Current Readings update 1/29

Questions for the 2nd Solnit annotation:

On craft:
1. How do the first and last lines of each essay relate to the body of that essay?
2. Describe ways each of the essays relate to each other. That is, what are unifying/common themes?

Thought prompt:
3. There are two possible questions, one of which came up in Wednesday night's tutorial group, so it is slightly different than one we came up with in class. You may answer one or both:

How is decay necessary for transformation?

Can there be transformation without decay?


Page length and references: you know the drill.

Read the rest of the book for discussion next week.

Fieldcraft update 1/29

Kudos to all you brave souls that stuck around in the freezing outdoor weather on Tuesday, even though the University had canceled class! Simply. Amazing.

Homework: I can't remember what I said. Three to five pages of trees? Somebody help me out here...

I'm going to work on some simple sketch examples (e.g. "tree doodles") over the weekend and post them for your viewing pleasure. Look for them around Monday or so.

Landscapes update for 1/29

Meet today at J&B Coffee. I'll have your journals.

For next week's discussion, read the essay on "Main Street" in your course packets.

Homework: visit three more coffee shops and journal about them. Use these prompts as guidelines:

1. Describe the atmosphere and clientele
2. How much does the physical layout/landscape influence these two categories? (i.e. Location? Colors? Furniture? Background music?)
3. Sketch two or three things at each coffee house that are emblematic for the location's "character."
4. Is the coffeehouse that you describe a successful "thrid place?" Why or why not?

Fieldcraft for 1/27

Meet at the OPC tomorrow. Bundle up! It will be cold and we will be walking outside! Brrrrrrr!

Bring your binoculars, field guides, and art kits.

Landscapes update 1/22

Draw 3-5 trees in your journal. Take your time and fill the page. Pay attention to basic shapes, how the tree grows, and line quality. And sharpen those pencils!

Current Readings update 1/21

For your annoted response to the first two chapters of Solnit's book:

Solnit ends the second chapter with the following statement:

"Some things we have only as long as they remain lost, some things are not lost only so long as they are distant."

1) What did she mean by this? Cite specific examples from the book to support your thinking.

2) How does Solnit use the language and ideas in her essay as both map and destination? That is, was she headed toward this statement all along as she wrote? Cite specific examples from the text to support your argument.

3) Can you think of something from your own experience that supports this claim? (that is, does this sentence resonate in some way with you? Is there synchronicity between this statement and other things you are experiencing/learning/reading right now?)

Expected length 2-3 pages, double spaced, excluding list of references (inlcude references on a separate sheet).

For next week: Read pages 45-152 for discussion.

Expected learning outcomes: Students will be able to think and write critically about current ideas in the genre of nature writing

Fieldcraft update (1/21)

Journal assignment for next week: find, draw, and identify five more birds. After you'e made a drawing for identification, find a photo of the same bird and draw it carefully.

Expected learning outcomes: Students will be able to: identify birds; use field guides; and draw for identification

Landscapes update (1/21)

We will be meeting at the English/Philosophy courtyard on Thursday. Bring your art kits; I'll have your journals.

This week's journal assignment: Look for third places. Identify and describe them, and make an argument for why they are third places.

For next week, read 'Classic Coffeehouses," in your course packet. Be prepared to lead a discussion on it. In reading the essay, choose questions that you might ask the class in your capacity as discusssion leader.

Expected learning outcomes For Tuesday: students will be able to distinguish built structures and landscapes that enhance community

Expected learning outcomes for Thursday: students will be able to see and draw objects in perspective

Landscapes (week of 1/20; 1/22)

I hope that none of you were too terribly frozen after our bike ride yesterday. :-)

Journal assignment (due in the milk crate by 5 PM Tuesday): Yesterday we rode around looking at ordinary objects and thinking about what they had to tell us about people, culture, ourselves. Notably, we looked at manhole covers for the sewer system. Some were plain Jane, some were fancy. Here is a question worth pondering: what is the purpose to making a sewer manhole cover beautiful if nobody will ever notice it? That is, is there value in designing beauty into something no one notices? Is the world a different place if the manhole covers are all plain?

Think about that question and go find an ordinary object/place on campus. Describe it for us. Think in turn about why you picked that object. What made you curious about it? What do you want to know about it? What can it tell you just by looking at it and thinking about it? Is it beautiful in some way? Is it something that no one notices? Is that a good, neutral, or bad thing?

Expected learning outcomes: finding, recognizing, and describing the aesthetics in the ordinary; explaining the values within cultural contexts

Reading for next week: "The Problem with Place in America"

Tuesday discussion will be in the classroom.

Fieldcraft: Re Crazy Creeks

If you want to purchase an NHH Crazy Creek, let me know and I'll bring one to Goedeke Library lake next week. They are $25 each.

Current Readings for the week of 1/19

Discussion points for Solnit (consider these as you read; make notes if needed; add others):

• What is the opposite of being lost? What would Solnit say it is?
• What are the emotions attached to being lost?
• What do you find when you are lost (what do you gain)?
• What has changed about being lost in today's world? How do we respond differently than someone a century ago might have?
• How does Solnit use language as both a map and a destination? Does she write toward a specific sentence or thought? Use specific examples in defending your argument.
• In what ways is there synchronicity between the essays and your own life?

Current Readings update

Apparently the bookstore is out of Solnit's book. Don't worry about it. Go ahead and come to class tomorrow and we'll work it all out.

Fieldcraft for the week of January 20

Meet at Goedeke Library lake. We will be learning to draw birds for identification. Bring your art kit, binoculars, and bird field guide. You will also be more comfortable if you bring something on which to sit.

Journal assignment: Read "The Mappist." How do you think this short story by Lopez relates to this course?

Prep the journal for use: include a scale for measurement, the Beaufort scale, and a pocket if you so desire. It would probably be helpful to create a reminder list of what goes in the daily log.

Landscapes for the week of 1/13; 1/15

Meet at Tech Terrace Park (23rd and Flint) on Thursday, with your bike and art kit. Be sure to dress for the weather.

We'll be exploring the 'hood, looking for some of the things about which Stilgoe wrote.

Continue thinking about our classroom discussion. In particular look for ways that the outward landscape shapes the inward one.

Tuesday's Current Readings tutorial is cancelled.

We're going to have to rearrange the Tuesday group's schedule. So go ahead and come on Wednesday and we'll work it all out.

Friday's Current Readings tutorial cancelled

See you next week at our regularly scheduled meeting times.

Welcome back!

Greetings, everyone. I hope everyone had a safe, healthy, and happy winter break. Owing to an evolving family emergency, I may or may not be in class this first week of the semester. I have arranged for someone to come to class and hand out the syllabi, however, and s/he will tell you to check this blog for any necessary preliminary instructions. So without further ado, here they be:

NHH 3306 "Current Readings in Natural History":

We will begin our readings with Rebecca Solnit's book, A Field Guide to Getting Lost. Please go ahead and purchase this book from the bookstore. You may also purchase the others there as well, or wait to purchase them at your discretion.

We will spend approximately 2 weeks on each of the texts this semester, so you may begin reading now if you like. However, the first order of business will be to discuss/arrange the tutorial schedule. If I am not there on Wednesday, I will try very hard to be there on Friday, and we can proceed with scheduling and assignments from there.

NHH 1302 "Introductory Fieldcraft":

I should be back in LBB before class next week, so I am not too concerned at this point about giving you first-day instructions. However, you will find books available in the TTU bookstore; we will begin with the bird field guide.

There is also a short story to be picked up at Copytech; it must be read before the second class meeting. The short story is from the collection titled Light Action in the Carribbean, which is available, used and new, from various sources, for about the same price as the single short story (copyright fees). However you procure the short story, it must be read by the second class period.

Finally, pick up an Art Kit at Varsity Bookstore, in the art department. If you go in the north entrance, and look to your right, it should be on top of a glass counter, labeled "NHH 1302."

HONS 1304 "Landscapes":

A course packet should be available to you at Copytech by the end of this or the beginning of next week. Read the first entry, from Outside Lies Magic by Stilgoe (I believe the chapter is titled "Chapter One: Beginnings," though I do not have it right in front of me, so I can't be sure; in any case, it is the first one).

Read this and be prepared to discuss it in class next week. (Reading for discussion will be helped if, as you read the material, you imagine that you will be leading a discussion yourself. Ask yourself what questions you would ask about the things that interest you. What makes you curious about what the author says?)

An art kit is also available at Varsity bookstore in the art department. If you go in the north entrance, and look to your right, it should be on top of a glass counter, labeled HONS 1304, 3304, or 2304.

Meet in the classroom on Tuesday.

That's all! If there is anything else that crops up about which you might have questions, feel free to email me.

Thank you for your patience with my absence as I attend to matters associated with my father's passing.