Examining transcendentalism through popular culture
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=320
A lesson plan for grade 11 English Language Arts
This lesson outlines the characteristics of transcendentalism presented in works by Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson and challenges students to examine the elements of transcendentalism in comic strips and songs. After evaluating these texts for transcendental qualities, students search for resources from television and other popular culture media and justify how these multigenre texts are representative of the literary movement.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
English Language Arts (2004)
Grade 11
- Goal 4: The learner will critically analyze text to gain meaning, develop thematic connections, and synthesize ideas.
- Objective 4.02: Develop thematic connections among literary works by:
- connecting themes that occur across genres or works from different time periods.
- using specific references to validate connections.
-examining how representative elements such as mood, tone, and style impact the development of a theme.
- Objective 4.02: Develop thematic connections among literary works by:
- Goal 5: The learner will interpret and evaluate representative texts to deepen understanding of literature of the United States.
- Objective 5.01: Interpret the significance of literary movements as they have evolved through the literature of the United States by:
- analyzing the characteristics of literary genres, including fiction, non-fiction, drama, and poetry, and how the selection of genre shapes meaning.
- relating ideas, styles, and themes within literary movements of the United States.
- understanding influences that progress through the literary movements of the United States.
-evaluating the literary merit and/or historical significance of a work from Colonial Literature, the Romantic Era, Realism, the Modern Era, and Contemporary Literature.
- Objective 5.01: Interpret the significance of literary movements as they have evolved through the literature of the United States by:
