Using excerpts from the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, comics, and songs from different musical genres, students examine the characteristics of transcendentalism.
This is the first lesson in a week-long, mini-unit contains four individual lessons. Through the course of all these lessons, students will be introduced to the concept of civil disobedience—people purposefully disobeying a law or protesting nonviolently about laws or social issues they feel to be unjust. They’ll read from, watch, and listen to three examples that address the issue: Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience," Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail," and the Teaching Tolerance documentary Viva La Causa written and directed by Bill Brummel.Activity Description: This lesson focuses on introducing, defining, and providing a basic example of historical civil disobedience using Henry David Thoreau's experience and an excerpt from his essay "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience."This lesson is designed to be used in a blended environment. Accommodations are listed for non-blended courses.Time needed for activity: ~45 minute class periodResources needed: Online discussion board(s) set up at either pinup.com or answergarden.ch; copies of the "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" excerpt (printed or electronic)
This is the first lesson in a week-long, mini-unit contains four individual lessons. Through the course of all these lessons, students will be introduced to the concept of civil disobedience—people purposefully disobeying a law or protesting nonviolently about laws or social issues they feel to be unjust. They’ll read from, watch, and listen to three examples that address the issue: Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience," Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail," and the Teaching Tolerance documentary Viva La Causa written and directed by Bill Brummel.Activity Description: This lesson focuses on introducing, defining, and providing a basic example of historical civil disobedience using Henry David Thoreau's experience and an excerpt from his essay "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience."This lesson is designed to be used in a blended environment. Accommodations are listed for non-blended courses.Time needed for activity: ~45 minute class periodResources needed: Online discussion board(s) set up at either pinup.com or answergarden.ch; copies of the "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" excerpt (printed or electronic)
Global exploration in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries radically changed Western science, orienting philosophies of natural history to more focused fields like comparative anatomy, botany, and geology. In the United States, European scientific advances and home-grown ventures like the Wilkes Exploring Expedition to Antarctica and the Pacific inspired new endeavors in cartography, ethnography, zoology, and evolutionary theory, replacing rigid models of thought and classification with more fluid and active systems. They inspired literary authors as well. This class will examine some of the most remarkable of these authors—Herman Melville (Moby-Dick and “The Encantadas”), Henry David Thoreau (Walden), Sarah Orne Jewett (Country of the Pointed Firs), Edith Wharton (House of Mirth), Toni Morrison (A Mercy), among others—in terms of the subjects and methods they adopted, imaginatively and often critically, from the natural sciences.
This kit provides teachers, college faculty and other educators with the materials needed to engage students in a dynamic and constructivist process of learning how antiwar movements have been perceived by the people in the United States and how the U.S. media has constructed that public perception. The subject areas covered include U.S. history, African-American studies, labor studies, Latino studies, media studies, Native American studies, peace studies, sociology and women_ÎŁ_ studies among many others.
Thoreau, Henry David. 1906. The Writings of Henry David Thoreau (WaldenEdition) Translated by Bradley Dean (Thoreau Institute) Boston:Houghton Mifflinand Company, 1906 (https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/johnbrown.html)Description:A eulogy on the day of John Brown’s execution
This kit covers a historical overview of American representations of natural resources from ancient Indian basketry to contemporary web sites. It compares conflicting media constructions about the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the damning of rivers, and Chukchi sea oil drilling. By showing the slow realization that natural resources are finite, students will learn valuable lessons in earth, natural and environmental sciences.
This course uses readings and discussions to focus on a series of short-term events that shed light on American politics, culture, and social organization. It emphasizes finding ways to make sense of these complicated, highly traumatic events, and on using them to understand larger processes of change in American history. The class also gives students experience with primary documentation research through a term paper assignment.