Early American Literature Applications

In Early American Literature class, students read pieces by Emerson and Thoreau, and then experienced a microcosm-variation of “Walden Pond” at the Valley student prairie. In the same vein of Annie Dillard, we looked at / listened to nature closely. On a graphic organizer, each student recorded sensual experiences of sight, sound, touch, and feelings while there. Photographs and sketches were encouraged. These recordings (visual and written) were later combined into a power point to view for individual and collective memory. Each person’s experience was validated through a phrase or picture which captured the prairie’s intricacies, movement, power, and beauty.

Simply absorbing this site helped us to personally experience the season, instead of just knowing about it from another source. Throughout the semester, we would return to watch ourselves wandering together, sitting alone, or walking in that grassy field. Such a classroom hour and shared experience had a real lasting beauty, stored like a good harvest, before the winter. . .

Journal prompts included how the experiences/observations gleaned from the small world of the prairie could be translated into lessons about or for the self. A snapshot of the prairie, at a moment in time, provides pause to reevaluate our surroundings at any given moment and consider what Nature may have to offer our human existence.

- Pam Thomason

“A man's interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”

Henry David Thoreau