Naturalist Synthesis Unit:B-Day

Goals: Students will become comfortable with 19th and 20th century syntax and style, practice using context clues and critical thinking to determine meaning of complex text. Students will think critically to synthesize information from fiction, nonfiction, images, and poetry to answer one of the four questions below:

1. What is the relationship between nature and American identity?

2. What is the relationship between self and society?

3. What does it really mean (both positively and negatively) to be a rebel?

4. How do we construct identity through our actions, interests, values, beliefs, and in some cases death?

Reading Schedule: This is critical. Students who get behind and do not put in the time and effort to read these pieces will struggle to complete the assignments. You cannot learn if you do not come to class prepared. If preparation becomes a problem, I will have to give reading tests which takes away from discussion and understanding. I will not warn you before these reading checks.

The dates listed are when the selections should be finished, not started. If you are absent, you are still responsible for completing the reading assignment.

December 13: Chapters 1-4

January 4: Finish the book (Synthesis and vocabulary journals are due today)

January 10: “To Build a Fire” Jack London p. 480 and “Nature” p. 181

January 12: “Self-Reliance” Ralph Waldo Emmerson p. 184, “Walden” p. 191, and

January 17: “Resistance to Civil Government” Henry David Thoreau p. 210, “The Way to Rainy Mountain” N. Scott Momaday p. 997 Synthesis Questions Journal:

Keep the synthesis questions in mind as you read. During a second reading, write down quotes, ideas, events, or characterizations that relate to any of the 4 questions. Beneath or next to this information, write what you think it says about the question. Does it answer it, add more questions to it, hint at it, etc. I will check these journals three times, once after chapter 12, once at the end of the novel, and once after “Rainy Mountain.” These journals should be gathered with the end goal in mind: to gather evidence to support a claim about one of the synthesis questions. If you make this busy work, you will have to go back and redo it when we get to the essay.

Minimum requirements: 2 items per chapter/ 2 items per passage

Groups will meet periodically and share the contents of each student’s journals and discuss why the passage/idea was selected and the effect of the quoted passage on the synthesis question.

Journal Examples: “When the boy headed off into the Alaska bush, he This is related to nature and American identity to me entertained no illusions that he was trekking into a because it seems to show that the need to live land of milk and honey; peril, adversity, and Tolstoyan dangerously and renounce society is not just an renunciation were precisely what he was seeking” (p. American ideal since Tolstoy was Russian. 2)

“Some readers admired the boy immensely for his This definitely shows how our actions create our courage and noble ideals; others fulminated that he identity, but they aren’t necessarily the identity that was a reckless idiot, a wacko, a narcissist who fit us. I mean people interpreted Chris’s actions the perished out of arrogance and stupidity” (p. 2) way they wanted to, so our actions do create people’s perspectives of us, but I wonder if they truly define a person.

Vocabulary Journal

Goal: Look at words in context to develop your writing and reading vocabulary. Assignment: For every piece of writing we read, you should find 5 words you don’t know or don’t use confidently. Choose valuable words—esoteric words are not always useful. For every 5 chapters, find 5 words.

A. Write the word with the sentence and p # from the text. B. Write your best guess of the meaning and underline the context clues in the sentence. C. Look up the meaning of the word and choose the meaning that fits your context. Write two or three synonyms (if you have to use a phrase, that’s ok)

Vocabulary journals will be due Dec. 19: 10 words, January 4: 10 words, and Jan 18: 10 words

Buy your own book options: Journals: Underline or highlight quotes in your book and just record your thoughts in your journal referring back to the page you marked. Vocabulary: Box or highlight (in a different color from quotes) the words. Circle or underline the context clues. Guess the meaning in the book. Keep the words and synonyms as a list in your journal. (I will spot check your books and return them to you immediately) Naturalist Synthesis Unit:A-Day

Goals: Students will become comfortable with 19th and 20th century syntax and style, practice using context clues and critical thinking to determine meaning of complex text. Students will think critically to synthesize information from fiction, nonfiction, images, and poetry to answer one of the four questions below:

5. What is the relationship between nature and American identity?

6. What is the relationship between self and society?

7. What does it really mean (both positively and negatively) to be a rebel?

8. How do we construct identity through our actions, interests, values, beliefs, and in some cases death?

Reading Schedule: This is critical. Students who get behind and do not put in the time and effort to read these pieces will struggle to complete the assignments. You cannot learn if you do not come to class prepared. If preparation becomes a problem, I will have to give reading tests which takes away from discussion and understanding. I will not warn you before these reading checks.

The dates listed are when the selections should be finished, not started. If you are absent, you are still responsible for completing the reading assignment.

January 3: Chapters 12-17

January 5: Finish the book (Synthesis and vocabulary journals are due today)

January 11: “To Build a Fire” Jack London p. 480 and “Nature” p. 181

January 12: “Self-Reliance” Ralph Waldo Emmerson p. 184, “Walden” p. 191, and

January 18: “Resistance to Civil Government” Henry David Thoreau p. 210, “The Way to Rainy Mountain” N. Scott Momaday p. 997 Synthesis Questions Journal:

Keep the synthesis questions in mind as you read. During a second reading, write down quotes, ideas, events, or characterizations that relate to any of the 4 questions. Beneath or next to this information, write what you think it says about the question. Does it answer it, add more questions to it, hint at it, etc. I will check these journals three times, once after chapter 12, once at the end of the novel, and once after “Rainy Mountain.” These journals should be gathered with the end goal in mind: to gather evidence to support a claim about one of the synthesis questions. If you make this busy work, you will have to go back and redo it when we get to the essay.

Minimum requirements: 2 items per chapter/ 2 items per passage

Groups will meet periodically and share the contents of each student’s journals and discuss why the passage/idea was selected and the effect of the quoted passage on the synthesis question.

Journal Examples: “When the boy headed off into the Alaska bush, he This is related to nature and American identity to me entertained no illusions that he was trekking into a because it seems to show that the need to live land of milk and honey; peril, adversity, and Tolstoyan dangerously and renounce society is not just an renunciation were precisely what he was seeking” (p. American ideal since Tolstoy was Russian. 2)

“Some readers admired the boy immensely for his This definitely shows how our actions create our courage and noble ideals; others fulminated that he identity, but they aren’t necessarily the identity that was a reckless idiot, a wacko, a narcissist who fit us. I mean people interpreted Chris’s actions the perished out of arrogance and stupidity” (p. 2) way they wanted to, so our actions do create people’s perspectives of us, but I wonder if they truly define a person.

Vocabulary Journal

Goal: Look at words in context to develop your writing and reading vocabulary. Assignment: For every piece of writing we read, you should find 5 words you don’t know or don’t use confidently. Choose valuable words—esoteric words are not always useful. For every 5 chapters, find 5 words.

D. Write the word with the sentence and p # from the text. E. Write your best guess of the meaning and underline the context clues in the sentence. F. Look up the meaning of the word and choose the meaning that fits your context. Write two or three synonyms (if you have to use a phrase, that’s ok)

Vocabulary journals will be due Dec. 19: 10 words, January 4: 10 words, and Jan 18: 10 words

Buy your own book options: Journals: Underline or highlight quotes in your book and just record your thoughts in your journal referring back to the page you marked. Vocabulary: Box or highlight (in a different color from quotes) the words. Circle or underline the context clues. Guess the meaning in the book. Keep the words and synonyms as a list in your journal. (I will spot check your books and return them to you immediately)