Wednesday, March 1

Sample Project: Mikayla
What seems to be Mikayla's philosophical perspective in this poem/video?


WORK DAY!!!
1. SLC Action Plan

2. Your choice to study further:

Mini-study on “Sense of Place”

OR

Mini-study on “Success”


3. Work Time on Personal Philosophy Statement and Project Proposal

• Brainstorm Guiding Questions and Student Examples

Monday, February 27

A few things...

• Slight change:  Your philosophy statement and proposal are due by the end of class Thursday (rather than Wednesday)
• Honors: Seminar Thursday?
• SLC Action Plan if you need it

Some choice...

Today we will introduce two additional topics for exploration: Sense of Place AND Success

(You will be able to dive deeper into one of two, based on your own quest for meaning.)

Starter 2.27:  Is there a place on this Earth that is particularly special to you? Describe it and explain why it is “your place.”

“Your Place on Earth”

• How do we define “sense of place”?
• What is your connection to place/land/Earth?

Example: Silverton, Colorado

Defining “Sense of Place”

NOW:  Add to your starter.  How does your sense of place give you a connection to the planet and/or what it means to be human?

Success and the Human Quest for Meaning
Pair share: How do you define success? How does your society seem to define it?

Part 5 of “Success” episode of TED Radio Hour

Journal 2.27: SUCCESS PODCAST React to the Alain de Botton’s ideas and describe what success means to you.  Does your definition resonate with what you perceive to be your culture’s definition?

Your choice to study further:

Mini-study on “Sense of Place”

OR

Mini-study on “Success”

Friday, February 24

Announcements:

• Poetry Slam April 12!  POETS:  Could your project be working toward this audience as well?
• Creativity Festivity 2017 @ DAC!  Artists:  Could your project be working toward this audience as well?
• Need to do SLC’s?  Here is the protocol for the action plan.

Sherry Turkle's TED Talk:  Connected But Alone

During talk, write down ideas/phrases/words/concepts that stands out to you.  Write down at least one question you would like to ask this researcher, or that this talk sparked for you.

PAIR SHARE an idea/phrase/word/concept that stood out to you

Discuss: What was the thesis of this talk?  What, ultimately, is she trying to say about our use of technology?

A different perspective: "Technology Made Us Humans":

1. Do you agree with the narrator in the Shots of Awe video we watched today that, "Technology is the real skin of our species?" Why or why not?

2. Are there fundamental differences between technological tools like an ax to chop wood and technological devices like smartphones? If so what are those differences especially in terms of the ways the two types of tools shape/help/impact us?

FOUR CORNERS

• Sherry Turkle is right.  Our devices and "connected" habits are robbing us of important pieces of our humanity and we need to intervene intentionally.
• Our social media-based digital lives are making us happier and more connected to other human beings.

JOURNAL 2.10:  Technology and Happiness/Meaning

Optional:   The Innovation of Loneliness

What role does technology play in your own happiness and meaning?  What role does social media play in defining your life?    Is it an extension of your authentic self or is the opposite true?  How do you feel that our digital technology is impacting humans as a whole?

The Project

1. Review the RUBRIC

2. Student Example: “Swim” Perrin and Eno’s rap on the teenage existentialist crisis

Click here to listen to the entire 4 song EP

Work Time: Brainstorm project/Work on philosophy statement and/or proposal

Thursday, February 23

“Happiness is only real when shared”?

THE QUESTION:  How do other humans give our lives meaning?

Starter 2.23:  In the scene with Ron Franz, Chris says to him: “You are wrong when you think the principal joy in life comes from human relationships.”  But then in Alaska, Chris notes in the margins of a book that “Happiness is only real when shared.”  What do you think?  Is our happiness inside of ourselves or does it depend on other people?  How do other humans shape our life’s purpose?  

TED Talk: "What Makes a Good Life: Lessons from the Longest Study on Happiness"

• During the talk, write down key ideas/phrases/words/concepts/questions

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION (take notes and submit to Jessica)

• What was the thesis of this talk?  Does it surprise you?  What, ultimately did the research reveal about what makes a good life?  Do you think the conclusions of this research apply to everyone?
• Do you think the results would be different if women were included in the study from the start?  Do you think both genders have the same trends in happiness?
• What are the cultural implications of this study?  Do you think our culture sets us up for happy and healthy lives?  How might the prevalence of social media impact these findings?
• Share your takeaways and relate this Chris McCandless' story and your answer to the starter.  Do we need other people to be happy or can we find happiness in our solitude?  Do you think Chris would agree with or reject the findings of this researcher?  

JOURNAL 2.23:  REFLECTION ON YOUR RELATIONSHIPS AS THEY CORRELATE TO YOUR HAPPINESS AND MEANING

• Reflect on the role that your relationships with other people play in defining your happiness and meaning.  What are the most important relationship in your life and in what ways do these relationship influence you and your well-being?  Your happiness and meaning?  How do these relationships define who you are and your life's purpose?

REVIEW: “Your Life on Earth” Personal Philosophy Project (note modified due dates)

Student Examples:

MAX POEM

CELIA SHORT FILM

Personal Philosophy Statement and Project Proposal

WORK TIME: Starting freewriting your personal philosophy statement (or another form of prewriting: outline? Cluster? Bullet list?)

PLEASE TURN IN INTO THE WILD

Tuesday-Wednesday Feb 21-22

Assignment/Skills Objective:

Make an intertextual claim about THE FILM and/or THE SOUNDTRACK and support it with TEA.  (An intertextual claim connects 2 or more works that you are analyzing.)  You will write 1-2 robust (8-10 sentence) paragraphs illuminating your claim with evidence from the film and the other text you are comparing or connecting.

Another claim, Jessica?!?

Yes, my dears, we may as well get good at this.  And this one MUST be intertextual.  The film is an entirely separate work from the book, and it deserves to be treated as such.  You may use this mini-analysis to compare the film and the book, comment on how the soundtrack helps illuminate the meaning of the film, or another angle that you wish to make a claim about.  

YOU WILL HAVE TIME IN CLASS TO WORK ON THIS AFTER WE FINISH THE MOVIE TOMORROW!!!

Soundtrack Resources

Lyrics from the soundtrack

See Genius as well:

Society

Guaranteed

Intertextual Claim (about literature/film)

1.  Connects multiple texts

Film

Soundtrack

Book

Thoreau

Nick Jans "Going Alone" (or his email, technically)

Texts quoted in book

Chris' graffiti or journal writing

Reviews of the film (google some?)

Other?

2. Subjects of claim

The work itself....

Film

Book

BOTH TEXTS

....or some element(s) of it....

ie. cinematography, editing, soundtrack, artistic liberties, performance, etc...

...or a person involved in the creation of the texts....

Sean Penn

Jon Krakauer

Emile Hirsch

Eddie Vedder

Chris himself

3.  Verb (colorful and active!)

( "TO BE" can be used but consider others...)

show

demonstrate

express

illuminate

reveal

render

illustrate

brings to life

etc...

Thursday, February 16

Last Lit Circle Meeting!  Simplified protocol: LC #4

Reflection and Synthesis Writing (Scroll to Page 2) Due Tuesday, February 21

• Need a review making literary claims?  See DP post from Jan 19

Honors: Let's check in during work time to review guidelines and dates.

Looking Ahead:"Your Life on Earth" Philosophy Project

• Review Project Description:  Time to start brainstorming what this project might look like for you!
• Due Monday, February 27: Philosophy Project Proposal

Wednesday, February 15

Starter 2.15: What is the ethic described in Chief Seattle’s Treaty Oration?  How does it differ from the traditional paradigm of Western Civilization?  How does it resonate with you personally?

Four Corners

• Chief Seattle: “All things are connected like the blood which unites one family.  All things are connected.”

Part 3 of Humans and Planet Earth

Everything is Connected:  Listen to the first segment

JOURNAL 2.15: What is your reaction to the ideas of this podcast and the concept of the Gaia hypothesis?  How does this connect to environmental ethics?  How does it resonate with your own worldview?

Optional: Listen to the rest of the TED Radio episode on interconnectedness.

Reading Time:  Last Lit Circle for Into the Wild tomorrow.  Pre-write MODIFIED...just answer the essential questions:

• What can we learn from Chris McCandless’ story about the human quest for happiness and meaning?
• What does it mean to live deliberately?  What does it mean to be self-reliant?  (Relate to Into the Wild!)
• How can the path toward meaning be shaped by BOTH the natural world AND by our civilization?

Tuesday, February 14

Starter 2.14: How does Rachel Carson answer this week’s question?  (How does she characterize the human relationship with Earth and its other species and resources?) Quote the reading in your response.

Part 2 of Humans and Planet Earth

Environmental Ethics Vocab

• Instrumental and Intrinsic Value
• Anthropocentrism
• Preservation
• Conservation
• Sustainability
• Environmental Justice
• Innovation as an ETHIC
• Interconnectedness and the Gaia principle

Journal 2.14: What are your thoughts on the human relationship with Planet Earth? Which, if any, of these concepts from environmental ethics resonates most with you? Which do you think humankind should embrace? (anthropocentrism, conservation, preservation, innovation, sustainability, environmental justice)

Reading: Chief Seattle’s Treaty Oration (1854)

Read and annotate with attention to the land ethic that this text describes.  THINK: How does the indigenous land ethic differ from the anthropocentrism that has been the dominant paradigm in Western Civilization?

Monday, February 13

Announcements

• Honors: Let’s meet this Thursday.  If you have not done so, please grab a copy of A Tale for the Time Being. Book Club meeting scheduled for March 2.
• Honors: Turn in The Stranger!!!
• Slight Change….Lit Circle on Thursday 2.16: Let’s finish this thing!  You will not have to do the usual pre-write, but instead just answer the three essential questions on the study of this book:

1. What can we learn from Chris McCandless’ story about the human quest for happiness and meaning? 
2. What does it mean to live deliberately?  What does it mean to be self-reliant?  (Relate to Into the Wild!)
3. How can the path toward meaning be shaped by BOTH the natural world AND by our civilization?

Literature Circle Meeting #3: Start a new document!

• Groups: A little shaken up

The Questions:  Humans and Planet Earth

• How do we characterize the human relationship with Earth and its other species and resources?
• How do you characterize your (ethical) relationship with the Earth and its other species and resources?

Journal 2.13:  How would you answer either or both of these questions at this point?

Environmental Ethics:  the discipline in philosophy that studies the moral relationship of human beings to, and also the value and moral status of, the environment and its nonhuman content…”(From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Watch: The Overview Effect

Rachel Carson “Man and the Stream of Time”

Read and annotate with this question in mind: How does Rachel Carson answer this week’s question?  (How does she characterize the human relationship with Earth and its other species and resources?)

Thursday, February 9th

4th/5th

Welcome, Jess Adams, to college counsel y’all!

2nd/6th

 WORK TIME: Journal 2.9 and Read Into the Wild (plus pre-write for Monday’s Lit Circle)

JOURNAL 2.9: CHRIS AS TRANSCENDENTALIST?

Read Keiran Eagen’s intertextual email exchange with Nick Jans

*Note: Nick Jans is the author in Chapter 8 (p.71-72) who criticized Chris and Krakauer’s coverage of him.

Reader Response: Do you agree with Keiran or with Nick Jans?  Was Chris McCandless less competent than a boy scout?  Or was he on a transcendental path that is worthy of our study?


HONORS: A Tale for the Time Being

Wednesday, February 8

Happy Wednesday, my students!  Work hard and be your best selves!  Do the following today:

1. Transcendentalist Principles and Response to Walden

You can confer on parts of this, but everyone should do their own work.  Turn it in to basket when you are finished.

2. Read Into the Wild and work on pre-write for Monday's literature circle.  (Guidelines)

3. Catch up on starters and journals if you have missed any.  (Table of Contents)

4. Optional:  Write philosophical poetry AND/OR do an art piece to process your thoughts.