Lesson 4 | Living Deliberately: Transcendentalism Then and Now | 11th Grade English

Lesson Overview

Objective

Build background knowledge on Thoreau, and identify his purpose and audience for Walden.

Readings and Materials

Excerpt: Excerpts from Walden by Henry David Thoreau — Paragraphs 1–4

Lesson Notes

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Video: “Walden (the Walden Woods Project)”

Lesson Notes

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Resource: Walden Film Viewing Guide (G11, U1, L4)

Lesson Notes

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Lesson Map

Lesson

Build background knowledge on Transcendentalism and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Materials

Four Corners Questionnaire (G11, U1, L1)
“Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Beauty of the Everyday”

Standards

RI.11-12.2RL.11-12.2SL.11-12.1SL.11-12.6

Lesson

Identify Emerson's central ideas and how he develops those ideas in excerpts from "Self-Reliance."

Materials

Excerpts from "Self-Reliance"

Standards

L.11-12.5RI.11-12.2RI.11-12.4

Lesson

Analyze Emerson's use of literary devices and rhetoric to convey his argument about the relationship between man and nature.

Materials

Chapter 1 from Nature

Standards

L.11-12.5RI.11-12.4RI.11-12.6RL.11-12.9

Lesson

Build background knowledge on Thoreau, and identify his purpose and audience for Walden.

Materials

Excerpts from Walden — Paragraphs 1–4
“Walden (the Walden Woods Project)”
Walden Film Viewing Guide (G11, U1, L4)

Standards

L.11-12.5RI.11-12.4RI.11-12.6RL.11-12.9

Lesson

Analyze Thoreau's use of figurative language and rhetorical devices to convey his central ideas in Walden.

Materials

Excerpts from Walden — Paragraphs 6–10

Standards

L.11-12.5RI.11-12.4RI.11-12.6RL.11-12.9

Lesson

Analyze how Thoreau uses imagery and figurative language to develop his central ideas.

Materials

Excerpts from Walden — Paragraphs 11–16

Standards

L.11-12.5RI.11-12.2RL.11-12.4

Lesson

Assessment

Socratic Seminar

Engage in a Socratic seminar about poetry, making connections to ideas from Emerson and Thoreau and supporting arguments with strong textual evidence.

Materials

“Transcendentalism Socratic Seminar Poems”

Standards

L.11-12.5RL.11-12.2RL.11-12.4SL.11-12.1.aSL.11-12.1.bSL.11-12.1.cSL.11-12.1.d

Lesson

Analyze Sherry Turkle's purpose and how she persuades her audience using rhetorical appeals.

Materials

“Sherry Turkle: Connected, but alone?”

Standards

RI.11-12.2RI.11-12.6SL.11-12.3

Lesson

Analyze Thoreau's central ideas and rhetorical strategies in his essay "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience."

Materials

Excerpts from "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience"

Standards

RI.11-12.2RI.11-12.6

Lesson

Engage in small group discussions of Emily Dickinson poems, as well as a Gallery Walk, analyzing Dickinson's central ideas and how she communicates those through diction, imagery, and other literary devices.

Materials