Nov. 26

Thoreau’s “Solitude” from Walden

Bellwork Nov. 26

• Get out “Solitude “Homework and put on corner of desk

• Suppose for the next two years you will be living in a log cabin out in the wilderness.

• Write a journal entry describing what you believe a typical day would be like in your new home. (at least ½ page) 10 minutes

Common Core Standard

• RI. 1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

• RI. 4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text

• RI.6. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text.

Measurable objectives

• students will synthesize the ideas in a passage with other readings in this class, other classes, and from domains outside the classroom environment.  

• Finally, students will evaluate the ideas of Henry David Thoreau in terms of their relevance to their own lives and contemporary American culture.

Re-cap of Thoreau

1. Walden is one of the most famous in American literary history.

2.   power of one text to influence the culture of ideas.  

3. Thoreau is often considered America’s first “nature writer,” as well as America’s first environmentalist.  

4. Close friends with Emerson, who later published his works

5. influenced such later thinkers as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, including the rise of his literary stature during the 1960’s and the subsequent environmentalist movement in America.

What is Analysis?   (Review)

•  Analysis is "breaking apart a Whole into its Parts and explaining how those Parts support and contribute to the meaning/effect of the Whole."  

• (dull right?)• But you are analyzing all the time, in every

aspect of your life--whether you are trying to figure out a friend's mood when you read his/her texts, sizing someone up in the hallway, getting a first impression of someone you meet at a football game

What is an analysis

• I need Daniel Vaden to come to the front of the room.

• Now just by looking at Daniel, what can we deduce about him?

• This is analysis!

Quick Analysis of “Solitude”

• Who is the author?

• Summarize: What is the author saying about solitude?

InterpretWhat rhetorical devices is Thoreau using? 

• …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 — 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. (paragraph 3)

• …Men frequently say to me, "I should think you would feel lonesome down there… Why should I feel lonely? is not our planet in the Milky Way? This which you put seems to me not to be the most important question. What sort of space is that which separates a man from his fellows and makes him solitary? I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another. (paragraph 5)

• ]    "How vast and profound is the influence of the subtile powers of Heaven and of Earth!" …"We seek to perceive them, and we do not see them; we seek to hear them, and we do not hear them; identified with the substance of things, they cannot be separated from them." (paragraph 8)

Synthesis

• Combining of two or more elements to form something new.

• Give me some examples of sythesis in every day life.

Synthesis

• Get into baseball groups.• You will need your copy of “Solitude”, “Nature”, and

“Self-Reliance” from the text book• 1st base: Group leader this nine weeks-keep the

group on academic discussion• 2nd base: watch the time and do not spend too

much time on one quote• 3rd base: keep the noise level acceptable• Home plate: collect the work and turn in to the

basket• Each student MUST PRODUCE A PRODUCT!

Students brainstorm ways to connect (Synthesis) Thoreau’s text to readings, Emerson's "Self-Reliance" and "Nature,“

1. Transcendentalism characteristics: Locate parallel quotes from the three pieces that epitomize each characteristic

• Emphasized living a simple life• Close relationship to nature• Celebrated imagination and emotion• Stressed individualism and self-reliance• Believed intuition (a natural ability that makes

it possible to know something without any proof or evidence) can lead to knowledge

Closure:

• How do Thoreau’s ideas influence your own thinking?  Do you have any questions? Are there sections in the text that you don’t understand and need some assistance with? What insight(s) have you gained from reading Walden? 

Exit Ticket:

• … connect transcendentalism to ideas outside the English classroom (other classes, song lyrics, the larger domain of our contemporary culture and your daily lives).