must do 3 drafts.
Thursday: Watched a brief video on Emerson/Transcendentalism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOkdFMw0pmk.
Assigned 10 major ideas or facts from video on Transcendentalism on schoology; due at the start of class tomorrow
Friday: Assigned questions on RWE. Assignment available on schoology. from "Nature": 1. Which 3 words best describe this piece? 2. What is the main theme? 3. How is this work Transcendental? 4. Pick any sentence or section for annotating. Copy and paste it, then put in your own words. 5. Why did you pick this?
Assigned "Self Reliance": 1. Which 3 words best describe this? 2. What is he saying about people? 3. What is he saying about society? 4. How is this Transcendental? 5. Pick any sentence or section for annotating. Copy and paste it, then put in your own words. 6. Why did you pick this?
Monday, 1/8: Huge test on Emerson. We had a 10 point all-class graded discussion. Students who miss may submit a formal paragraph answering the question, what's the main theme of these two pieces by Emerson.
Tuesday: Watched 2 short films on Henry David Thoreau. Then, assigned reading Walden and questions. The films, the reading and the questions are all on schoology.
Wednesday: Informal discussion of HDT.
Thursday: Test on Transcendentalism.
Friday: Assigned 10 Rules by Which to Live on Schoology. As a class, see which rules on which we can all agree.
Tuesday, 1/16: Switched to the next unit.
Nothing below this line is official
Tuesday: Poetry devices practice.
Friday: Assigned a letter inspired by the unit. The assignment is on schoology. Click here for the letter assignment. The letter is due the next day of school.
Tuesday, : Choose the best letter.
Wednesday: Read the "The Pointlessness of Unplugging" in E Textbook (unit 3, lesson 8, or click on the link and it's on schoology).
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bic5_bUXo-X7_gLtTCS9a36C18AgCMfL8FSKThfe7VU/edit?usp=sharing.
Wednesday: switched to the next unit.
Watch the most epic drum solo in the history of rock and roll, "Moby Dick." Then, assign a letter inspired by the unit. Click here for directions on how to write a letter inspired by the unit. Questions on schoolgy.
Qualities of Transcendentalism, a response to the Age of Reason, philosophical movement.
*Difficult to fully explain and is at times contradictory.
*Idealistic, not practical.
*Tuition is more important than reason.
*Question everything.
*A branch of Romanticism, but exclusive to a small circle of Boston-area writers.
*Disdained blindly following; encouraged individuality and non-conformity--both individually and nationally, the US needed to stop following Europe.
*Took on social causes, especially the rights of women and abolition of slavery.
*Solitude in nature is essential to understanding deep meanings.
*Man, Nature, and God are intertwined into one thing, "the Oversoul."
*Each individual is a perfect God-like creation trapped in social conventions.
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Friday: Choose the best poem; grade and collect. Rubric:
1. 15 lines. (5 Points) 2. 5 Different Devices (1 point each). 3. 3 drafts (5 points). 4. Best of the Year (3 points). Total (18).