The Dred Scott decision / Huck Finn continues

We spent the first part of class today going through the details of the Dred Scott decision.  We will continue to keep track of the ways in which the decision - and the dissent - play a role in mid-19th century America.

After we collected your journals, you worked individually to read and answer these questions about chapters 14 and 15 of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  If you did not complete the packet in class, we asked you to do so for homework.  Also, for the weekend reading - chapters 16-23 - you do not need to write a journal entry. Just keep notes / annotations of what happens.

Here is the map we shared about where the action of the novel is taking place:

12 Years a Slave, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and evolving laws about slavery

We watched 12 Years A Slave together in E116. After the film you gathered some of your thoughts in response to this powerful film.  We will continue to refer to it throughout the next units, including looking back at the film clips and audio recordings we used last week.

For our opening look at The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn we discussed Huck, Pap, and Jim.  For Huck we noted how he wanted to avoid being "sivilized" and decided to do something about it: "I lit out." In terms of Pap, his abusive and alcoholic father, Huck's decision to escape took on another shade of meaning.  His escape, which included making an elaborate scene that appeared to be his own murder, also reflected his imagination and the ways in which he wants to impress his friend Tom, and have his life mirror what he read in books.  As for Jim, we read the same words, "I lit out," to describe his escape, but for him it was for a different reason: he heard the might be sold down the river to New Orleans.

This threat paralleled not only ideas from the film, but also the description you read last night.

In class today we talked about compromise in terms of new states entering the country as slave or free. We used Chromebooks to look at other examples of the changing laws about slavery.

Abolitionism

Today in class we discussed different methods and reasons that abolitionists used to justify their actions and then tried to connect their ideas and actions with Thoreau's.  We divided the readings on this CHART and then shared our conclusions in groups.
During the 2nd part of class, we heard Mr. Kramer read Frederick Douglass' "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" (AR 203 or CDW 157) and then answered these QUESTIONS in our groups.  We closed by reading the final section of the speech that is not printed in either the American Reader or Crossing the Danger Water and discussed how this section might or might not change the impact of the speech.

Civil Disobedience

Today in class we discussed Thoreau's Civil Disobedience.  In groups, we looked carefully at the language of his essay by using this WORKSHEET.  The articles that correspond to the questions on the last page of the worksheet are this one on the protests in Ferguson and this one on protests by students in Colorado over a decision to eliminate Civil Disobedience from the curriculum.

NOTE: The new assignment sheet is posted in the Unit Four tab above.  Please bring CDW and AR to class on Friday.

Slavery, Manifest Destiny, and the Mexican War

Today we continued our look at slavery by listening to excerpts from slave narratives read by contemporary actors.

We looked at John Gast's "American Progress" and discussed the imagery.

We read an excerpt of John O'Sullivan's "Manifest Destiny" and other descriptions of America in the mid 19th century, then responded with a tweet.  Here's mine:

• check it: life-giving truth > hoary-headed hypocrisy #boundlessprairies #dazzlingrewards #WestwardHo!

We finished by dividing into groups to read a collection of pieces of evidence to help us explore the question: Was the Mexican War a justified war?  Why / why not?

____

Tonight for homework you will be reading the first 8 pages of Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience."  

Here is a link to your homework assignment about it.

Today in Class (10/20)

We began with a writing loop:
1) List the last 5 things you purchased/bought
2) List a few things that you'd like to buy
3) What does it mean to own something?
4) What does it mean when something is labeled as your property?  Is that different or does it imply something other than ownership?
5) What are first thoughts that come to mind when you hear the word slavery? After first thoughts-extend to connect or link back to responses about ownership and property?
6) What did the Constitution (the law) say about property and slavery?

We then began our look at slavery as an institution, using a variety of sources to try to describe it.  After looking at each of the following sources, we responded in our notebooks using any of the following methods: personal response, point of view response, poem, image, letter to someone in the clip...
Sources
Images of Slavery
Slave Ship Scene from Amistad (warning: graphic-we only watched about the first 4:30 minutes)
Slave Auction Scene from Roots
The Civil War: All Night Forever
Slave narratives (22:50-25:58 and 44:35-46:20)-didn't finish this today, will finish tomorrow.

HOMEWORK DUE TOMORROW:
First read the background information on the Annexation of Texas and then the background information on the Mexican War.  Then read Howard Zinn's history of the Mexican War, "We Take Nothing By Conquest, Thank God" carefully.  When finished, respond in your notebook by identifying the arguments both in favor and against the war with Mexico.  In your response, include your opinion on whether or not you think the war was justified and also consider how and why slavery might be a factor.
Also, make sure that you have Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau for class tomorrow (it was one of the small, $2 books that you should have purchased already).

Today in class (10/15)

• We spent the first period discussing Columbus Day.  We read this ARTICLE to inform our discussion.  In our journals we answered these questions: 1) What is Zinn's argument?; 2) What information (if any) surprised you and why?; 3) What should students be taught about Columbus?; 4) Should we celebrate Columbus Day?  We closed our discussion by watching John Oliver's "How is This a Thing".
• During the second period, we looked at our Walden reading from last night.  We used this WORKSHEET to frame our study of these ideas.  Students were assigned an additional chapter from Walden to read for homework.  The journal entry for tonight should explore how the assigned chapter expands on the ideas from worksheet.
• Finally make sure that you bring in your field trip permission forms if you have not yet done so! If you need copies of these, they are linked in the post below.

Copies of field trip information

Here are links to the letter and the permission slip for our field trip on Friday:

Field trip letter 

Permission slip

Emerson's "Self-Reliance" + weekend homework

Today's fishbowl discussions in class were outstanding - you brought great insights and questions to Emerson's ideas. There is a lot packed into that essay - we look forward to continue to explore it with you.

We again used the technique of writing Interpretive Questions to guide our discussion.  You completed a note-taking sheet during class - here is a link to it for your reference.

For the weekend you will be reading these portions of Henry David Thoreau's Walden:

• p. 1-13 of "Economy"
• "Where I Lived, What I Lived For"
• "Solitude"

Your journal response is open-ended, but in some way should include a clarification of Thoreau's ideas as well as your personal reactions to / thoughts about them.

Happy homecoming weekend!

Emerson's Divinity School Address

Today we worked with Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Divinity School Address."  You identified quotations from the text that addressed these ideas:

• The relationship between and individual and God
• The role and nature of religion and the church
• The role of preachers and the clergy

In groups of four you created dialogues in your notebook, taking on the voice of someone who agrees with Emerson's ideas, someone who disagrees, and someone with questions or needs clarification.  We discussed his criticisms of the church and his call for a new way for people to see themselves and their place in the world.

As we shifted to Emerson's essay on "Self-Reliance," you each received a quotation from it. After writing down some initial thoughts about it in your notebook you had time to start the reading due Friday.  In your journal response, please use your own thoughts to identify and discuss:

• An idea(s) from Emerson's essay you personally agree with
• An idea(s) from Emerson's essay you personally disagree with
• Questions you have about his ideas / aspects you need clarified

Advice from George Washington and introduction to Ralph Waldo Emerson's Ideas

Today in class we began by reading and annotating George Washington's Farewell Address (AR 71). We then did a short in-class piece of writing about the warnings and advice he offers within the address.  This writing was turned in.  After the break we had a brief discussion on how George Washington might offer advice in 2014, considering what he said about foreign relations and political parties.  We closed the discussion by looking at what he said about the role of religion in government which led to a series of notebook responses about religion.  These included: What is religion?  How is would you define it?  What role does religion play for you personally (private response)?  What are the challenges or conflicts that are related to notions of religion?
We closed by starting our look at Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Divinity School Address" (Self-Reliance and Other Essays 103).
The first question posed was; what type of imagery exists in his first paragraph?
Then notice the turn to philosophical questions in the 2nd paragraph; What am I? What is?
Next, consider what "virtue" means in the 3rd paragraph and how that could be more beautiful than the images that he had listed in the 1st paragraph.
Then, we  read paragraphs 4, 5, and 6 on our own and had a short discussion.
Finish reading the essay for hw.  Journal should focus on pages 113-115 and respond to this: What is Emerson asserting in these pages and what do you think about those ideas?