Essential question
What does Thoreau want to remove from life in order to discover what life actually is?
Marked passage
- Passage location
- Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
- Start anchor
- I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately
- End anchor
- and, if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
Why go to the woods?
Ways to teach it
Listening
Listen to the exact passage; visual following is optional. Same question and evidence demand.
Solo
Read the exact passage independently.
Supported
Use narration and sentence highlighting while reading the same passage.
Teacher guide
Close
Name the single detail that most changed or sharpened your interpretation, and explain why.
Evidence
Use the purpose verbs in the passage and the repeated contrast between essential life and the things he wants to avoid, refuse, or remove.
Mark
Underline each verb describing what Thoreau intends to do at Walden. Circle the things he wants to remove, avoid, or refuse. Star the phrase that best defines what remains after the subtraction.
Instructional move
Follow a purpose statement through its repeated contrasts
Notice
• Is Thoreau going to the woods mainly to gain something or to remove something? • What does he think ordinary life adds that prevents clear understanding? • How do the repeated contrasts between essential and nonessential sharpen his purpose?
Strong answer
Thoreau wants to strip away hurry, distraction, secondhand priorities, and unnecessary complexity so he can confront the 'essential facts' directly. Going to the woods is a method of subtraction.
Think
Answer provisionally: What does Thoreau want to remove from life in order to discover what life actually is? Choose the strongest interpretation you can defend from this passage alone.
Watch for
Do not answer that Thoreau wants to escape society because he dislikes people. The question is about what he subtracts in order to see life more clearly.
Why this passage
Thoreau’s purpose statement defines the woods less as a destination than as a method of subtraction. He wants to strip away hurry, distraction, and secondhand living so that the essential facts of life become visible.
Write
Write a short evidence-based response to: What does Thoreau want to remove from life in order to discover what life actually is? Use at least two details from the assigned passage and explain how they support your interpretation.
Student tasks
Mark
Underline each verb describing what Thoreau intends to do at Walden. Circle the things he wants to remove, avoid, or refuse. Star the phrase that best defines what remains after the subtraction.
Notice
Is Thoreau going to the woods mainly to gain something or to remove something? What does he think ordinary life adds that prevents clear understanding? How do the repeated contrasts between essential and nonessential sharpen his purpose?
Think
Answer provisionally: What does Thoreau want to remove from life in order to discover what life actually is?
Write
Write a short response using at least two pieces of evidence from this passage. Use evidence from the assigned passage. Show what you noticed and how the text supports your interpretation.