Lesson Plans > Literature and Language Arts > American Literature > American Literary Voices: Part 1

	American Literary Voices: Part 1 (14)
		1. The Colonial Era to 1789
			1e. Revolutionary Voices
				"Fish and Visitors Stink After 3 Days": Ben Franklin Tells It Like It Is • Middle School  2 class periods (with extensions) Ben Franklin had amazing influence in the 1700s. This lesson gives students an opportunity to become familiar (and have fun) with Franklin's Poor Richard proverbs and with the timeless advice they contain. Students can also create their own almanac of advice on his model.
		2. Quest for an 'American Identity'
			2f. Henry David Thoreau
				Henry David Thoreau: Exploring Walden and His Deliberate Life • High School  1 week plus extensions What happens when a man hears the tune of a "different drummer?" Henry David Thoreau retreated to Walden pond where he lived in isolation and reflection. In this lesson students view Walden woods, discuss some of Thoreau's most enduring ideas, and read the introduction to Walden, an explanation of his decision to live in isolation and the values he upheld and rejected. Several writing activities ask students to explore and expand on ideas raised in Walden by this unique 19th c. thinker and cultural rebel.
		3. Growing Pains
			3e. Rise of the Ladies' Magazines
				Is It a Boy or a Girl? Fashions and Fun With Popular Magazines of the 1860s • High School • Middle School  1 class period (plus extensions) Magazines became must-have reading material to the emerging middle class in mid-19th-century America. Both men and women used popular magazines to help them with etiquette, socially acceptable behavior, and, most importantly, fashion demands. In this lesson, students will explore through pictures and text the fascinating pop-culture world defined and influenced by 19th-century magazines.
		4. Edgar Allan Poe: The Sad Life and Times
				Poe and Poetry • High School • Middle School  1-3 class periods Do you like horror movies? Do ghost stories, tales from the darkside, or unexplained phenomena make your imagination work overtime? If you have ever wondered what was under your bed, or who was lurking in your closet, then you have an ally in Edgar Allan Poe. Explore with your students the work of the originator of the American horror story by analyzing language, themes and syntax in "The Raven."
			4a. The Gothic Tales
				Poe and Poetry • High School • Middle School  1-3 class periods Do you like horror movies? Do ghost stories, tales from the darkside, or unexplained phenomena make your imagination work overtime? If you have ever wondered what was under your bed, or who was lurking in your closet, then you have an ally in Edgar Allan Poe. Explore with your students the work of the originator of the American horror story by analyzing language, themes and syntax in "The Raven."
			4c. Poetry, Passion, and Beauty
				Poe and Poetry • High School • Middle School  1-3 class periods Do you like horror movies? Do ghost stories, tales from the darkside, or unexplained phenomena make your imagination work overtime? If you have ever wondered what was under your bed, or who was lurking in your closet, then you have an ally in Edgar Allan Poe. Explore with your students the work of the originator of the American horror story by analyzing language, themes and syntax in "The Raven."
		5. Hawthorne and Melville
			5b. The Scarlet Letter
				Public Shame and Sin: Wearing the Scarlet Letter and Other Acts of Puritan Punishment • High School  3 to 4 class periods plus extension For Hester Prynne, wearing a scarlet letter proclaimed to all her violation of moral and social order in her Puritan community. Was severe public punishment like this a historical reality or just an invention of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s imagination? This lesson provides a fascinating historical context for understanding Puritan insistence on public, shaming punishment and for expanding students’ ability to interpret the central symbol in The Scarlet Letter.
		6. The Emergence of American Poetry
			6e. The Reticent Celebrity: Emily Dickinson
				Emily Dickinson: Will the Real "YOU" Please Stand Up? • High School • Middle School  1 class period (plus extensions) Emily Dickinson kept her personal life completely private even though she was writing what would become enough great poetry to make her one of the most admired (and posthumously famous) poets of the 19th century. This lesson, based on her poem "I'm Nobody," asks students to think about why some people want fame and others prefer to be very private. Students respond by writing about who they are and might become.
		7. Tiny Brush Strokes: Local Colorists 'Paint' America
			7c. Storm and Calm: Kate Chopin's Creole Folk
				Kate Chopin: “The Artist Who Defies and Dares” • High School  3 class periods plus extensions Kate Chopin is a writer whose life and works have been “rediscovered” by feminist editors and scholars who see her as a champion for women, defying the conventions of repressive 1890's society. This lesson asks students to validate and/or reject this premise, based on their own research. Students will then read “The Story of an Hour,” express their personal reactions to it, and assess whether the story, especially its ironic tone and outcome, connects with Chopin’s deeply held, personal beliefs, especially those about gender.
		8. Luck, Pluck, and the American Dream
			8a. Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi
				Mark Twain: Master of American Dialect Humor • High School • Middle School  3 class periods This lesson directs students to read Mark Twain’s most famous short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” then analyze the use of dialect as a source of humor. Students will compare the standard English of the narrator with the non-standard English of Simon Wheeler, the tale-teller, and identify examples of dialect humor in their own lives. After analyzing dialect in the story, they will also read and discuss several of Mark Twain’s broader definitions of humor.
		9. Surmounting Cultural, Racial, and Gender Barriers
			9b. Paul Laurence Dunbar and the Dilemma of Race
				Paul Laurence Dunbar: Analyzing His Poetic "Voice" • High School  2 class periods plus extensions Paul Laurence Dunbar, a 19th C. African American poet, insisted that poetry should be about beauty and not politics. This lesson asks students to consider, however, whether or not the speaker/narrator in his poems expresses more personal values that reflect Dunbar's experience as the son of slaves and as a black writer who struggled with identifying and pleasing his audience. Two of his most famous poems are presented for listening and analysis.
			9c. James Weldon Johnson -- One of God's Trombones
				Life During the Jazz Age: The Harlem Renaissance • High School  Approximately 3 class periods or at home Creativity, new ideas, and diversity sprang from the Harlem Renaissance. This lesson will introduce students to the cultural movement and the icons, and help them discover how works from this era reflected and changed American society.
		10. The Evolution of Women's Spheres
			10d. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
				“Perilous Stuff”: A Close Reading of “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman • High School  2 class periods plus extension What details become critical to setting up character, plot, theme, setting and reader’s expectations? In this lesson, students will examine how an author opens a short story using the technique of close reading. Students will also compare the original audience and historical context for "The Yellow Wallpaper" to today’s readers and their perspective. Gilman’s own statement about why she wrote the story will be critiqued.
		11. Interesting Incidentals
			11f. Influence of Literary Magazines and Critics
				Introducing Literary Criticism -- Like it or Not! • High School  2 class periods This lesson gives an easy historical overview of the origins of literary criticism in American Literature. Students read and discuss the importance of the literary magazine and the influence of men like William Dean Howells. They investigate examples of critical writing on the Internet Public Library and summarize comments about critical reception of famous authors and/or works, what issues critics focus on, and how critical opinions may change over time.
		12. The Early Moderns: Terror and Wonder in the 20th Century
			12a. Upton Sinclair and the Novel of Social Outrage
				Be a Muckraker! • High School • Middle School  1-2 class periods Muckrakers of the Progressive Era are credited with exposing injustices and bringing horrors in industry and society to light. Have your students use their pens and computers to speak out against things they feel are wrong in their school, community, or the world. By writing muckraking articles and presenting them to the class, students will learn to voice their opinions and affect change.
			12e. Sage and Seer: Robert Frost
				Robert Frost: The Art of “Saying One Thing and Meaning Another” • High School  1-2 class periods Of the familiar Robert Frost poems, “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening” gives students a place to explore some of the poetic devices that Frost uses throughout his work. In this lesson, speaker (voice), repetition, and literal versus figurative meaning will be discussed as they are related to interpretation. Frost’s comments on his own inspiration for the poem will be included, along with other critical reactions.