Good morning everyone,

Yesterday we read some of Thoreau’s Walden and you had the opportunity to reflect on how you felt about the text. Today we are going to finish up the last piece of the text and complete one more quick writing exercise.

Then I want you to select something you wrote in your English Journal during your quick writes and explain what you meant by it. Copy and paste the excerpt into today’s journal entry.

Next read the following quotes from Thoreau’s Walden:

“I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves…the surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels…”

“Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away…”

Choose ONE quote to copy and paste into your English Journal and explain what it means.

Good morning everyone,

Today we are going to be reading some excerpts from one of Thoreau's most famous works, Walden. The excerpts reflect the experiences Thoreau had at Walden Pond which is located near Concord, Massachusetts. Today you will be listening to an audio tape of the text and following along with the story on your computers. We will be stopping periodically where I will ask you to do two solid minutes of writing in your English journals. The goal is to write for the entire two minutes about your impressions of what you just heard, without stopping.

You will need open two tabs:

1. Walden excerpts

2. English Journals

I hope you all enjoyed the assembly yesterday and learned something from it. On Monday, we started our new standard, which involves assumptions. You spent time reading the journals of Lewis and Clark and locating assumptions and statements about nature in the text. Today we are going to continue locating assumptions but we are going to take this one step further.

Today we are going to be taking a look at the diary of a teenage girl named Sarah Raymond. She crossed the plains with her family in a wagon train headed for Montana about 60 years after Lewis and Clark.

1. As you read keep looking for ASSUMPTIONS and evidence of NATURE.

2. When you are done highlighting paste the URL in your English Journal.

3. Then copy one of your assumptions into your EJ. You will have to do this by copying it from the original text not from awesome highlighter.

4. EXPLAIN why you think the part you copied is an assumption.

Links:

Sarah Raymond’s Diary (First three paragraphs are an introduction)

Awesome Highlighter

Good morning everyone,

I hope you had a great weekend. Today we are going to take a look at the expedition of Lewis and Clark across the United States from 1804 to 1806. Lewis and Clark embarked on their journey in 1804 to establish the most direct water route to the Pacific Ocean. The United States had just acquired land from the Louisiana Purchase. The land was bought from the French, who did not even technically own all of the land themselves, by Thomas Jefferson. The land purchased doubled the size of the United States and gave the Americans control over trade along the Mississippi river.

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/images/lewis-and-clark-map.jpg

Throughout their expedition Lewis and Clark kept detailed journals of their discoveries and findings which we will be reading today. Their findings contributed to the discovery of numerous plants and animals as well as the conservation of various natural parks and historic sights throughout the country.

1. Go to the Lewis and Clark journals.

2. Copy and paste the URL to the journals into Awesome Highlighter.

3. Use the color YELLOW to highlight all of the assumptions made by Lewis and Clark.

4. Use the color GREEN to highlight all the statements that apply to nature.

5. When you are finished, copy and paste the URL into your English journal.

6. Click HERE for an example.

We are also beginning a new standard today. The standard is: Analyze an author's implicit and explicit philosophical assumptions and beliefs about a subject.

Good morning everyone,

We have a few things on the agenda for today. We took a look at many different texts this week and I want you to have a chance to reflect on what you have learned. We are going to do a quick review.

In your English journal, answer the following questions:

What did William Bradford think about the landscape of New England when the Puritans arrived?
How did William Byrd describe the landscape of Virginia?

How did the fireside poets describe nature?
How are their positions similar to or different from a Native American perspective?

Second thing on the agenda, I have been your teacher for two weeks now. I want your feedback on the class. Please click HERE and fill out the form.

Today we are going to be finishing up our discussion from yesterday on William Byrd and taking a look at some poetry from the 1700-1800's. The poems were written by the a group of poets called the Fireside Poets.

Directions:

Select at least two poems to read. When you are finished reading the poems, click HERE to complete the assignment.

Poems to choose from:

"Voices of the Night"

"Thanatopsis"

“The Bridge”

“A Gleam of Sunshine”

“To a Cloud”

“Snowbound”

Good morning everyone,

Yesterday you read through William Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation” and highlighted pieces of the text that related to how the Puritans viewed nature. Before fast forwarding 100 years and taking a look at a piece of writing from William Byrd you will have the opportunity to work with a partner and compare the texts you highlighted yesterday.

Today's first mission:

1. Go into your EJ and click on the link to your highlighted text from yesterday.

2. With your partner look over both of your texts and review what you highlighted yesterday.

3. Discuss with your partner what similarities and differences you noticed in each other’s work.

4. Complete the EJ entry. You and your partner must have your own journal entries.

English Journal Entry:

Did you and your partner highlight similar pieces of the text? Explain. Name one piece of the text your partner highlighted that you did not. After looking at what you and your partner highlighted, explain how you think the Puritans viewed nature?

Today’s second mission:

1. We are going to start reading the HISTORY 
OF 
THE DIVIDING LINE: 
RUN IN THE YEAR 1728 by William Byrd together. William Byrd wrote about virginia 100 years after Bradford.

Good morning everyone,

I hope you all had a great long weekend. Last week we read Native American lore and discussed how the Native Americans viewed nature. As a review here are some thoughts from your peers:

1. 1.Native Americans believe that we can learn a lot from nature and that all beings are equal.

2. 2.Native Americans have a great respect for nature because nature has provided so much for them. They know how to live and work with nature and use what it provides for them to the greatest use even if the end result is small.

3. 3.Native Americans view of it was that being good to nature is being good to one self being, like karma doing good to nature something good will happen to you. Doing something bad to nature something bad will happen to you.

4. 4.That nature and man live as equals and take from each other.

5. 5. Without nature we could no longer live here on this world.

6. 6. The Native American view of nature is that our resources are limited and we should always treat them with respect and don't stress out our resources by using too much of the item and letting it grow and bloom again. If you take something from nature you should give something in return. For example if you chop down a tree then plant one.

After reading your responses, we are ready to move onto the Puritans. Today we are going to be reading an excerpt from the book “Of Plymouth Plantation” by William Bradford. William Bradford was a leader of the Puritans who first arrived in Plymouth in 1620.

Today you are going to complete the following:

1. Click on this link for the Excerpt of "Of Plymouth Plantation"

2. Copy the URL for that page. (Highlight and Ctrl+C)

3. Go to The Awesome Highlighter.

4. Delete the http:// that is already there and then paste in (Ctrl+V) the URL for the excerpt.

5. Use Awesome Highlighter to highlight all the sentences or phrases you find in the text that show what the Puritans thought about NATURE in "the new world".

6. Click DONE when you are finished.

7. Awesome Highlighter will give you a custom URL just for your highlighted page.

8. Copy and Paste that URL into your English Journal under today's date.

9. In your English Journal UNDER your link WRITE what you think the Puritans thought of nature.

Now that you have had the opportunity to read a few Native American tales, let's see how much you've learned about how Native American's view nature. The term Native American includes diverse tribes from all over the continent and there is some variation on their perspective of nature.

Today's mission:

1. Get with your partner and go to this form.

2. With your partner, you are going to read four statements about nature.

3. After reading each statement, you are going to determine if it is true or false.

***You are answering the questions from the point of view of a Native American. This is NOT your opinion.***

4. You are then going to back up your answer with evidence from the stories we have read over the past two days.

Let's get started!

If you have not completed your work from Tuesday or Wednesday you need to. Go to the Native American Lore Index and read a story. Then respond to the story you read here. You also need to read "Blessed Gift of Joy is Bestowed Upon Man" and complete an English journal entry explaining what the story says about nature.

Yesterday we spent some time taking a look at different Native American lores. Today we are going to read another Native American lore called "Blessed Gift of Joy is Bestowed Upon Man". After you read the story answer the question below in your English journal.

What does this story say about nature?

After you finish your English journal entry we will continue our quest for important quotes. Fill out this form in order to submit your answers to the spreadsheet. Click here to find more Native American lores.

This week we are going to take a look at how the Native American's view nature. We are going to start by looking at the story "How the Fly Saved the River" together and then you will read some on your own. Click here to visit the website with the list of other Native American stories to chose from.

Today we are going to be thinking about the question, "What does this story say about nature?" Click on the link to the form to add your answer to our spreadsheet.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dE0xbTdsM2VwUWN6MFFFbDhidk9udEE6MA