Your Transcendental Experience

In a comment, share your Transcendental experience with me and your classmates both as a means of processing for you and also aiding your peers' understanding of this movement.

In your post, at least describe what you did and what you learned from your experience both about this movement and about the extent to which you embrace and can live by its values.

You are welcome to go beyond these requirements, also exploring the questions on your project handout if you would like.

Fishbowl #6: "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"

Afternoon!  

Overall, great posts and questions during our last fishbowl.  The skill I want us to continue to work on is contextualizing our questions with evidence from the text as well as supporting our inferences with specific quotes and plot points.  

Here are a couple good examples of that from our last discussion:

Kelsey asked, "The rest of the year, the box was put away, sometimes in one place, sometimes another...." (page 2).  Why do you guys think the box was placed in different places every year? What was the point of this?

And Rebecca inquired:  When reading this story, I noticed how the author frequently used names and specific details of the town and its inhabitants. For example, "Mr. Martin and his oldest son, Baxter, held the black box securely on the stool until Mr. Summers had stirred". What is the purpose of the specifics? Why would the author do this, in contrast to the majority of the other short stories we have read?

Keep up the good work!  Happy posting!

Fishbowl #5: Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"

Big improvement in supporting and contextualizing your thinking with textual evidence.  Well done!  Continue to work on consistency with this skill, not just saying what you think, but why you think that, using the story to inform your "because..."

Good job politely challenging one another's thinking and exploring many perspectives about a single question rather than question-answer, question-answer.

Happy posting!

Fishbowl #4: "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"

If you are choosing to participate via comments on our class blog today, a few guidelines to keep in mind:

• If you wait to post until 20 minutes into our fishbowl or you post once and are dormant for 15 minutes, that indicates that you're not using your time thoughtfully. If this is because you're a slow typist or perhaps you struggle with the multi-tasking nature of this activity, choose another way to show your understanding . If lack of focus continues to be a problem, you will be asked to hand-write a response to our next fishbowl or to verbally participate only.
• Use the "reply" button below individual comments to thread discussion.  This method of organization is more effective than responding "to Susie's question..."
• Keep up the great work with supporting your thinking and contextualizing your questions with specific passages and plot points.  This skill improved tremendously from last time.

Fishbowl #3: Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil"

If you are choosing to participate via comments on our class blog today, a few suggestions I'd like you to keep in mind for today:

• If you wait to post until 20 minutes into our fishbowl or you post once and are dormant for 15 minutes, that indicates that you're not using your time thoughtfully. If this is because you're a slow typist or perhaps you struggle with the multi-tasking nature of this activity, choose another way to show your understanding . If lack of focus continues to be a problem, you will be asked to hand-write a response to our next fishbowl or to verbally participate only.
• Use the "reply" button below individual comments to thread discussion.  This method of organization is more effective than responding "to Susie's question..."
• Remember if you're logged into your account, it displays your name.  Don't feel as though you need to include it in your comment.
• Biggest constructive criticism from last time:

• Support your thinking with evidence from the text
• Contextualize question in specific passages or plot points
• Here are some examples of posts and questions from last time that were great in this regard.  Please model your questions and responses off of these.
• Love this question from Lindsey:  "The very first sentences of the story are "Let me call myself, for the present, William Wilson. The fair page now lying before me need not be sullied with my real appellation." This immediately shows the reader the level of self-hatred the narrator has. He is so ashamed of himself that he sees the paper before him as worth more than him and he doesn't want to taint it with his impurity. Throughout the entire story we feel the self-hatred he has. Do you think that this came from his "other person" (Wilson #2) or do you think that he created this other person because of his hatred for himself? (Basically, which came first?) Why do you think so?"
• And this post from Sarah S. "...one thing that really stood out to me was that Poe used the word "gothic" twice in the story to describe. Once on the first page to describe the steeple and then again on the second page when he talks about the windows. Was this term used as a name of this time period, during? I also noticed the mysterious aspects of this story that are iconic of The Gothics."
• as well as this post from Bennet: "On the bottom of the last page, Poe said " You have conquered, and I yield. Yet, henceforward art thou also dead - dead to the World, to Heaven and to Hope! In me didst thou exist - and, in my death, see by this image, which is thine own, how utterly thou hast murdered thyself". What was the purpose of using this quote at the very end of the story?"

Gothic Fishbowl #2: "William Wilson"

If you are choosing to participate via comments on our class blog today, be sure you adhere to the same discussion expectations you would if you were in the inner circle:  respectfully challenging your classmates' thinking, basing your assertions on textual evidence, etc.

There is not a finite number of times you need to contribute; rather, I will check to see that you are thoughtfully and consistently contributing.  If you wait to post until 20 minutes into our fishbowl or you post once and are dormant for 15 minutes, that indicates that you're not using your time thoughtfully. If this is because you're a slow typist or perhaps you struggle with the multi-tasking nature of this activity, choose another way to show your understanding . If lack of focus continues to be a problem, you will be asked to hand-write a response to our next fishbowl or to verbally participate only.

A couple of things to keep in mind :

• This is an academic assignment.  It should be properly written and proofread rather than assuming the appearance of a text message.
• If addressing one person's post, respond to that discussion thread.
• Support your thinking with evidence from the text
• Contextualize question in specific passages or plot points