-Orientation
Week 2 (8/23-8/27)
-Begin Walden introduction and chapter 1 (Economy)
-Role of nature response questions (homework)
-American Transcendentalism guided notes
-Critical thinking response essay #1: Why does Thoreau capitalize the word 'nature'? Explain the significance, citing direct evidence from the text.
Week 3 (8/30-9/3)
-Read Walden chapters 2, 3, and 4 (Where I Lived, and What I Lived For, Reading, Sounds)
-Begin examples of transcendental thought graphic organizer: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson320/chart.pdf
-Quotation Response (pg. 7): Do you agree with Thoreau's assertion that what a human being thinks of him or herself ultimately determines their fate? Explain why or why not.
-Critical thinking essay #2: Thoreau makes it very clear at the opening of Walden that his stay in the wilderness was not a lifestyle choice but rather a temporary experiment, and that “At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again.” Does the short duration of Thoreau’s stay at Walden undercut the importance of his project?
-Create outline and prewriting plan for critical thinking essay #2 (Homework)
-Tribute essay #1 (In class)
Week 4 (9/7-9/10) (No school Sept. 6th-Labor day)
-Read Walden chapters 5, 6, and 7 (Solitude, Visitors, The Bean Field)
-Review literary elements (Theme, POV, Characterization, Setting, Plot)
-Literary Elements Quiz-Define terms and evaluate Thoreau's use of literary elements
Week 5 (9/13-9/17)
-Read Walden chapters 8, 9, and 10 (The Village, The Ponds, Baker Farm)
-Critical thinking response essay #3: How does Thoreau use language to evoke readers' emotions? Discuss Thoreau's use of symbolism, imagery, and extended metaphor, citing specific evidence from the text.
-Tribute Essay #2
Week 6 (9/20-9/24)
-Read Walden chapters 11, 12, and 13 (Higher Laws, Brute Neighbors, House Warming)
-Walden literary analysis: Select a passage from this week's reading and analyze the ways in which the meaning of the passage represents a view or comment on life. (Homework)
-Critical thinking essay #4: Thoreau occasionally forces a long series of tedious details upon us, as for example when in “House-Warming” he tells us a precise history of the freezing of Walden Pond over the past several years. Similarly detailed passages refer to his farming endeavors, his home construction, and other topics. Why does Thoreau repeatedly display these irrelevant details? How do they fit in to his overall plan for Walden?
Week 7 (9/27-10/1)
-Read Walden chapters 14, 15, and 16 (Former Inhabitants; Winter Visitors, Winter Animals, The Pond in Winter)
-Quiz: Thoreau's use of logical, empirical, anecdotal, and intuitive evidence to support conclusions.
-Read Thoreau's seminal essay Civil Disobedience (Homework)
-Civil Disobedience response: Is Thoreau's conception of civil disobedience compatible with democratic government? Why or why not?
-Select topic for final essay. Choose one of the three prompts below to compose a 5 paragraph essay:
1-Does Thoreau show socialist tendencies, though he is writing before socialism is a recognized idea?
2-Thoreau repeatedly praises the simplicity and industriousness of the working poor, and comes very close to joining their ranks when he lives at subsistence level in the woods for two years. Yet in his chapter on reading he disdains popular tastes in books, implying that everyone should be able to read the Greek tragedian Aeschylus in the original, as he does. His allusions to world literature are quite lofty, including Chinese philosophers and Persian poets. Is Thoreau a snob? If so, is his democratic populism undermined by his disdain for popular culture?
3-What would Thoreau make of the fact that Walden is one of the most commonly assigned texts in high school and college literature courses across the country? Would he welcome the fact that he has become part of the mainstream culture that he was criticizing?
Week 8 (10/4-10/8)
-Read Walden chapters 17 and 18 (Spring and Conclusion)
-Writing workshop: create outline plan for final essay/thesis creation
-Work on 1st draft of final essay (In class and Homework)
-Quiz on Thoreau's use of irony, contradictions, paradoxes, and incongruities
Week 9 (10/11-10/14)
-Walden final exam
-Writing workshop: refine final essay draft (In class and Homework)
-Final essay due
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