Christine+Vo

I. **Results** A. Primary goal: - What do you want the students to understand more fully about "Song of Myself"? I want the students to see how space can be embedded with meaning. I want students analyze what Whitman's is trying to say about life and death. That through every stage of life, transcending to death, there is a state of being that is natural, "perfect", and completely present. I want to the students to then see the relationship between human existence and landscape (natural existence)--that nature and the human condition are reflections of each other. Everything, everyone, every part of us, are all interconnected and inevitably linked: nature, spirit, the human body, consciousness.

-Why is this topic important to Whitman? Whitman was strongly influenced by the transcendental movement and sought deeper understandings of the relationship between the SELF and the UNIVERSE.

-How does this topic connect to other themes or concerns of the poem? By looking at the relationship between human existance and landscape to then make connections about what Whitman is trying to say about the SELF.

-How might this topic or question engage students' interest and/or experience? These are deeply philosophical discussions about what it means to exist. How does the student know he/she exist? How does he/she exist in this universe? in nature? when death occurs, what happens to the SELF?

-How does this topic or question related to broader issues in literature? Literature is the exploration of different narratives of the human experience or the human condition. How do humans operate in the universe and how does nature (or our environment) reflect our presence (if it does at all).

-How does it relate to broader cultural or social issues? Whitman being an early American author, he had very democratic views. It would be interesting to urge the students to relate Whitman's ideas of interconnectedness and the ideas of transcendentalism to the early stages of American Democracy.

B. Secondary goals: -what do you want students to understand about reading poetry? I want students to first understand how to read poetry- how to do close reading of poetry so that that when they read anything, they will be able to deeply analyze meaning, intent, context, symbolism, and build connections for themselves. I want the student to understand that there are often particular philosophical influences that shape an author's work.

-about how to write about poetry? I want students to understand the intentions and motives one may have to write, but moreover, I want students to understand their own perspectives that may influence their style and context.

-about how to connect text and context? I want students to be knowledgeable about the social, historical and philosophical context of work that may or may not influence texts. What is or isn;t the text saying about the society in which it exist/was written.

II. **Evidence of learning**: -How will students demonstrate that they are answering the question? What will your evidence of student learning look like? As types of writing/evidence: i. formal writing or project (summative) essay; curation; rhetorical; 1 Formal argumentative essay that analyzes one specific portion of the poem in relation to the rest of the poem. MLA format, 3-4 pages.

ii. informal writing (formative) 1 page journal entry of reflective thoughts after first reading the poem. To be completed before the formal essay is assigned.

B. How will this show you that they've learned? The reflective journal entry will let students freely make personal connections with the text. It would get them thinking about how they relate or how they don't--hopefully to get them invested in the text, which would make it easier for them to come up with some kind of argument about the text. Then the formal essay will give them a chance to make a claim to an understanding of the poem.

-how will you evaluate its success or failure in relation to your goals? the journal entry will not be graded by A-F standard, it will just be a credit basis. If they turn it in, they get a check, if they do not, they get a 0 for a missed assignment. No real grade because I don't want to hinder their freedom in personally relating to a text. The essay will be evaluated by degree of clarity of argument, support and evidence from the text or other sources of that argument, structure of essay, and grammatical/spelling standards. This will be graded A-F.

III. **Design** A. what knowledge or skills will students need in order to produce their evidence of student learning? they need to know how to do close reading of texts, need to know how to formulate an argument, need to know how to properly support one's claim with evidence from the work or other sources.

-knowledge about the poem; cultural or historical knowledge; knowledge about Whitman? They will have to be able to perform basic research skills on the internet (from reputable academic resources), or the school/public library for historical or cultural information pertaining to the context of the work.

-skills in reading? skills in analysis/making connections? skills in writing? they must know how to do close reading and formulate concise arguments about a text that is supported with textural evidence.

B. what kind of activities will develop these knowledges and skills? practice, brainstorming, taking the time to read carefully while asking oneself, "what is Whitman or the narrator trying to say here? How does it relate to the rest of the poem? What is Whitman trying to say about society? Culture? How is the text related to the context in which it exists?

-what kinds of things will students need to do to acquire these knowledges and skills? some historical knowledge or access to finding historical information about the text or the writer. The student also must be asked the right questions that lead to a clearer argument... as mentioned above.

-reading; writing; finding; collaborating; the student would have to learn how to be more personally invested into a text so that it opens their minds up to learning about the work and then making a supported argument about the work.

C. how will you structure these activities? Class discussions/ open forum for brainstorming, at home reflective journal entries, formal essay

-do some have to come before others? which? Class discussion first then reflective journal entry then formal essay

-why? I want the class to be open and just start talking about the poem while I am there and can somehow facilitate the discussion or contribute some knowledge of the work as well. Then I want them to go home and think about all the different views they heard during the day, and find their own understandings of the text. Then I want to give them a chance to defend convince someone of a particular argument about the text. It would kind of be unfair to assign a formal essay immediately after assigning the reading for the text before any class discussions.

-are some more or less important than others? nope, just different stages

-are some more or less formal than others? Essay is more formal