The week of April 2-5th students in Mrs.
Lanphear’s English III were studying American essayists Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Henry David Thoreau, and the American Transcendentalists of the 1850’s.
Although the reading was difficult, students rose to the challenge. Mrs.
Lanphear stated, “With great work comes great rewards,” and on Wednesday, April
4th students were allowed to temporarily leave campus with their
instructor for a “nature hike.” The hike lasted approximately 35 minutes. After
reaching their destination (the Chadron water tower across the street from the
high school), students spread out across the front of the hill, nestled into
their seats in nature, and worked silently and separately to complete their
“sensory charts”—where they recorded the things they could see, smell, hear,
taste, and touch.
The whole adventure was intended to help students connect
with Emerson’s thoughts in his essay “Nature.” Once back in the classroom,
students used their charts to write a descriptive paragraph chronicling their
outdoor experience. The following class period students were required to write
a second paragraph where they connected their nature experience to Emerson’s
using MLA cited quotes from his text. When asked how Emerson’s belief “that the
magnificent American landscape itself” could inspire new American perspectives
(a reoccurring theme of this American Literature based class), students
concluded that “Chadron looked small” from on top of the hill and that Emerson
must have felt small in the natural world too. Finally, after the brief
discussion, students headed to the computer lab to meet global and digital
learning standards by sharing their ideas with one another on the classroom
blog site “Blogging with Mrs. Lanphear.”
See their work here: http://bloggingwithmrslanphear.blogspot.com/
