Introductions to both literature and to one another to begin--
Jaydn informed me of the books she has read and the types of literature that she is interested in reading. The student will self-evaluate to identify an area of weakness upon which she would like to focus on at the next session.
Assignment
The student will think about future literature that she would like to read.
Session Minutes
45
Minutes Student Attended
45
Lesson Comments
Jaydn and I shared that we were both nervous about our first day! She shared music and television shows that she likes and confided in me that she really did not like Edgar Allen Poe because he married his cousin, and she cannot tolerate pedophilia. She likes gothic horror and so I suggested we read a classic short story of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" and subsequently Jaydn defined irony and we discussed how sometimes people are not what they seem to be as a precursor to reading. Jaydn shared that she is cognizant of the fact that she needs to gain an education to prepare for a better future. She would like to study technology and graphic design in college. She told me that she read Flowers for Algernon, Where the Crawdads Sing, and is reading The Call of the Wild. She would like to read some literature with a lighter theme and would like to avoid sad books. I explained that many books have themes and plots that are on the darker side. Jaydn shared that she really doesn't understand punctuation and that she would like to review that next session. She has a problem with run on sentences that she would like to rectify.
We identified and discussed examples from ch 2 of Darwinian violence as the law of the "club and the fang." Jaydn discussed how Curly's good nature is perceived as weakness and leads to his violent demise by the pack. We explored how this concept applies in today's society. We then reviewed the term "paradox" and explored how Buck has "developed yet retrogressed" simultaneously . Jaydn added this discussion to her notes as we reviewed her study guide answers. With respect to the study guide, Jaydn reviewed my comments addressed to grammatical issues and corrected run-ons and added some textual examples per my suggestions.
The Battle of Fort Sumter & the Start of the Civil War
Lesson Outline
The Confederate States of America included eleven states:
Arkansas,
Alabama,
Florida,
Georgia,
Louisiana,
Mississippi,
North Carolina,
South Carolina,
Tennessee,
Texas,
Virginia. Charleston Harbor, off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina was an important eastern seaboard in the South. In the middle of the harbor stands Fort Sumter. After South Carolina seceded from the Union, and other southern states followed, they wanted control of federal military installments located in the South, including Fort Sumter. On the night of December 25, 1860, the U.S. Army moved forces to Fort Sumter to secure it for the Union. Confederate forces fired on the fort on April 12, 1861. The bombardment would last for 34 hours and the U.S. Army was driven away by Confederate forces. The Battle of Fort Sumter started the Civil War. Immediately following the battle, Lincoln called for volunteers in the Union to fight, which caused Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee to secede and join the Confederacy. The Civil War would allow Lincoln to be able to abolish slavery and redefine freedom in the United States.
We discussed the significance of the chapter title,"The Law of the Club and the Fang" as a symbol for the use and prevalence of violence in a Darwinist society. Jaydn did well exploring how the strong and/or the rich can often exploit the weakest in society-a theme of Jack London's. We related this theme to the literary "naturalist" genre. I further projected a power point presentation of Buck's journey from California to the Yukon displaying both maps and historical photographs of the use of sled dogs during the Klondike Gold Rush. Jaydn then completed reading chapter 2 and completed the accompanying study guide questions on the reading.
Last week, we began to explore events leading to the outbreak of the Civil War. We continued this today by examining the outbreak of violence in Kansas and the Supreme Court's Dredd Scott Decision of 1857. In the late 1850s, "Bleeding Kansas" referred to the hostilities and violence that occurred in Kansas territory. The conflict centered on whether the new state of Kansas would allow or prohibit slavery. Congress had passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, which allowed for popular sovereignty, stipulating that new settlers could decide for themselves on the issue. This resulted in a land rush of people to the new territory from both pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions, each intent on political control. Tensions between the two sides escalated, eventually becoming violent. Pro-slavery "Border Ruffians" from neighboring Missouri were particularly infamous in their use of murder, arson, theft, and kidnapping. Anti-slavery abolitionist settlers, also called "Free-Staters," committed acts of violent reprisals as well. The Dred Scott decision, as it has come to be known, would set back the cause of free blacks, abolitionists and moral crusaders in the United States in ways not imagined before the decision was handed down. The court ruled that free or slave, blacks were not citizens.
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state. It stated that slavery would not be permitted north of Missouri's southern border or the 36th parallel. The Missouri Compromise set a precedent for admitting states two at a time to maintain a political balance. The Compromise of 1850 consisted of acts passed by the US Congress in an attempt to keep the peace between free and slave states. It consisted of 5 acts that collectively established the social and geographical boundaries of slavery in America. The 5 acts were the following: Established California as a free state, Compelled Texas to abandon its claim on Mexican cession territory, Gave the territories of Utah and New Mexico the right to vote on whether they would allow slavery or not,
Outlawed the slave trade within Washington, D.C., Enacted a strict law aimed at recapturing enslaved people who had escaped.
While the compromise managed to maintain political peace for another decade, these laws evidenced the massive division between north and south. The Fugitive Slave Act altered an existing law that required all free citizens to assist the alleged owners of people believed to have escaped from slavery, even in free states. Even former slaves living in free states could be captured & forced back into slavery. The anti-slavery book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," sells as many copies in the 1850s as "Harry Potter" in our time!
During our first session, we studied Buck's transformation from a domesticated dog to a dog who must survive the violence of Man and the Yukon. After I reviewed the relationship between the Naturalist genre and Darwinism, Jaydn discussed Buck's first violent encounter with the "man in the red sweater" who clubs Buck into a form of submission. We explored the meaning of Buck's recognizing he must obey but does have to submit. We studied the personalities of the other dogs. Curly is a good natured dog while Spitz is treacherous and deceitful. Jaydn did well recognizing these character traits and predicting how each might thrive or wither in the Yukon. During the final segment Jaydn worked on preparing written responses to study guide questions. During our second session, we reviewed Jaydn's study guide responses . I further provided instruction on how to write a quote analysis :context ,paraphrase, and significance. We then worked on writing an analyis of two quotes from the novel, the first dealing with the motif of atavism, the second addressing writing style. In connection with the second analysis, I provided definitions of the terms"simile and paradox" which Jaydn incorporated into her written work. We then examined the chapter summary for the next chapter and noted how the theme of atavism will manifest in chapter 2. While discussing the novel's unique point of view , i.e. from the perspective of Buck, a sled dog, we also had a very interesting talk about animal sentience in general and the cruelty inherent in using animals for Man's entertainment.
