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Subject: American Literature 10th
through 12th grade
Author: Carla Beard
School: Connersville High School, Connersville, IN
More Day to Dawn
A Web Based Curriculum Unit
This web based unit has students study
Thoreau as a naturalist, a social observer, and a philosopher. Students
read, analyze, and reflect on selected texts, “Spring” from Walden,
and the essays Civil Disobedience and Walking. They then
select someone from their community who demonstrates modern application
of Thoreau's ideas and nominate that person for the "More Day to Dawn"
award and write a culminating piece. (The
"award" consists of posting the nomination on the website.) All
activities for this unit are found at
www.moredaytodawn.org.
Subject: Honors American Literature, 11th grade
Author:
Nancy Florez
School:
Wayland High School, Wayland, MA
In this
unit, we will study how and why Thoreau’s “marginalized status” enabled
him to make trenchant observations about the natural world, his society,
and the U.S. government. We will consider Thoreau’s place among other
“marginalized characters” from several American texts. We will identify
public figures from our own world (both present and past) who share
Thoreau’s vision and voice, and we will study how Thoreau’s relationship
with his landscape can help us find our own “Waldens” within our
community.
Subject: English, Interdisciplinary, 12th
grade
Author: Barbara McCoy
School: Eastport South Manor High School, Manorville, NY
Life is a Journey and this much I know for sure
Designed
for use in 12th
grade English Language Arts, this multidisciplinary unit will use
social studies, science, art and descriptive/figurative writing to explore
the theme Life is a Journey. Students will Meet Mr. Thoreau, the
philosopher, poet/writer, social conscience, and naturalist through the
exploration of Thoreau’s writings. Students well develop understandings of
the complexities of life: not as a single journey but as multiple journeys
combined. Life is a Highway presents a metaphor that illustrates that life
is filled with smooth and rough times, endless possibilities and
roadblocks and that the detours we decide to take, our decisions, affect
not only the present, but the future as well. The goal of this unit is to
heighten students’ awareness of the power of thinking and to expose
students to the importance of their thinking about ideas and issues in
relation to themselves and others.
Subject: Honors American Literature, 11th
grade
Author: David Rockermann
School: Wayland High School, Wayland, MA
Henry David Thoreau: One Path Toward
Interbeing
Designed for use in an 11th
grade honors American Literature course, this unit will allow Students to
be able to realize their potential to foster change in their natural,
social, and political environments by exploring Thoreau’s contributions as
a social critic, a free-thinking individual, and a conservationist.
Subject: American Literature, interdisciplinary,
11th grade
Author: Julie Wright
School: Lynnfield High School, Lynnfield, MA
Transcendental Experience: Take a Walk on
the Wild[ness] Side
This unit is designed for use
in an 11th
grade American Literature course in which the overriding Essential
Question is “What is the American Dream”? This question asks students to
consider the following concepts: Can “wildness” lead to the “preservation
of the world”? to the “preservation” of humanity”? Though focused on the
English classroom, the goal of this unit is to provide students with an
understanding of the interconnectedness of art, history, and literature,
and emphasize experiential learning through artistic and field related
endeavors. Using the works of Thoreau and Emerson in conjunction with
contemporary writings, we will explore the meaning of “living
deliberately,” “wildness,” “wild, “preservation,” “self-reliance,” and
sense of place.
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