Summer 2005 Reading Project

All incoming first year students at Florida Gulf Coast University will read Julia Butterfly Hill’s The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods in order to explore two of FGCU’s Learning Goals: Ecological Perspective and Community Awareness and Involvement.

The Legacy of Luna describes the journey of a young woman seeking to find a direction and path for her life. She travels west and enters the redwood forest and finds a calling; when she learns about others who are working to save the trees from unsustainable and illegal logging practices, she joins in their work. Ultimately, she lives in the tree named Luna for over two years. During this process, she educates herself about ecological issues and finds that she must work with others - including those who have a different perspective than hers - in order to make a difference.

For the writing assignment, students will be asked to explore and critically analyze the dialogue that exists in the book between environmentalists and corporations, especially as that dialogue connects to our learning goals.

The first assignment, written for their Composition classes, will center on asking students to analyze the way in which multiple perspectives on the issue of ecological destruction are (or are not) engaged in the book. More specifically, you will need to critically analyze both the author's perspective and the perspective of the loggers and corporations, especially as those perspectives change and grow as the book progresses and the two sides begin to interact more intimately. You will chart the author's and others' growth as they learn to interact with perspectives that differ from their own.

The second assignment, written for their Styles and Ways classes, will center on the ten General Education Learning Goals. Students will find examples of each learning goal in the book. This information will then be used to help define each learning goal in the class in a concrete and practical way. Click here to get the Ten General Education Leaning Goals.

Ultimately, we will ask students to consider their own growing Ecological Perspective and their willingness to be involved in their Communities. Click here to get the Writing Assignments.

Contact Information
Linda Rowland (for the composition 1 assignment)
Email: lrowland@fgcu.edu
Phone: (239)590-7254

Maria Roca (for the Styles and Ways of Learning assignment)
Email: mroca@fgcu.edu
Phone: (239)590-7185