Lesson: Appreciating Thoreau

Objective: Students will read Walden by HD Thoreau and blog about it.  

Process:

1. Student will read the excerpt posted on the class’ Pinterest board.
2. Students will respond to the discussion questions at the end of the selection. The responses will be posted on Google Classroom.
3. For the next week, students will take a daily walk in or around a natural setting. Students will keep a journal comparing and contrasting the world/nature Thoreau writes about and the world they are observing.
4. At the end of the week, students will work collaboratively to find and tag other pages or boards that are compatible with the views expressed by Thoreau in Walden and pin those pages/boards.
5. Students will explain their choices in a blog post on the class blog.

I chose this lesson plan because I usually have the class keep a paper journal and thought that this would be a good way to incorporate a different kind of journal. Another reason I chose this lesson is that Thoreau is one of my favorite Transcendentalists. It is a good marriage of the 19th century philosophy and 21st century technology.

Advantages to making the revision would probably include increased interest in Thoreau if only for the sake of using the computer for class work. Other benefits would include better netiquette, digital literacy, and better digital citizenship. A disadvantage may be taking some of the focus away from Thoreau’s natural observations in favor of technology, Another disadvantage is that students may have to take notes on paper and then transfer those to the computer. It is sometimes difficult to take a computer into the rain or on a windy day.