Tuesday, June 9

On our last day together we headed to John Bryan State Park to hike and share our favorite pieces of nature-writing from the course.

"Knowing Our Place" by Barbara Kingsolver

On our last day, we'll be reading Barbara Kingsolver's essay "Knowing Our Place" from her book of essays Small Wonders.  Click here to access the pdf.

Barbara Kingsolver (1955-) American essayist, novelist, and poet raised in rural Kentucky; Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Small Wonders, Poisonwood Bible, The Bean Trees. 

"Whitefoot" by Wendell Berry

Peromyscus leucopus

Today we're going to read Wendell Berry's Whitefoot: A Story from the Center of the World, a children's book about a field mouse named Whitefoot who lives in Port William, Kentucky.   Follow this link to read it on Orion Magazine's website.

"Like humans, she lived in the little world of what she knew, for there was no other world for her to live in. But she lived at the center of her world always, and of this she had no doubt."

Today you'll write your own short story or children's book personifying a creature of your choice (remember our definition of creature - it includes plants, trees, insects, etc.).  Your short story/children's book must be at least 1 page single-spaced in length and include the following:

• a creative title 
• at least 1 picture (found on the web) 
• a well-told story (beginning, middle, end - conflict/resolution) 
• vivid details (a detailed description of the creature and you might want to conduct some research about what your creature does to eat, "play," work, sleep, etc.) 
• might include dialogue
• might include other creatures 

Source: Ausable.org

Wendell Berry (1934- ) American novelist, poet, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer; Sabbaths: Poems; The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays; Standing on Earth: Selected Essays; Whitefoot: A Story from the Center of the World

Instructions for Photo Books

The students' completed photo books - these will be on display at Exhibition Night Tuesday!

Thursday, June 4

For today's post, please include the following:

• recipe poem about a body of water (include some of the sounds you heard today on the water)
• at least one picture from today

Today was a wonderful day out on the water at Bell Brook Canoe; here's what we did:

Morning

watched TedTalk How Can We Listen Better?
how to write a recipe poem about water
traveled to Bell Brook Canoe 

Afternoon

traveled back to DRSS to finish lunch

wrote recipe poems 

worked on blogs 

"To Make a Prairie" by Emily Dickinson

Recipe or poem? Emily Dickinson’s recipe for “Cocoa Nut” cake. 445B: courtesy of Amherst College Archives and Special Collections by permission of the Trustees of Amherst College.

To Make a Prairie 

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, 

One clover, and a bee. 

And revery. 

The revery alone will do, 

If bees are few.

Today, you'll use Emily Dickinson's poem as a model for your own recipe poem about a body of water.  Click here and follow the directions for writing a recipe poem.

Source: Illinois.English.edu

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) Amherst, Massachusetts; poet; wrote nearly 1800 poems during her lifetime

Wednesday, June 3

For today's post, please include the following:

• a brief description of a vignette 
• your practice vignette using Kris's picture during the workshop
• the picture of your creature, taken at Cox last week
• the vignette for your creature

Click here if you'd like to look at Kris's vignette workshop PPT

Today we'll be reading two chapters from Farley Mowat's Never Cry Wolf and watching the 1983 film with the same name.  In the book and movie, a biologist travels to the Canadian wilderness to investigate whether the wolves have been hunting the caribou. He discovers that the menacing wolf is not what it seems.

 

• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9