Thursday, December 17, 2009

ALIS book help

Our team is interested in amending our independent reading selections for the coming semester so we are steering students toward choices that are appropriate to their interests and values in addition to being conducive to successful completion of the independent study work. With that in mind, I would love your feedback on the following questions so we have data to steer your selections next semester and also selections for future years. Please answer the questions below in a short paragraph.
1. Name and title of work.
2. To whom would you recommend this book and why?
3. What material, if any, might one find objectionable about this text?
4. To what extent did this novel selection help you experience ALIS success?

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Fun with Transcendentalism...

Having engaged in your own Transcendental experience, what did you learn about how Transcendental (or not) you are? Consider the prompts on your handout and also how this experience furthered your appreciation and/ or understanding of the Transcendentalists.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Quiet Desperation or Sounding Their Barbaric Yawp?

Having examined a few Transcendalists, consider the following quote by Henry David Thoreau: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation". What do you make of this quote? How does it connect to our studied Transcendentalists? Did they, in your opinion, truly sound their barbaric yawp, or were they, instead, merely leading lives of quiet desperation? Consider individuals we examined and/ or the collective movement.