Goals and Outcomes

Unit Plan: American Romanticism

Section: Goals and Outcomes

Goal	Outcome
·         Students will read the poems and lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson.	·         Students will gain a deeper understanding of Romantic and Transcendentalist thought and theory.
Rationale
·         CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. ·         CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.2 Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text. ·         Ralph Waldo Emerson was a Romantic and Transcendentalist at heart and his lifelong dedication to that trait is what lends credence to his many lectures on the subject. His most famous work, Nature, compiles numerous essays, lectures, and poems in which he explicitly and implicitly speaks on the topics of the natural world—animals, bugs, air, mountains, flowers—and the spiritual self. Through reading and discussing his lectures, students can work through the archaic language to find the pervasive meaning and rationale behind Romantic thought. o      “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

Goal	Outcome
·         Students will read the poems, short stories, and longer narratives of Edgar Allan Poe.	·         Students will be able to identify strong imagery, narrative style and reliability, and the effect they produce on mood and theme.
Rationale
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors.) CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.5 Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact. ·         CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.9 Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics. ·         Edgar Allan Poe has one of the most fascinating Romantic minds, in my opinion. His characters are almost always self-reliant and pay great attention to small details, which Poe describes in vivid detail. His dark side is well contrasted with the more light-hearted and spiritual styles of authors like Emerson. While Emerson is more concerned with thought and practice, Poe dwells on the power of the imagination—his own, and that of his characters. It seems fitting that Poe be a model for student writing, so that they might include more vivid imagery and develop an understanding of the narrator’s role and reliability. o    If many of Poe’s narrators did not seem sane, could we trust them?
Goal	Outcome
·         Students will complete activities such as sitting in the forest and spending more time alone, removed from modern technology.	·         Students will have a firsthand experience with Romanticism that will help solidify the abstract concepts they had previously discussed.
Rationale
·         This is a personal outcome that I hope the students will achieve. With a personal experience and connection with the life and mind of a Romantic, the knowledge will stick better than just what they have read. By reflecting on their experiences surrounded by nature, for instance, they may come to find that the natural world brings out a side of them they had never met. By removing themselves from modern technology (such as cell phones and the Internet), today’s students will learn the lesson of what life was like before the 21st century hit. ·         Personal experience and hands-on interaction are sometimes difficult to integrate into the classroom, but no doubt have a profound effect on learners. With a concept as abstract as Romanticism, it may be easier to see what it’s like, rather than hear about it.

Goal	Outcome
·         Students will read, discuss, and analyze Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.	·         Through an exploration of this text, students will learn to identify meaningful symbols and personification as well as important Romantic themes--such as a focus on the individual in society—and integrate them into their own writing. ·         Students will be able to distinguish between Romantics and Dark Romantics, comparing Hawthorne with the likes of Poe, noting which themes and elements compare and contrast.
Rationale
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.9 Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.2 Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text. This work is rich with symbolism, metaphors, imagery, and personification which are indicative of Romantic writing. With heavy focus on themes like “the individual in society versus the individual in nature” and “the power of nature to heal,” students can find substantial textual evidence to support any argument of Romantic influence. As such, this novel provides a well-rounded example of Romantic literature at its finest.

Narrative Rationale:

            The works of Emerson, Poe, and Hawthorne are strong examples of the Romantic extremities. On the one hand, Emerson speaks on the theoretical and abstract notions of Romanticism—the belief that a connection to nature brings out our purest natures and that the senses are not the final input used to define our reality, but rather that our consciousness takes that role. On the other, Hawthorne and Poe explore Romanticism through vividly drawn narratives that take the readers into a universe governed by Romantic imagination, allowing them to observe that surreal world.

            Even further, Hawthorne and Poe have rather distinct styles, with the one focusing—in terms of theme—on natural beauty and inherent goodness, while the other draws from the darker, evil recesses of the human mind that, he assures us, lies within us all. Regardless of this distinction, the authors bring a great deal of writing that is rhetorically powerful and deserving of analysis in its own right.

            However, I could not be pleased with teaching my students about Romanticism if I did not at least try to get them into the Romantic mindset themselves. In the 21^st century, it is difficult to find a place where you can be alone with nature, in tune with your inner self, and removed from the hustle-and-bustle of the fast-paced, instant-gratification society they now live in. With the Internet readily available for information, entertainment, and communication, most students of this generation (and those that follow) will no doubt find it difficult to connect with their natural side.

            As such, my students will complete activities that involve sacrificing many of their modern-day pleasures in the search of truth, enlightenment, or at least a little inner-peace. I could hardly expect every student to convert their way of life to suit traditional Romantic standards, but I believe that an experiment with be Romantic will give them a sense of the beautiful nature that is increasingly difficult to find.

            I have long held, as well, that good narratives make use of stark imagery, explore the mind and psyche of the narrator and author, and use themes that concern the whole of humanity. Given that authors like Poe, Emerson, and Hawthorne use these traits to a good extent, I feel that students can glean a lot of knowledge in writing from reading and analyzing their texts.