Introductory+Unit

Introductory Unit: Critical Lenses, Inquiry, Close Analysis


 * 10/17**: Create discussion questions for //A Thousand Acres// in class and at home. Use the Socratic question types, Bloom's question stems, and the Critical Lenses below to generate a variety of questions.




 * 9/20**: Review the Close Reading Guide to prepare for your Lear discussion.


 * 9/12:** Select the lens you will use for your seminar. Consider the following ideas and suggestions when crafting your

seminar questions.

.


 * 9/10:** Read the Fitzgerald short story **"Babylon Revisited"** and annotate**.**


 * 9/7:** Read the chapter **"Critical Strategies"** and consider which lens you may want to use for your inquiry.


 * 9/5: Passage-Based Analysis:** Select one passage (3-15 lines) from any one of the summer reading texts, and write a one-page analysis of that passage using one of the philosophical lenses you learned about today. Aim to formulate one controlling insight that you will support using details from that passage. Rather than simply restating a philosopher's belief and proving that it exists in the text, aim to create your own insight using your new knowledge and support your insight. Use the rubric for guidance. We will share these next time in class.


 * Critical Lenses**: Use the list below to begin your research. Select 2 philosophers from the list, preferably from different eras. Research the philosopher and his life, but more importantly, understand the fundamentals of his school of thought and be able to explain it in your own words. Bring notes, questions, and some activity/example/explanation on how to make his philosophy accessible to your peers (an illustration, metaphor, activity, game, outside resource, etc). Bring/reference an applicable text that you have read that you can analyze through the lens of one philosophy you have researched (e.g: Analyze //The Catcher in the Rye// through an existentialist lens? //Slaughterhouse-Five// through the lens of utilitarianism?) The list below is mostly Western philosophers, but this website has a few suggestions for Eastern philosophers as well.

Socrates Heidegger Plato Sartre Aristotle Rousseau Aquinas Marx Machiavelli Spinoza Hobbes James Descartes Mill Locke Wittgenstein Hume Frankl Kierkegaard Mill Kant Jung Nietzsche