EDUCATOR:
SCHOOL:
DISCIPLINE:
COURSE:
LEVEL:
DATE:
Beth A. Hughes
Wakefield High School
English
American Literature
Juniors, College Prep.
August 15, 2002
Part I: THE DISCLAIMER
In an ideal world, students would be given several months to inspect, sample, savor, and then digest every
literary work within our curriculum. However, in the practical world in which we live, time is much more than
the stream we go a-fishin’ in. Therefore, this unit includes a list of literary works, supplemental pieces, and
engaging activities that could be used, depending on the amount of time allotted. Thoreau would probably find a
way to use all of these, but then again, he was only a public educator for two weeks!
Part II: THE UNIT OBJECTIVES
Given a wide array of Transcendental literary works (see Materials list below), students will be able to:
a) Define Transcendentalism;
b) List & explain the events that shaped this period in history;
c) Discuss the prominent ideas of this period’s writers and their literature;
c) Experience how nature can shape literature;
d) Connect the basic tenets of Transcendentalism to life in the 21st century.
Part III: THE MATERIALS
The following is a list of literary works and supplemental materials that may be used for this unit. Each
supplemental piece is listed where it best connects.
EMERSON
Self-Reliance
Nature
Miscellaneous Aphorisms
THOREAU
Walden
Civil Disobedience
The Simpson’s: “Lisa the Treehugger” (Episode #1204)
A Brief, Yet Helpful, Guide to Civil Disobedience, Woody Allen
Slavery in Massachusetts
Walking
Thoreau’s Maine, Yankee Magazine
Miscellaneous Aphorisms
WHITMAN
I Hear America Singing
When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
From a Lecture Delivered in a Crosswind, Moyles
Song of Myself
The Journey of Walt Whitman, Writing, 4/99
A Supermarket in California, Ginsberg
DICKINSON
I Felt a Funeral in my Brain
The Bustle in a House
“Hope” is a Thing with Feathers
Success Is Counted Sweetest
Because I Would not Stop for Death
“Much Madness is Divinest Sense,” US News & World
Report, 5/21/01
Poets & Friends, American History
GENERAL APPLICATION
Comics, Miscellaneous Newspapers
A Century-old Definition of Success Still Rings True, The Boston Globe, 7/17/02
The Paradox of Time, Anonymous
Dance Like No One Is Watching, Anonymous
Wipeout at Warp Speed, Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, 4/19/99
Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night, Thomas
Fern Hill, Thomas
Thoreau: A Complex Man Seen Clearly, Philadelphia Inquirer, 2/8/87
At Home in the Woods, for 16 Years, The Intelligencer/The Record, 4/26/94
Thoreau Has Overtaken Emerson, Some Think, The Intelligencer/The Record, 11/3/91
Dead Poets Society
Part IV: THE ACTIVITIES
EMERSON-RELATED
LOST IN SPACE
This is a great game to be used before “Self-Reliance” or with anything pertaining to individualism or peer
pressure.
1) Before class begins, divide students into groups of 3 or 4 and know who is the most influential student in
each group.
2) Before formally beginning class, ask the influential students to see you in the hall. This should be done
nonchalantly, so it looks like business, rather than a ploy.
3) Do something (i.e. check homework, review a quiz, do a journal entry) before beginning Lost In Space, so
that the students forget who was in the hall.
4) Now have students get into the groups you selected and distribute the Lost in Space handout.
5) Read the directions aloud, and then give students time to complete the activity.
The idea of this game is for the influential student to convince his/her team that, if they were lost in space with
the 10 items on the handout, a flashlight would be the most important item. This is ridiculous, since food, water,
and oxygen are clearly more important than a light! However, if the influencer is influential enough, s/he can
convince the group of anything!
EMERSON’S 21ST CENTURY COMEBACK TOUR!
Have students brainstorm the major events marking the 21st century thus far (i.e. incessant fighting in the
Middle East, September 11th, the Big Corporation scandals, Miner Miracle, Catholic Church Scandal). Suppose
Emerson (et al) were able to get all of the said parties into one lecture hall. What would he say to them? Write
his lecture for that night. Use at least three actual Emersonian aphorisms in your lecture.
THOREAU-RELATED
PIN THE TAIL ON THE APHORISM
1) Select a series of quotations from Walden (or other works).
2) Only give the students the beginnings of these quotes. (See sample handout.)
3) Have students complete the quotes, enabling their wisdom, personality, and humor to shine through!
Note: These aphorisms would be great essay or journal prompts, but at the very least, they will add meaning
when juxtaposed against Thoreau’s wisdom.
“OH, BEHAAAAAVE!” (CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE)
1) As a precursor to this essay, show the class the “Lisa the Treehugger” Simpson’s episode. (Most students
know someone who has it on tape, and it is easy to get your own copy by offering a few extra credit points!)
This is the episode where Lisa lives in a Redwood to save it from being chopped down. This is not only a
great episode that will appeal to your students on the literal level, but it is a sneaky way to introduce Civil
Disobedience.
2) Follow the clip with a mini-discussion on the morality of what Lisa did. Was she right?
3) Read the essay Civil Disobedience. Be sure everyone is clear on what it means to be civilly disobedient.
4) Now have a discussion of for what your students might be willing to be civilly disobedient.
5) What warnings exist? What if everyone ignored the law and took matters into their own hands?
6) Where have we seen civil disobedience gone awry in society today? What about in literature?
Be sure to share Woody Allen’s parody, A Brief, Yet Helpful, Guide to Civil Disobedience, with your class
after Civil Disobedience to add humor to this difficult essay!
WHERE’S WALDO HANK?: AN ELECTRONIC SCAVENGER HUNT
As a hands-on way for students to understand basic biographical information about Henry David Thoreau
before reading Walden, give students a list of questions they should research. (See handout as an example.) You
may even want to suggest certain websites; however, be forewarned: Many websites are here today and gone (or
updated!) tomorrow.
OUR WALDEN: A NATURE-INSPIRED CULMINATING PROJECT
1) Have students find their own “Walden” and visit it at least 5 times throughout the course of reading Walden.
2) Students should use this “Walden” to inspire them to either write journal entries, create poetry, or draw
pictures. Of the work they have created, the students will need to pick one as their final product.
3) On the due date, have students share their nature-inspired artwork.
4) These projects should then be mounted on a wall. The wall should have a large map of Wakefield. Each
student should be given a pushpin and a piece of yarn. The pin should be entered into the map where the
student lives, and then the yarn should span out to the student’s artwork.
WHITMAN-RELATED
I HEAR AMERICA SINGING—THE SEQUEL
After discussing I Hear America Singing, have students craft a 21st century version of the poem, including those
singers who are America’s voice today.
COMPARE & CONTRAST
Have students compare and contrast Whitman’s poem When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer and Moyles’ A
Lecture Delivered in a Crosswind. Give students an appropriate forum to voice when teachers tend to act as the
Learn’d astronomer at times (i.e. busywork, study guide questions taking the pleasure out of reading, reviewing
every question on a test). What do we learn as children on our own, without a learn’d astronomer explaining it
away? What kinds of things do/can we learn just by observing the world around us?
GENERAL
10 THINGS I HATE WILL REMEMBER ABOUT YOU!
Thirty years from now, students will remember very little wisdom we’ve imparted to them; however, they will
remember anything odd about these (and any) writers. In that vein, have students research 5 remarkable (in a
nontraditional sense) facts about each of these Transcendentalists. Have students share their lists with each
other, and then you can add to the list so that they have 10 items for each. Another option is to create a handout
listing the 10 things (with fill in the blanks?) or listing 10 questions to guide them in their research! This is a
great way to make these dead white men (and one woman) alive and well in your classroom!