Overview, Purpose, & Timeframe  In this 5-7 day introductory lesson, students will discuss and compare Thoreau’s act of civil disobedience in the 1840’s with an act of civil disobedience from tax resisters in the 1990’s in the Connecticut River Valley.  

Massachusetts Standards Addressed:  ELA (June, 2001):

*2.  Questioning, Listening, and Contributing.  Students will pose questions, listen to the ideas of others, and contribute their own information or ideas in group discussions and interviews in order to acquire new knowledge.

8.  Understanding a Text.  Students will identify the basic facts and main ideas in a text and use them as a basis for interpretation.

9.  Making Connections.  Students will deepen their understanding of a literary or non-literary work by relating it to its contemporary context or historical background.

13.  Nonfiction.  Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the purpose, structure, and elements of nonfiction or informational materials and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.

23.  Organizing Ideas in Writing.  Students will organize ideas in writing in a way that makes sense for their purpose.

*26.  Analysis of Media.  Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the conventions, elements, and techniques of film, radio, video, television, multimedia productions, the Internet, and emerging technologies, and provide evidence from the works to support their understanding.

Learning Outcomes

The student will:

Understand the importance of Henry David Thoreau in forming the social conscience of modern society.

Identify author’s purpose and audience.

Analyze subjective and objective points of view in non-fiction.

Identify structural techniques in a script and provide evidence from the text.

Compare and contrast two works.

Activities/

Instructional Strategies

Students will read The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail in class.  Discuss the concepts of transcendentalism and civil disobedience as presented in the play.

Next, the class will view the 90 minute documentary called An Act of Conscience, which relates the story of Randy Kehler and Betsy Corner, tax resisters, whose house was seized in Colrain, Massachusetts by the federal government and auctioned in the 1990’s.

Through large group discussion, develop working definitions of civil disobedience.

Also in large group discussion, compare Thoreau and Kehler/Corner.  How did society react in both cases?

Divide class into random pairs.  Each pair should write a chart that gives the similarities and the differences of the two examples of civil disobedience.

The charts may be written on poster-size Post-Its and hung around the room for further discussion by class.

Students then discuss the advantages and disadvantages of nonconformity.

Modifications

Selected excerpts from “Civil Disobedience” may also be read to further understanding.

Each chart can be developed into a comparison/contrast essay.

Selectively pair weaker students with stronger ones.

Resources

Ordering information about An Act of Conscience may be obtained from Turning Tide Productions, PO Box 864, Wendall, MA   01379

Materials Needed

Class copies of The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail

TV/VCR to show the documentary An Act of Conscience

Excerpts from “Civil Disobedience”

Excerpts from Walden may also be read

Culminating Performance/

Assessment

Comparison charts may be displayed in classroom.

This assignment is usually non-graded, but if a grade is required, a simple rubric can be as follows:

A final class discussion concerning the advantages and disadvantages of nonconformity should take place to end activity.

Overview, Purpose, & Timeframe  After students complete Lesson 1, in this 5-7 day assignment, students continue the study of Thoreau’s beliefs.  Students will be paired to write a dramatic dialogue in which Thoreau “meets” another famous author.*  Through the dialogue, each “character” reveals his/her attitudes and beliefs on a topic.

*In my American lit class, the authors from 1900-current are actually studied before Thoreau.  Also, I usually have 20 or fewer students in a class.)

Massachusetts Standards Addressed:  ELA (June, 2001):

*1.  Discussion.  Students will use agreed-upon rules for informal and formal discussions in small and large groups

9.  Making Connections.  Students will deepen their understanding of a literary or non-literary work by relating it to its contemporary context or historical background.

*18.  Dramatic Reading and Performance.  Students will plan and present dramatic readings, recitations, and performances that demonstrate appropriate consideration of audience and purpose.

19.  Writing.  Students will write with a clear focus, coherent organization, and sufficient detail.

*24.  Research.  Students will gather information from a variety of sources, analyze and evaluate the quality of the information they obtain, and use it to answer their own questions.

Learning Outcomes

The student will:

Recognize the connection between an author’s personal beliefs and his/her writing.

Identify author’s purpose and audience.

Analyze subjective and objective points of view in non-fiction.

Analyze the conventions, elements and techniques of dramatic dialogue and performance.

Work in a pair to write a dramatic dialogue.

Perform a dramatic dialogue.

Activities/

Instructional Strategies

The class will read excerpts from Thoreau’s journals as follows:  Rip apart a copy of The Heart of Thoreau’s Journals and randomly distribute pages to class members to read for homework.

The next day, discuss journal entries.  Generate a list on board of Thoreau’s opinions on various topics.

Divide class members into pairs, and give the following instructions:

  Imagine if Thoreau met a famous author who lived and wrote from 1900-current.  For example:  Would Steinbeck and Thoreau “get along”?

  Write a dramatic dialogue between Thoreau and the author you’ve drawn out of the hat.  (I place the following names in the hat:  Jack London, Willa Cather, Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Jack Kerouac, J.D. Salinger, John F. Kennedy, Annie Dillard).

  Select a topic the two authors might discuss.  For example, Thoreau and Rachel Carson might discuss Nature.

  Your dialogue may be written in script form and must run between 5-10 minutes.  Prepare 3 copies.  One for each of you and one for me.

  Be prepared to present your dialogue in class on this date: ______________________

Modifications

Class can also be divided into panels of four and a panel discussion could take place with Thoreau and 3 others.

Suggest that participants dress in the manner of his/her author.

Time for internet research for this assignment may be done in class or at home.

For shy classes, the dialogue does not have to be performed, so a written copy only can be done instead.

Another variation, might be to have Thoreau meet an artist, musician or historical figure.  This could be made interdisciplinary unit with another subject teacher, such as art, music, or history.

Resources

For Thoreau, use http://www.walden.org for research on biography and beliefs.

Also, use previous class notes or applicable web sites as needed for biography and beliefs of “other” authors.

Materials Needed

One destroyable copy per class of The Heart of Thoreau’s Journals, edited by Odell Shepard (Dover Publications, 1961) or class copies of this text.

Excerpts from Walden may also be read.

Culminating Performance/

Assessment

The dramatic dialogue is the culminating performance.

An acting evaluation rubric can be obtained at: http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/frameworks/arts/6assess2.htm#acting

or, of course, a teacher-made class-specific rubric can be developed.

The dialogue itself can be evaluated using the MCAS rubric found at

http://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/student/2000/comp_scoring.pdf

or page 7.

Overview, Purpose, & Timeframe  In this 2-3 day lesson, students read excerpts from Emerson’s “American Scholar” essay, then discuss the role of a scholar and what “main influences he receives.”  Students consider the influences in Emerson’s scholarship and write their own persuasive essays on the main influences of  their scholarship.

Massachusetts Standards Addressed:  ELA (June, 2001):

*1.  Discussion.  Students will use agreed-upon rules for informal and formal discussions in small and large groups.

9.  Making Connections.  Students will deepen their understanding of a literary or non-literary work by relating it to its contemporary context or historical background.

11.  Theme.  Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of theme in literature and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.

19.  Writing.  Students will write with a clear focus, coherent organization, and sufficient detail.

20.  Consideration of Audience and Purpose.  Students will write for different audiences and purposes.

21.  Revising.  Students will demonstrate improvement in organization, content, paragraph development, level of detail, style, tone, and word choice (diction) in their compositions after revising them.

22.  Standard English Usage.  Students will use standard English conventions in their writing, revising, and editing

23.  Organizing Ideas in Writing.  Students will organize ideas in writing in a way that makes sense for their purpose.

25.  Evaluating Writing and Presentations.  Students will develop and use appropriate rhetorical, logical, and stylistic criteria for assessing final versions of their compositions or research projects before presenting them to varied audiences.

Learning Outcomes

The student will:

Describe Ralph Waldo Emerson’s contribution to American literature.

Write with clear focus, coherent organization, sufficient detail, and purpose.

Write with clear audience in mind.

Write a persuasive essay and identify the theme of that essay.

Use the writing process involving prewriting, rough draft, revising, and final draft

Use standard English.

Activities/

Instructional Strategies

Excerpts from “Self Reliance”(from class text) will be read and discussed in class.   From the study of The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, (Lesson 1) students will be familiar with the influence of Emerson upon Thoreau.

An excerpt from Emerson’s “The American Scholar” is assigned for homework--Use from the beginning of the essay through the paragraph beginning “I have now spoken of the education of the scholar by nature, by books, and by action.”

At the next class meeting, give these directions:

  In “The American Scholar,” Emerson states that the main influences of the scholar are nature, books, and action.

  For homework, due on ______________________, write a persuasive essay in which you give three factors from the world around you that influence your own style of learning.  Remember the 1-3-1 writing recipe.

Modifications

The entire writing process may be done in class.  Editing and revising may be done by peers.

The time needed to write the essay may be varied.

Resources

For more information on Emerson, use http://www.walden.org

There are numerous on-line sites for help with writing.  Select one that’s best for you.  Also, most writing texts have a section on “Writing a Persuasive Essay”.

Materials Needed

Class copies of The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail

Excerpt from “American Scholar.”

Excerpts from “Self-Reliance.”

Culminating Performance/

Assessment

To assess the essay, use the MCAS scoring guide found at

http://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/student/2000/comp_scoring.pdf

or page 7.