Outdoor Literature
Outdoor literature is a class designed for students with an interest in outdoor activities. The class will focus on a variety of outdoor interests ranging from, but not limited to, hunting, fishing, water sports, and wilderness ethics. The literature of the class will be adapted to suit the interests of each particular class, but it will focus on essays, short stories, poetry, and magazine articles. While literature-based, the class will also include writing and research components as well as oral presentations of information.
Prerequisites: Sophomore, Junior or Senior Status
½ credit
Course Outline
Humanity and Nature - 3 weeks
During this time students will learn about the people who went where none had gone before. By reading and analyzing excerpts of memoirs, short stories, and articles, students will learn about the ever-changing relationship between man and nature. The unit culminates in a researched essay on that relationship, with students drawing evidence for their claims from the readings of the unit as well as their own research.
The Outdoor Experience - 3 weeks
Students will learn about survival, exploration, and the experiences that many have outdoors during this unit. Students will read a book during this unit, and engage with a dialectical journal to analyze and interpret the experiences they read about. Students will use the elements of literature to help them analyze and work with the texts as they read and connect the ideas from the texts to poetry, prose, and other examples of nature writing. This unit will also include reflective writing on their own experiences with the outdoors. The dialectical journal kept throughout the unit serves as the assessment.
Conservation and Ethics - 3 weeks
During this unit, students will become familiar with the history of conservation and the question of ethics when it comes to our world’s natural resources. Students will read about, research, and discuss topics that are both historical and current, and help each other to form important and informed opinions. This unit focuses specifically on Wisconsin-centered issues, and students investigate the topics through interviews, and research, with the unit’s final assessment consisting of transcripts of interview, a research paper, and a call-to-action based on their findings.
Classroom Expectations
All students are to adhere to rules and expectations set by the Pittsville Student Handbook. In addition:
Students should arrive to class on time every day ready to give their best effort. This means having all materials as well as a learning-centered mindset..
Students are expected to be respectful of all people, spaces, and materials.
Students are expected to follow the Academic Integrity Policy.
Grading Policy
Assessments (including essays, tests, and projects)………………………….……….……..100%
Note: All other work, while not ‘graded,’ is designed to help students build and practice knowledge and skills that are necessary for the skills being assessed. Assessments will not be administered until other work is completed satisfactorily.
Grading Scale
100 – 93 A
92 – 90 A-
89 – 87 B+
86 – 83 B
82 – 80 B-
79 – 77 C+
76 – 73 C
72 – 70 C-
69 – 67 D+
66 – 63 D
62 – 60 D-
Below 60 F
Essential Standards Covered in Course
Cite relevant textual evidence that strongly supports analysis of what the text says explicitly/implicitly and make logical inferences, including determining where the text is ambiguous; develop questions for deeper understanding and for further exploration.
Write arguments and literary analysis to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts.
Write informative texts that examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.