Description
Lesson Block by teacher, Kerry Burke
This lesson block is recommended for students in 12th grade. However, it can also be used as a 9th, 10th or 11th grade block if you feel you students are ready.
In this block students will learn about the Transcendental movement and the philosophical and religious influences that formed it as well as its key figures including Ralph Waldo Emerson and other writers. Students will read Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” and experience the text by exploring new vocabulary, engaging in reading discussions, and writing an expository essay.
Guide material includes: Transcendentalists Course Objectives guide with the course calendar; Transcendental Note-Taking template; and Assignment Directions guide outlining assignment #1 journal, assignment #2 vocabulary, assignment #3 text analysis and discussion, assignment #4 vocabulary, assignment #5 text analysis and discussion, assignment #6 first expository essay, assignment #7 poetry analysis and discussion, assignment #8 second expository essay and music analysis and discussion, assignment #9 art analysis and discussion, and assignment #10 modern transcendentalists.
Lecture material includes: (1) Emerson and the Transcendentalists L1 PowerPoint lecture. 34 slides and 28 minutes of audio. Topics covered are in L1 are: transcendentalism, unitarianism, eastern philosophy, fourierism, utopia and concord. (2) Emerson and the Transcendentalists L2 PowerPoint lecture. 27 slides and 23 minutes of audio. Main figures covered in L2 are: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller, George Ripley, and Elizabeth Peabody. (3) Emerson and the Transcendentalists PowerPoint lecture. 11 slides and 6 minutes of audio. L3 covers five tenets of transcendentalism: individualism/self-reliance, the over-soul, voluntary simplicity, nature, and civil disobedience.
Reading material includes:(1) “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 13 page essay written by Emerson in 1841 discussing his central themes. (2) “I’m thankful that my life doth not deceive by Henry David Thoreau. Poem. (3) “Flaxman” by Margaret Fuller. Poem. (4) “Each and All” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Poem.
