1. Topic-
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2. Content-
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| Henry David Thoreau possessed that rare combination of attributes
that granted him the ability to think as well as the ability to act.
His two most famous works, Walden and the essay popularly titled Civil
Disobedience, embody these characteristics. They both have served
as renewable resources for modern thinkers since their initial publication
over one hundred and fifty years ago and continue to be relevant today.
The past influence and lasting significance of Thoreau's works deems
it an integral part of any student's education. |
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3. Goals: Aims/Outcomes-
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1.Give the students the basic historic background of the mid 19th
Century
2.Establish the basic principles of the Transcendentalist movement
and its proponents
3.Discuss the works of Henry David Thoreau and their literary and
historical significance |
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4. Objectives-
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| Students in this age group are on the brink of legal adulthood and
with either higher education or a career at their doorstep, Thoreau's
writing offers simple and elegant modes of thought to help whatever
institution the youth will be entering. |
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5. Materials and Aids-
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6. Procedures/Methods-
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A. Introduction-
1. Begin teaching with a basic introduction to the period to give
Thoreau's work some historic context. The United States of America
is a young nation struggling to find its own identity in the wake
of its War for Independence. Several large socials problems abound,
namely the perpetuation of slavery and the Mexican - AmericanWar,
both of which were major influences on his essay Civil Disobedience.
2. Take the class to a computer lab and have them visit
a nonprofit website dedicated to the Civil War history and of all
the events leading to its outbreak. Have the class break up into five
groups; assign each one of the five parts detailing slavery's history
in the U.S. (The Early Slave Trade, Slavery in the US, The Fugitive
Slave Law, The Emancipation Proclamation, and The Missouri Compromise).
3.Have each group summarize and present their section to the class.
I will then give a presentation of my own on the Mexican - American
War with information acquired from the same site.
4. Conclude the class with group discussion, ask the class if they
can draw parallels to any present-day American wars? Open up the floor
to questions.
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B. Development-
1.Begin a general overview of Transcendentalism and its main proponents,
namely Ralph Waldo Emerson. Discuss how in the decades leading up
to the American Civil War, groups of people, working off the ideas
of the Enlightenment, had begun using reason and rational thinking
to insist on reforms of various social institutions. While their focus
was mainly slavery, they also included schools, churches, prisons,
and the self.
2.Have the class read Margaret Fuller's critique of various social
institutions Our City Charities out loud in class. Ask them what type
of reforms she insists upon and what is the basis of her arguments?
Look for answers pertaining to human rights. Ask the class what role
nature takes in the essay.
Impress upon them the importance of the cleansing, purifying role
of nature in Transcendentalist literature and the betterment of the
self
4.Assign them reading homework: excerpts from Emerson's Nature and
Self Reliance. Brief one page responses to each essay explaining how
they reflected the main ideas of the movement will be due at the beginning
of the next class. |
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