Writing Groups With Your Nature Papers.

Good morning,
  You are meeting with your writing groups today to read your nature papers. We will review the Writing Group Procedures and get started.

You may need to review the directions in for your Nature Writing Assignment.

EAP Day

If you are reading this then either you are absent or it is already Wednesday. Today we are taking the EAP. If you are missing it I will have you make it up when you get back.
The Early Assessment Program (EAP) is a test taken by all juniors to assess their readiness for college level writing. The test consists of an essay portion (today) and some additional multiple choice questions on the statewide CST tests students will take in April.

Articulation Day

Good morning,
  Today I need to take you all down to the counseling office to meet with your counselors about your classes for next year. If you are reading this you probably just got back from that. You should work on your Nature Assignment draft.

Nature Writing Drafting

Good morning,
  I'm sorry I can't be with you today, but I know you understand why I need to talk to the sophomores. 

1. Work on your Nature Assignment draft.
2. If your draft has a COMMENT on it from me then you know I got it!
3. If you DO NOT have a comment from me then get your document shared with me.
4. Draft grade happens Monday! (Your draft will get a grade on Monday. Get it done.)

To: Ms. B and Ms. S. Have every student present show you their Nature Assignment in GD on their computer. If the document does NOT have a comment from me at the top make sure that student shares their doc with me today. One student shared his doc with me as a viewer. He should fix that.

Next week:
Monday = Articulation (visits with counselors for everyone)
Tuesday = EAP test.
Wednesday = Writing Groups
Thursday = Polishing final drafts (probably)
Friday = Nature Papers due (let the grading begin)

Enjoy this lovely picture I took of seals in La Jolla.

Nature Writing Assignment

Good morning,
  How did you like that Paulsen piece I just read to you? Did you notice all of the sensory details?


Nature Writing Assignment
800-1000 words
Draft due Monday 3/8
Final Draft due Friday 3/12

A little more Muir

Good morning,
  1. A little quick comprehension check on our reading from yesterday. This quiz is easy. If you were here and breathing you should do fine.  TAKE THE QUIZ ON MUIR
  2. You can even go back and REVIEW THE TEXT OF THE EXCERPT if that helps you with the quiz.
  3. Now paste the text below into your English Journal and EXPLAIN what Muir is saying in your OWN WORDS.
"We all travel the milky way together, trees and men; but it never occurred to me until this storm-day, while swinging in the wind, that trees are travelers, in the ordinary sense. They make many journeys, not extensive ones, it is true; but our own little journeys, away and back again, are only little more than tree-wavings--many of them not so much."

John Muir

Today we look at another famous nature writer, John Muir. He was America's earliest environmentalist. He founded the Sierra Club and his writings helped to save Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Park. Muir spent many years traveling in the mountains of California. Today we will read an excerpt from his most famous book The Mountains of California. This passage is about a storm the Muir witnessed in 1874. Link to excerpt.

Word Cloud from this Excerpt:

   
   

Word cloud made with WordItOut

Walden

No examination of American writings about nature would be complete without looking at Thoreau's most famous work Walden. Today we will read and listen to some excerpts.  You will need your English Journal open as well as a tab for the text. Between sections of the text I will give you two minutes to quick write as much as you can about your impressions of what we just read.

If you are waiting for others to be ready to begin visit the map at the bottom of the blog and find the marker for Walden Pond. Zoom in and switch to satilite view to see the place Thoreau was writing about.

Crossing the Plains, 1865

Good morning,
   Lots of fun yesterday with Lewis and Clark. You got to practice finding assumptions and statements about nature. Let's try it again and take it a step further.
   About 60 years after Lewis and Clark a teenage girl named Sarah crossed the plains with her family in a wagon train headed for Montana.  She kept a diary. 

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

Awesome Highlighter
Sarah Raymond's Diary (Note the first three paragraphs are an introduction before her actual diary entries start.)



 

Lewis and Clark

Good morning,
   In 1803 the United States bought the Louisiana Territory from France.  In 1804  Lewis and Clark set out to explore this new territory overland. They were supposed to determine what resources the United States had acquired through this purchase.

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

Today we will look at some of the entries in the journals of Lewis and Clark. As you read through these look for two things:

1. Any statements they make that relate to the natural space they were in.

2. Any statements that reflect their assumptions or beliefs.

We will use Awesome Highlighter for this today.

1. Go to The Journals of Lewis and Clark. 
2. Paste the URL for the journals into Awesome Highlighter.
3. Highlight statements about NATURE in GREEN 
4. Highlight ASSUMPTIONS or BELIEFS in YELLOW 
5. When you are DONE put the URL for your work today in to your English Journal. 
6. Example from Mrs. R.

Standard RC 2.5 Analyze an author's implicit and explicit philosophical assumptions and beliefs about a subject.