Backtracking

Kane S. Krummel
Ed. 386

Gary Paulsen’s biography by Gary M. Salvner is a reading and writing history that will blow the mind of anyone reading it. Gary Paulsen was born on May 17, 1939, at Saint Mary’s Hospital, Minneapolis, Minnesota to Oscar and Eunice Paulsen. Oscar Paulsen, who was a career army officer was called to service in World War II shortly after Gary’s birth. His father wouldn’t see his son again until he was 7 years old.

Eunice Paulsen was a tiger of a woman who twice saved Gary. The first time was when a priest that was about to administer the last rites to Gary during one of his frequent bouts of pneumonia was driven from the room. The second time was when he was also a child and his mother savagely attacked a man that was going molest her son.

After his parents reunited, alcoholism and arguing by his parents were the rule more than the exception. It was a disease that Gary would later have to battle through himself.

Gary was always looking for a way to escape this world. His escape came in the form of a kind-hearted librarian, who introduced him the realm of reading. In high school, he was a self- admitted "geek, nerd, dweeb" and in an attempt to be "cool", he tracked down a deer for 2 days and a night. This tracking experience would later serve as the base for Tracker, which was published in 1984. Since 1965, when Gary left an aerospace firm in California to become a writer, the young adult book world has never been the same. Since that time he is accredited with over 200 works, including 14 young adult books, 3 major adult works, 20 Culpepper Adventure books, 2 picture books, and Gary Paulsen’s World of Adventure Series.

In describing Gary Paulsen, one word from the outside looking in sums up his life, "wow." He is, it would seem, the epitome of the ideal of the American dream. He is a man who has become a very successful writer, whose whole life has been a battle. Through all of the trials and tribulations, his character shines through and a paraphrase from Chumbawamba song sums it up correctly, " He got knocked down, but got back up again and your never gonna keep him down." Mr. Paulsen constantly had to pull himself up by his bootstraps and battle through whatever obstacle was in his way. I feel that his clever blend of real life experiences and story would draw the attention of any student. I also feel that his success is well-deserved and after the students read one of his books, they should be told of his life story and see how anything can happen if you put your mind to it.

Salvner, Gary M. (1996) Presenting Gary Paulsen
New York, New York: Twayne Publishers

Originally, the young adult literature book I was going to use was an old favorite of mine, Jack London’s Call of the Wild. However, after picking up Gary Paulsen’s Tracker and reading the first 20 pages, (of which parallels my own young deer hunting life) I was hooked. I decided that it was a book I must read. In Gary Paulsen’s Tracker, I was impressed with the vivid imagery with which he described people, situations, and experiences. This vivid imagery allowed me to dive into the context of the main character, John Borne, and drew my own personal experiences into the mix. Whether one agrees with hunting or not, I feel that the students of any age would have a hard time putting it down. It is a book, which contains the heart of hunting and yet, that transcends the hunting experience. Moreover, it is a book of life and how one should appreciate those we have and how we should make the most of the time we have with them and the experiences they offer.

For experiences, I site my own early hunting career. Although I didn’t hunt with my grandfather as John did, many of the experiences and feelings paralleled mine. The first couple of years that I hunted, my grandfather did the same, so we had a common experience. One day near the beginning of the school year, my parents told my sister and I that my grandfather was in the hospital with cancer. My heart seemed to drop out of my chest, because I knew at that age what cancer meant; it meant the death of my grandfather. After putting this thought in the back of my mind as all kids do, I went along with a normal kid’s life. Deer season was still a couple of months away. Time rolled by and the season seemed to burst forward. A week before the season I was very excited. Perhaps two days before season, my father said " Grandpa wasn’t going deer hunting this year." In my head, I thought Grandpa hasn’t missed a deer season in 100 years', in my heart I knew that death would be the price. He died that January.

Journal Writing

What I envision for my journal writing project is to foster an appreciation for the outdoors and what resides in it. The journal writing could be done any time of the year, more ideally when large numbers of bird are migrating through just for the dramatics of showing what is actually out there. Since Tracker focuses on deer season, that is the time I will use. Since I will have two types of students, those missing school for hunting and those not hunting, I will have very similar but somewhat different journal requirements. The students who miss school for hunting will have to compile a journal of daily activities and experiences that went along with the hunt. This may be a story of what they saw while in the outdoors for the day and it may be a story similar to Tracker. For the students that are non-hunters, I would ask that they sit outside for 15 minutes to 1 hour and describe the world around them and their feelings. I would have students write for 1 week (7 days). My overall goal is to foster and develop an appreciation of nature. Students would start with an A grade work their way down, meaning that if they follow a few simple guideline, they will receive full credit for the assignment.

Guidelines

Must have 7 journal entries half a page or more.

Must include time and date of observation.

Creativity and Reflection 10% of grade.

Wildlife Biography

The wildlife biography is a chance for students to get to know a particular animal in depth. Students will pick an animal from a list of Wisconsin animals and research about it. The students should look for the type of habitat it lives in, the food it eats, its role in the community, and something that you the student finds interesting, just to name a few. Later, the students will get together and perform a group activity (will be discussed later). I have a few broad goals for this activity. First, I would like the students to become involved in doing a research project and expose them to the exciting things the library has to offer. Secondly, by doing this project with a chance for revision, I hope to give them a project that they can feel proud of and for which they can take ownership. Hopefully, the students who do this project earn a new respect for the animal that they chose. Lastly, with the incorporation of other students and their animals, the students will have the opportunity to work on their creativity and communication skills. Students will be graded on their interpretation of the material they found, and how it was placed together in the paper. It can range from 5 to 8 pages. Students will also be graded on their variety of sources and must have a minimum of 5 citations from those sources. The student may have only one of the sources be an encyclopedia. The student must have at least 2 magazine and 2 book sources. Student will submit a rough draft to me in 3 weeks. Students will be given 1 chance to revise their "finished" paper.

Wildlife Annotated Bibliography

Students constructing a wildlife-annotated bibliography will be given a choice about the type of bibliography they wish to construct. It can deal with how humans affect wildlife and vice versa or make an annotated bibliography for the wildlife biography project. I would tell the students that it would be more difficult to get an A on the biography than it is to get an A on the other. To encourage the former project, I would encourage to exchange information and titles between classmates. However, the students must state where the entries came from, whether it is by themselves or by another students. Students will lose points for incorrect citations, not identifying the source of the article or book, not handing in their own bibliography, and for constantly misusing class time given to them to work on the project. I have certain goal for this project. First, to establish a working base of information and ideas by doing the annotations. Second, to allow students to choose at their discretion whom they want to be partners with and also to be treated accordingly. Third, again to work on their communication skills and learn to cooperate with others to get the best product possible. Students would be graded on whether attained the 30 annotations of which at least 10 must be their own and whether they stated, if they shared annotations, from whom the annotations came.

Essay Comparing/Contrasting the Reading of Paulsen to Leopold

Ideally, in my classroom, I would have both Tracker and Sand County Almanac available for the students to check out and read. An assignment of theirs would be to read Tracker, I would later read aloud Thinking Like a Mountain by Aldo Leopold in a Sand County Almanac, post read aloud I would try to foster an hour long discussion on it. I would expect students to write an essay based on their reading. Students would be able to check out the books on a Monday and the essay would be due the following Monday for example. The grading of the paper will consist of drawing interpretations, forming their argument, and supporting their argument with citations from the assigned books and outside sources. A possible example would be, however students are not limit to is: If more people took the idea of not limiting deer populations, what would be the effect on society? It will be possible for 1 revision for a higher grade.

The state government is considering banning hunting of all types. You as a concerned citizen (either for or against) will write your state assemblyperson or senator and let them know of your stance. Note: Must be able to support opinion in the form of an argument.

This is a difficult question to ask many students without eliciting some very vocal responses. My overall goal for this essay is for the students to realize that their anger is best when it is channeled into a useful purpose and that their representatives are responsible for carrying out the voter’s wishes. Ideally, they would also realize that if they want something done or not done that they can not sit on their butts and do nothing.

In grading this essay, I would have to follow an outline so as not to allow my personal biases to enter into my grading. The students must state their position, form an argument, support that argument, and have a strong conclusion. The grading of the letter will consist of, stating their postion,forming their argument, and supporting their argument with concrete facts citations from the assigned books or outside sources. A rough draft would be do to me 2 weeks from the issuing of the assignment. Students would then have 1 opportunity to revise their paper.

Activities other than Writing

For the following activities the students will be graded on participation, discussion, and a brief written evaluation of the activities worth.

Came from Project Wild (1995)

Behthesda,MD: Western Regional Environmental Education Council

 Student or group presentation of wildlife biographies.

With this activity, students are asked to form group of 4 and within that group design a presentation that gives a summary of each of the animals and makes connections between how these animals interact while in the environment. The only criteria that I have for the presentation is that it is tasteful, creative, and I am provided with an outline of the presentation 3 days before the presentation.

Quick Frozen Critters*(pg.122-124) Paulsen, pg. 47-51

I chose this activity because it is an active form of freeze tag that gives students a hands-on feeling of a predator-prey relationship. I feel that the age range for the activity as stated in the book in all wrong I feel that secondary students could easily become engrossed in this game of cat and mouse, hunter-deer, or hawk-squirrel. The real key for making this a higher end activity revolves around the quality of the discussion that follows.

Oh Deer!!* (pg. 146-149) Leopold, Thinking Like a Mountain

Since the books I have chosen deal mainly with deer populations, I couldn’t pass on this one. The objectives of this activity do require some biological background to understand just exactly what they entail, which I could use to foster a discussion following the role-playing.

Checks and Balances* (pg. 186-189) Leopold, On a Monument to the Pigeon

Students in this activity are asked to be the manager of a wildlife population. In it they will be required to evaluate how their management decisions affected the population as a whole.

The Hunter * (pg. 190-197) Leopold, The Deer Swath, and Goose Music

Paulson, Tracker Chapter 4

After reading a story on hunting, the students will discuss the story. In the discussion students will be able to describe their feelings in regards to hunting, compare that view with others in the classroom, and make personal judgments about the appropriateness of hunting. I could see this activity as a precursor to the mock letter I will have them write (Writing activity 5).

I do not view this project as something I would incorporate wholy into my normal classroom, however, if done in pieces it has the potential to become a very powerful learning experience. The first reason is that the time factor in regards to the writing and research involved and the depth of the papers wouldn’t be practical in a short time frame. One may say well just delay the paper collection so you can incorporate everything. I feel that this is a foolhardy idea because what I was trying to instill would be washed away with a delayed process. Students many times finish some type of project and then mentally discard it in favor of something new.

I actually had a blast doing this activity, mostly because I like it when I can see the broader goals of a individual project and something like this allows me, if I am ever in the situation experiment with different methods of teaching. My scope for this group of activities was more towards an environmental/ecological type class. I can say this because I was reading a class-offering sheet for Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln and noticed that they offered an environmental class. I think this would be the ideal class to teach if it had a floating curriculum, one in which I basically covered what I wanted and how I wanted to do it. Thus, with that in mind I wanted to come up with some activities which were interesting, fun, and that engaged the student both mentally and physically to have a far reaching impact.

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