AP Language & Composition
As student’s enter their classes throughout the day, they often expect to learn, read, write, etc while remaining in their seats for a majority of the period. What is not so expected is heading outside for a class, which is how AP Language students spent their time on Thursday November 16th high above the Norwin campus at a trail known as Dead Man’s Pass.
Teacher Brian Fleckenstein transitioned his AP Lang classes into the topic of Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism is a philosophical, spiritual, and literary movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s. This movement was a reaction to rationalism and was based on the focus of spiritual thinking over scientific thinking. Transcendentalism advocates for a personal understanding of God and a deep appreciation for nature. Fleckenstein’s classes have been focusing particularly on the popular Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
Throughout his years of teaching, Fleckenstein observed and developed different methods of teaching to help students benefit from various types of activities. Fleckenstein found that taking the initiative to go outside and truly observe nature has been particularly effective in helping students understand the concept of Transcendentalism.
“The main reason we go outside is because to the Transcendentalists, Nature was viewed as the avenue to achieve enlightenment, and to experience things in nature that you can experience in civilization,” said Fleckenstein. “When we go outside ,we often don’t stop and look around because sometimes when we’re outside we’re just traveling from one place to another, and not really observing what’s going on around us.”
During the class, students were led to the woods behind the tennis courts area of the Norwin High School campus. They were then further instructed to walk about, observe, and make inferences about their surroundings. Students took copious amounts of pictures as they got in touch with nature.
“Making the adventure outside for AP Lang opened my eyes for me to connect what nature has to give and how society and people change,” said Carmella Simco, AP Lang student. “I studied change in the leaves and connected it to how I myself change, but also how change is not ever a bad thing, it’s just growth. During this lesson and being in the woods was beneficial to really thinking deeper than I ever have with nature.”
The main purpose of this activity was to capture a picture that students could write an observational journal about. The AP Language students were directed to write their observation journal similarly to the works of Transcendentalism Henry Thoreau. Thoreau has a very naturalistic, observational writing style, and student’s did their best to copy this type of writing.
Throughout school, student’s become accustomed to the typical sit in a seat and listen to a lecture type of learning style. When introduced with an interactive activity, students tend to thrive in the opportunity, and that is exactly what Mr. Fleckenstein’s AP Lang students did.
“I loved reading these journals,” said Fleckenstein. “Students got extremely creative and definitely touched into the mind of a Transcendentalist.”
