Essential Question: What are Abbey, Olson, Hanh, Watts, and Thoreau saying about reality? How do their ideas connect and how can you connect them text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world?

Agenda: 
1. Review Presentations: ​

• Reality in Review 2B
• Reality in Review 4B

You have 20 minutes to review your assigned section with your group and add your findings to your assigned slide. Include textual evidence as well as explain your interpretation of the text in your own words. 

2. What is Reality? Response and Peer Review
Follow the instructions in the slide show above. 

Assignment: 
Submit your response to "What is reality." Be sure to include your peer review comments and edits.

Essential Question: What is Thoreau's main idea about reality and how does it inter-textually connect to Abbey, Olson, as well as yourself? 

Agenda: 
1. Bellwork: 
Review Thoreau Day 1
With a partner, take one of your questions from Day 1 and turn it into a statement. 
Example: 
Thoreau is being both literal and figurative when he writes about a site for building a house. Thoreau introduces the second chapter of his master work by writing, “At a certain season we are accustomed to consider every spot as a possible site for a house.

Share your statement with the rest of the class. 

2. Cornell Notes (Click on "File" and "Make a copy." Rename your copy Thoreau Day 2 Cornell Notes [DATE])

3. Look up the following words: 

• Perturbation
• Ulysses
• Alluvion
• Point d’appui
• ​Nilometer

4. Read "Thoreau Water vs. Solid Ground" and take notes about your thinking and understanding of the text (right) and record any questions you have while reading (left).

5.  Make an argument (in your notes, insert a table of two columns, comparing water and solid ground):

• Water
  
  
  • Make a list of all of the references to water (including “mud and slush”)
    
    
  • Are these details positive or negative?
    
    
• Solid ground
  
  
  • Make a list of all of the references to solid ground
    
    
  • Are these details positive or negative?
    
    
• Reality
  
  
  • Tell how each of the above is connected to the Thoreau’s idea of reality

6. Draw an illustration that explains how the above ideas are connected in the paragraph.
​
7. Add any new thoughts on this subject to your notes.

8. ​Question 1
Bottom left page of your text:

• How is time but a stream he goes a-fishing in? What is the whole idea behind drinking at it?
• Why is the stream shallow?
• How/why does the thin current slide away?

9. Question 2:
Make sense of this sentence: “I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars.”

10. Question 3:


After that sentence, it is as if we fall into the stream of eternity and have become new, once again, innocent—what is going on in the next three sentences?

“I cannot count one” to “as the day I was born”?

11. Question 4: How does the intellect rift its way into the secret of things?

12. Summary/Reflection:


Put what Thoreau is saying about reality into your own words.
Include two text-to-text or text-to-self connections.

Assignment: 

• Include all of the above in your Cornell Notes for today

Agenda: 

1. Journal: Like Stardust Waits... 
Tell a story! Use this as a sentence starter if you can't think of anything else! 

2. Use your two favorite Journal entries and update your Weebly Portfolio Blog page.

3. Review what you've learned first quarter. 
Complete this "Reality in Review" graphic organizer. 
Include as much details of the texts we read as you can.

*Note: Due to College Day and CCRPs, B-Day will be one day ahead of A-Day for this segment. Things will be back to normal starting Tuesday, September 29th


Essential Question: How can creating and defending in-depth questions about your reading give you deeper insights into Thoreau's Walden?

Agenda: 
1. Journal: Prisoner
Write for 10 minutes. 

2. Introduction to Henry David Thoreau and Walden

3. Review Thoreau Day 1 Presentation for Vocabulary help and define the following vocabulary words: 

• Deluded
  
• Sublime
  
• Illusory
  
• Barbarous
  
• Perpetual
  
• Instilling
  
• Posterity

4. Read: From Walden (Chapter 2, "Where I Lived and What I Lived For) by Henry David Thoreau

5. In your groups, discuss each of the three sections of this text and generate one question that helps you gain deeper insights into your reading.
To generate strong questions: 

• Choose a quote from the text
• Restate this quote in your own words
• Form your question based on this quote 

Example:
When Thoreau writes, “At a certain season we are accustomed to consider every spot as a possible site for a house,” he seems to be saying that anywhere you are you can live. Is he being literal or figurative?

Write one question for each section (three total) of your text. 

For each question, include a defense of why this is a strong question that helps readers gain deeper insights into the text. 
To create your defense: 

• State your question
• Explain your question
• Explain what the reader gains from answering this question

Example Defense: 
This is a strong question because it forces readers to look at the ideas Thoreau might be getting at beyond simply thinking about building a house. We all know that great writers often time mean both what they are saying (literal) and what they are implying (figurative). By answering this question we might get a deeper insight into Thoreau’s ideas of here and home.

6. Now, transform your question into a statement. Do this for each question.

Example:
Thoreau is being both literal and figurative when he writes about a site for building a house. Thoreau introduces the second chapter of his master work by writing, “At a certain season we are accustomed to consider every spot as a possible site for a house.  

Assignments: 

• Journal: Prisoner
• 3 Questions + Defense + Statement

Essential Question: If everyone's point of view is relative, what does this say about how we form and expand perspectives? How do Watts' ideas connect to Abbey, Olson, and Hanh?

Agenda: 
1. Journal: Seven Seconds
Write for 10 minutes. 

2. Quick Write: How do we create our own perspectives? 

3. Cornell Notes Template

4. Read: Watts "The Maya Doctrine"

5. Complete all following items in your Cornell Notes (put your findings on the right and the headings, for example: Vocabulary on the left) 
Vocabulary (Add to your Cornell Notes and add definitions as you read):

• Brahman
  
• Moksha
  
• Maya 
  

6. After reading Paragraph 1: What is Brahman not? (Three examples and explain)

7. Read Paragraph 2 and answer: What is Maya (provide three examples)?

8. Read Paragraph 3 and answer: 

• Redefine Maya
  
• How does Watts expand the concept? (Describe and provide an example)
  

9. Read Paragraph 4 and answer:

• According to Watts, why is this concept hard to understand?
  
• How does a “liberated” person see the world according to Watts?

10. Read Paragraph 5-6 and answer:

• What does it mean if something is relative?
  
• According to Watts in paragraph 5, how is the doctrine of Maya a doctrine of relativity?
  
• He gives the examples of WW1 and birth to explain how people’s points of view are relative. Describe one of these examples
  

11. Read Paragraph 7 and 8 and answer:

• What are two examples Watts gives to show that people could be described as both parts and wholes?
  

12. Summary:

• What is Maya?
  
• Give an example
  
• Why is Maya unwise?
  
• What does one achieve if one goes beyond Maya?
  

13. Make a connection:
How is the idea of “maya” similar to the idea of “the thing itself”

Assignments:
Your GoogleDoc for today should include: 

• Journal
• How do we create our own perspective?
• Cornell Notes (on items 5.-13.)

Essential Questions: How are Giordano Bruno's ideas connected with Abbey's ideas of civilization and culture and Olson's ideas of the thing itself and metaphor? 
How do you effectively take, review, and revise Cornell Notes?

Agenda: 
1. Starter: In Cosmos, Episode 1: Standing Up on the Milky Way, Neil DeGrasse Tyson mentions how the Voyager ventured the farthest away from Earth, its mission to show other life "out there" who we humans are. 
If you were to show alien life who we are as a society, which three items would you choose to add to the Voyager? These items can be physical objects, as well as recordings or other media. Be specific in the three items you choose. Justify your answer. 

2.  Use your Cornell Notes Template from last time to complete your notes. If you missed last time, make a copy of the template linked here.

4. Finish watching: Cosmos, Episode 1: Standing Up On The Milky Way.
Your guiding question: What does this episode tell us about our place in the universe? What do you learn about Giordano Bruno's ideas? 
How do his ideas connect to the ideas of Abbey and Olson?

5. After each 10 minutes, we will pause for 2 minutes to review with a partner and two minutes to revise notes. 

6. Review/Expand notes to include the following:

• The Universe before telescopes
  
• Giordano Bruno
  
• Lucretius: On the Nature of Things
  
• Bruno’s vision
  
• After his vision
  
• Return to Italy
  
• After his death

7. Connections: How do the ideas presented in Cosmos connect to Olson and Abbey's ideas about Reality and Culture vs. Civilization? 

8. Revise your notes to make these connections clear. 

9. Finalize and upload your favorite Journal entry of the last two weeks to your English class portfolio.

Assignments:
Be sure your GoogleDoc includes:

• Items you would add to the Voyager (and justifications)
• Cornell Notes (complete and revised, with summary reflection)

Essential Question: How are Giordano Bruno's ideas connected with Abbey's ideas of civilization and culture and Olson's ideas of the thing itself and metaphor? 


Agenda: 
1. Journal: "Find Me" - Write for 10 minutes. 

2. Review: Abbey/Olson
Abbey: 

• What is Abbey for? 
  
• What is Abbey against? 
  
• What are two examples of each?
  

Olson: 

• What is Olson for? 
• What is Olson against?
• Provide an example that illustrates this. Be sure to explain how it illustrates this.

Connection: 

• How are Abbey and Olson's ideas connected? Think positive to positive and negative to negative.

3. Cornell Notes Template

4. Watch: Cosmos, Episode 1: Standing Up On The Milky Way

5. After each 10 minutes, we will pause for 2 minutes to review with a partner and two minutes to revise notes. 

6. Review/Expand notes to include the following:

• The Universe before telescopes
  
• Giordano Bruno
  
• Lucretius: On the Nature of Things
  
• Bruno’s vision
  
• After his vision
  
• Return to Italy
  
• After his death
  

7. Summary/Reflection

8. Connection: How does Giordano Bruno connect to Abbey's and Olson's ideas? 

Assignments:

• Journal
• Cornell Notes
• Connection

Essential Question: What are the main ideas in Hanh's "Interbeing" and how does this relate to Abbey's ideas of civilization vs. culture and Olson's "Human Universe"? 

Agenda: 
1. Journal: Your Choice. 
Write for 10 minutes. 

2. Read Hanh "Interbeing" 

3. Hanh Graphic Organizer
Click on "File," then "Make a Copy" and name this copy [YOUR NAME] Hanh/Abbey/Olson Graphic Organizer

4. Hanh Paragraph Paraphrase (see organizer)

5. Summarize main idea (top of organizer)

6. Five-sentence summary of Hahn

7. Connections between Hanh/Abbey/Olson

8. Reflections/Connections

Assignments:
For today, submit: 

• Journal
• Graphic Organizer

copy/paste your Journal below the Graphic Organizer to combine it all into one document.

Essential Question: How do you effectively re-read, chunk, and analyze informational text? 
What does Olson mean when he talks about "the thing itself" and how can this influence the way we perceive reality?

Agenda: 
1. Journal: "The Thaw" 
Write for 10 minutes. 

2.) In one paragraph (no less than five sentences), answer the following question:
What is reality?

3.) List three things that might disengage you from what you’ve described as reality, and explain how they could disengage you. 

4.) From "The Human Universe" by Charles Olson
Click on "File" and "Make a Copy" (Create a folder in your GoogleDrive named "English Texts, so you have a place to file all of our in-class readings.) 

5.) Cold read. Just read along and "absorb."

6.) Highlight and look up all the words you don't understand or that are confusing to you. Copy/paste their definitions into a comment in the margins of your copy of the text. 

7.)

• Highlight the part that most confuses you about this text in a shade of red. 
  
• Highlight the part where you feel like you know what Olson is talking about in blue.

8.) Olson states that analyzing things by their likeness and differences only accomplishes a description of the thing and does not allow us to come to grips with what really matters.

• In your own words, write out what Olson’s opinion is of what really matters.

9.) In your groups:

The last sentence of the paragraph discusses the relevance of things themselves to us, “who are the experience of it.”

• 1. What does Olson mean when he says, “Not the thing’s ‘class,’ any hierarchy, of quality or quantity, but the thing itself”?
• 2. What does Olson mean when he says that the thing itself, not a metaphor about it, needs to be relevant to us?
• 3. How are we the experience of the thing itself?

10.) Olson is asking us to see things “as they are;” in order to do this we must abolish our prior conceptions about that thing. 

• How could seeing things “as they are” enhance one’s experience of the world?

11.) Connection: How are Abbey and Olson’s ideas similar?

• Culture and Civilization
• Metaphor and Reality

12.) Looking back... 
Look at the answer you provided to the question about reality at the beginning of class.  Would Olson agree with you? Why or why not

Would Olson agree with your reasoning about what disengages us (humans) from reality?  Why or why not?

Assignments:
In your GoogleDoc include the following:

• Journal
• Notes and answers to questions on Olson

Essential Question: How are Culture and Civilization both opposites as well as interdependent?

Agenda: 
1.) Journal Prompt: "Facing the beast" - Write for 10 minutes. 

2.) Download your own copy of Edward Abbey's Culture vs. Civilization. 

• Open Kami in your Chrome Browser (click on the Kami icon in the upper right corner of your browser.) 
  
• Drag your copy of Edward Abbey's Culture vs. Civilization into Kami so you can annotate it. 

3.) As you are reading along, we will pause after each paragraph so you can highlight one word you are unfamiliar with and add a comment with one question about this paragraph.  

4.) After reading, go through each paragraph in your group and share your question in your group. With your group, either find an answer for your question or pose another question (this needs to be related to the question you asked in the first place.) 

5.) In your Google Doc, insert a table of Two columns (add rows as needed) and contrast what Abbey says about Culture with what he says about Civilization. 
Is there any overlap between Culture and Civilization?

6.) Class Venn-Diagram (on the board): Civilization vs. Culture: Where do the two differ and where do they overlap?

7.) Summary/Reflection: How are both Culture and Civilization placeholders in our society? What do they stand for? How do you see them as both different and similar? 

Assignments: 
In today's GoogleDoc, include the following: 

• Journal
• Link to annotated file on Kami
• Table of Culture vs. Civilization
• Summary/Reflection