Writing About Nature--Spring 2010

Welcome to Writing About Nature--an experimental hybrid composition class in which we will spend the next few months getting to know Rabbit Run Park, the varied works of numerous writers on the subject of nature, and each other. Each of you will join one of five groups, and in the weeks between now and spring break, those groups will consider one of these topics:

1. Observing and Classifying the World
2. Encounters with and among Creatures
3. Defining Spaces: Edges, Wilderness, and Urban Nature
4. Working (With) the Land and Animals
5. Dwelling in Place
6. Knowing Nature, Knowing Ourselves
7. Saving and Being Saved by Nature

Each group will be responsible for creating and maintaining a blog on this site, and each member will post weekly on the group topic. Students will visit our outdoor classroom--Rabbit Run Park once a week and post a blog about that visit. The Proposed Course Calendar for the first half of the term is as follows:

Week One
January 18 Introduction to the course and to each other; Organize Blog Groups.

Week Two
January 25 Response Paper due for essay.

Week Three
February 1 Response Paper due for essay.

Week Four
February 8 Response Paper due for essay.

Week Five
February 15 Response Paper due for essay.

Week Six
February 22 Response Paper due for essay.

Week Seven
March 1 Response Paper due for essay.

Week Eight
March 8 Response Paper due for essay. Mid Term Paper due. Reconfigure groups and topics.

Spring Break

When we return to campus, during the week of March 22, it will officially be spring and we will repeat much of what we have done during the first half of the term. Each group, however, will have a new topic.

Week Nine
March 22 Response Paper due for essay.

Week Ten
March 29 Response Paper due for essay.

Week Eleven
April 5 Response Paper due for essay.

Week Twelve
April 12 Response Paper due for essay.

Week Thirteen
April 19 Response Paper due for essay.

Week Fourteen
April 26 Response Paper due for essay.

Week Fifteen
May 3 Final Portfolio due. Your portfolio should include an introductory reflection paper, in which you make the argument that you have successfully met the objecctives of the class as described in the English Department Handbook. All thirteen response papers should be included, as well as both mid-term and final papers.

Final Exam Week
May 10 Final Class Meeting.

In preparation for our each class meeting, beginning with the week of January 25, please visit our outdoor classroom--Rabbit Run Park. You might consider choosing a particular area of the park, and you might also consider meeting there with other members of your group. After your visit, please post a response, which should be at least a paragraph, and might include photographs.

Choose an essay from the list on your topic (the green sheet) and write a response to your reading, in which you consider the ideas expressed in the text. You should strengthen your observations on the work by quoting from it. Your paper must--of course--convince me that you understand MLA form and documentation. The Response Paper should be about 2 typed pages in length. In addition to the paper you turn in, please post a paragraph summarizing your response to the essay.