In my past life, I taught environmental literature to college students. In my current job as a teaching assistant the opportunity has once again surfaced for me to work with older students, teaching a bi-weekly course on American environmental writers. It's a work in progress but I'm very excited about the students, the readings, the course, and the content
From (our still in progress) Syllabus:
Grade Level: 10/11
Speaking in Place:
The Environmental Language of the Here and Now
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| A lake, not far from where we live and learn |
The American landscape has long played a role in
American literature. This course will explore how writers both reflect and
construct “place” in their texts. Students will encounter readings by a diverse
group of writers including Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson,
and Annie Dillard. “Classic” readings
will often be paired with more contemporary pieces and students will be encouraged
to grapple with questions raised by both wilderness and urban environments and
the problems of class, privilege, and race that transpire in the canon of
American environmental literature.
This course will not only require analysis of
American environmental literature—it will also push students to use those same analytic skills to examine their own ideas about environment, landscape, and
home.
