Thursday, January 31st

Starter 1.31:  What might human beings find in the wild that they do not find in civilization?  (Relate your answer to the assigned chapters and/or to your own personal outdoor experiences.)

Lit circle meeting #2

Start a fresh document:  Make a copy of the protocol, share with all group members and Jessica.

GROUPS

The Human Connection to Nature:  Spiritual or Scientific?

1. Watch this video

2. Read "Take Two Hours of Pine Forest and Call me in the Morning"

Journal 1.31

React to the content of the article and relate it to the bigger questions of our project and/or your own personal experience and/or philosophies.  What connections might you see between the scientific worldview and spiritual belief systems?

-OR-

Tell a story about an experience that you had in nature that had healing powers.

Wednesday, January 30th

WORK TIME

Seminar Post-write (due midnight)

Here is a link to some movie quotes that you may want to integrate into your synthesis.

TO-DO when finished with Seminar Post-write:

1. Get ready for Lit Circle #2 meeting.  Finish assigned chapters and work on the pre-write.  Notice, I have combined the last two lit circle meetings into one for expediency.  If you are ready for tomorrow’s lit circle and you want to keep reading, PLEASE DO SO!  The final 70 pages are due next Thursday with an additional pre-write.
2. On Monday, we will look at transcendentalism.  If you want to get a jump on your weekend homework, read Excerpts from Walden, in your reader on pages 47-49.  

Tuesday, January 29th

SEMINAR: Harold and Maude

SEMINAR GROUPS

When you are not in seminar, work on your post-write and/or read Into the Wild and work on pre-write for Thursday’s lit circle #2 meeting.

TURN IN YOUR SEMINAR PREP!!!

Seminar Post-write (due Wednesday midnight)

Monday, January 28th

Film Screening: Harold and Maude



Homework:  Get ready for tomorrow's seminar

Thursday, January 24th

Starter 1.24:  How are Aristotle’s ideas on Happiness and a Meaningful Life resonating with you?  What do you reject? What questions does it raise for you?

LECTURE:  Aristotle’s Philosophy of Happiness and Meaning

Review Virtues and Vices Table: Are there words or other elements we are confused about?

DISCUSS: Do the concepts of Virtue Ethics remind you of other beliefs systems or programming?

Journal 1.24:  Identify some of the ways you are exercising virtue in your life, using the table of Virtues and Vices and/or the 24 Character Strengths from Positive Psychology

1. Choose 3 strengths that you feel guide you or are inextricably bound to your personal moral code. How does each add happiness/meaning to your life?
2. Choose 3 you wish to improve in, in order to live a more happy and meaningful life. Explain how strengthening these attributes could lead to a more fulfilled sense of being.

IF TIME:  

Read Into the Wild and work on pre-write for Lit Circle #2

OR:  (optional): Do additional research on positive psychology and how it might play a role in helping us lead a happier and more meaningful life

Wednesday, January 23rd

Starter 1.23:  What is your personal definition of “a life well-lived”?  At the end of your life, what do you hope to be able to look back and say?

Solo or with a partner, answer the following questions on a piece of paper or a Google doc. Share the doc with Jessica and be sure both partners' names are on it.

1. Define "Eudaimonia."  Google it beyond this reading.  Does this Google search add to your definition?  How might Aristotle's definition of happiness differ from the way Stanford researcher Jennifer Aaker defined it in the very first reading we did in this project? (see JOURNAL 1.8 on "The meaningful life is a road worth traveling")

2. According to Aristotle, what makes humans different than the other forms of nature?  What does this difference have to do with the purpose of our existence and our pursuit of happiness?

3. For Aristotle, how do we live a happy and meaningful life?  What might this involve? Give specifics.

4. Explain the Golden Mean.  Use the table on the last page of your reading to help you understand it.  Look up any words on the table that you don't already know; annotate the meaning and add it to your vocabulary!

5.  What might an existentialist say to Aristotle's theory of a meaningful life?

LECTURE:  Aristotle’s Philosophy of Happiness and Meaning

Tuesday, January 22nd

Finish Stranger than Fiction and Journal 1.17 (TEA paragraph developing claim from film….see last Thursday's post).

Lit Circle Groups

Literature Circle #1

Homework:  Read Background on Aristotle’s Eudaimonia (for Monday)

HONORS: Reminder to submit your reflection assignment for The Stranger. (This was due Sunday night, but everyone is getting a pass on this deadline due to our unexpected vacation)

Thursday, January 17th

Film Screening:  Stranger than Fiction

Take notes on existential themes you see in this movie.  Try to capture quotes that might fit with those themes. (*Note the terms on the board)

JOURNAL 1.17: Make an interpretive claim that connects this film to existentialism.  Write a TEA paragraph that supports the claim with evidence from the film.

Terms/ideas to consider:

• Meaninglessness
• Existential crisis
• Existence precedes essence
• The absurd
• Absurd hero
• Angst
• Alienation
• Freedom/Free will
• Acceptance of one’s own absurd condition
• Authenticity

Questions to consider:

• Is Harold Crick an absurd hero?
• What does Ms. Eiffel represent?  How might Harold becoming aware of her voice relate to existentialism?
• How does Harold’s angst impact his perspective on his own life?
• What or who might Dustin Hoffman represent? (think about his advice to Harold about pancakes AND to accept his death...)
• What might this film be saying about living an authentic life?
• HONORS:  How does Stranger than Fiction relate to The Stranger? In what ways are Meursault and Harold Crick similar?

Tuesday, January 15th

Starter 1.15:

Journal for 10 minutes in response to the following poem (on page 19 in the reader if you want to annotate!).  Or write a poem back. Or just react. In light of everything we have been studying lately, where does this poem hit you?

Mary Oliver, The Summer Day

 Who made the world?

 Who made the swan, and the black bear?

 Who made the grasshopper?

 This grasshopper, I mean--

 the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

 the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

 who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--

 who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

 Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

 Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

 I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

 I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

 into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

 how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

 which is what I have been doing all day.

 Tell me, what else should I have done?

 Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

 Tell me, what is it you plan to do

 with your one wild and precious life?

Mini-workshop on making interpretive claims about literature

HONORS: Let’s talk literature!  The Stranger seminar

TO-DO

1. “JOURNAL” 1.15: Existentialism Review
• Tomorrow we will have an assignment asks you connect a film to the concepts of existentialism.  Be sure you have an understanding of these terms. Review my Existentialism Lecture for reference.
2. Catch up on any readings or journals that you have fallen behind in.
3. Read Into the Wild.  Be prepared for Friday’s first literature circle meeting.
4. If you are WAY ahead: Read up on our next philosophy (located on pages 20-25 of your reader):  Background on Aristotle’s Eudaimonia

Monday, January 14th

New seating chart!

(arrange yourself by groupings of hair color; within the group, by length, line up)

Starter 1.14: DanIsNotonFire

• What do you think existentialism is at this point?
• Did DanIsNotOnFire terrify you?  How are you feeling about studying this topic?  (Are you worried you might spill milk all over the counter while making cereal one morning?  If so, there’s no use crying over spilt milk.) 

PAIR SHARE: Reactions to Taylor, “The Meaning of Life”

• Can you make any intertextual connections between this reading and the other content from last week?  Draw conclusions about common threads of meaning you might see.  
• What do you think about Taylor’s claim that “The meaning of life is from within us, it is not bestowed from without, and it far exceeds in both its beauty and permanence any heaven of which men have ever dreamed or yearned for.”

Lecture: Existentialism Basics

Journal 1.14:  Reflections on Existentialism

• Which pieces of existentialism are you attracted to?  Repulsed by?
• Do any of these tenets have a place in your own personal philosophy?  
• With which quote do you agree more?  Macbeth’s “Tomorrow” speech or Dylan Thomas’ “Do not go gentle…”?

Honors:  We will seminar on The Stranger tomorrow during the second half of class.  If you are doing Honors Book Club for Honors credit, please complete the seminar prep as described in the Honors syllabus.

Friday, January 11th

Starter 1.11:

Interpret the song and react.  What might it mean? What intellectual and/or emotional impact do the lyrics and music have on you? (philosophically speaking…)

These lyrics are also in your reader!  Annotate away….

Pink Floyd “Time” (lyrics)

Ticking away, the moments that make up a dull day

Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way

Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown

Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine

Staying home to watch the rain

And you are young and life is long

And there is time to kill today

And then one day you find

Ten years have got behind you

No one told you when to run

You missed the starting gun

And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking

And racing around, to come up behind you again

The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older

Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time

Plans that either come to naught, or half a page of scribbled lines

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way

The time has come, the song is over

Thought I'd something more to say

(Breathe Reprise)

Home, home again

I like to be here when I can

When I come home cold and tired

It's good to warm my bones beside the fire

Far away, across the fields

The tolling of the iron bell

Calls the faithful to their knees

to hear the softly spoken magic spell....

TED Talk:  Why does the universe exist?

Key terms

Ontology:  (simply) the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality

Deity:  God, goddess or divine being

Transcript, if you want to follow along or review....

Takes notes on the following in your comp book....

• What different explanations does Holt mention that humans use to explain why the universe exists?
• Which explanation does he arrive at?

JOURNAL 1.11 Why Does the Universe Exist?

REACT!  Review the transcript if you need to.  Which pieces of his discussion do you agree with?  Which do you reject? What do you personally believe about the universe and its existence?  If you don't really know yet (as many don't), use this journal entry to wonder in words...

Reading Time:

Chapter 28: “The Meaning of Life” (Taylor) due Monday (This reading is in the reader too!)

Honors: Don’t forget to read The Stranger this weekend!

Thursday, January 10th

Starter 1.10

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury

Signifying nothing.

— Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 19-28)

What does Macbeth mean?  INTERPRET the passage.

• Do you agree with Macbeth?  Why or why not?
• Macbeth may have been an early existentialist... 

He suffered from an “existential attitude”, defined by Robert C. Solomon as “a sense of disorientation, confusion, or dread in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world.”

4 Corners

• Everything happens for a reason.
• Humans are at the center of the great cosmic mystery.

ANALYSIS OF BOLESLAW PRUS

TOGETHER:  Read "Mold of the Earth" by Boleslaw Prus

IN PAIRS: Discuss this story and “Shades.” (Same author!)

• Compare “Mold of the Earth” and "Shades.” What might be the theme or message of each story?
• JOURNAL 1.10 REACTION TO PRUS (as individuals, based on your work with your partner): What do you think Prus might believe about the place of humans in the great cosmic mystery?

MAJOR ASSIGNMENT:  Into the Wild Literature Circle

Wednesday, January 9

Starter 1.9:  Choose a quote from the reading (“The Meaning of Life”) that struck a chord with you personally.  Explain what the quote means to you and how it might relate to your developing philosophy about the meaning of life.

4 CORNERS

• Pursuing meaning is more important than pursuing happiness.
• In order to be happy, we should focus on the "now."

“The Meaning of Life” Jigsaw

1. Five Groups (one for each section of the reading 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4, 13.5)
2. Each group will present the following for their section:
• Summarize the main points of your section. Include explanations of any key terms that arise in your section.
• Find a quote that stands out and seems to exemplify the “thesis” or big insight of that section.
• Write a philosophical question for your section that a person searching for the meaning of life might seek to answer for themselves. (Write this question on the board for your section.)

JOURNAL 1.9 “Meaning of Life” Freewrite:  

Freewrite on one (OR MORE) of the philosophical questions that came out of the reading, all the while processing your own ideas on the meaning of life.  Incorporate your own ideas on the reading if you like.

WORK TIME/HOMEWORK  

Read "Shades" by Boleslaw Prus

(I recommend reading it at least twice) Interpret the story!  Annotate your thoughts, questions, and confusions in the margins.  What could the author be suggesting about the #meaningoflife?

*A note about interpreting literature:  There is not ONE right answer that we are looking for when we analyze literature.  There are many theories about how to approach literary criticism ("deconstruction" is one, in fact), but for now, open yourself up to whatever the lit might be saying to you, rather than trying to find some predetermined, absolute meaning.