Assess whether your class members can comprehend complex informational text with a series of drills based on selections from Emerson, Thoreau, and G.K. Chesterton. The exercises could also be used for group work or a full-class discussion.

What ideas and philosophies guided the Transcendentalist movement in America? Scholars explore the topic, reading texts by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Additionally, they write essays comparing the authors' structural...

Students read writings by Ralph Waldo Emerson to analyze transcendentalism and analyze photographic essays depicting environmental issues. In this art and history lesson plan, students read excerpts of Nature by Emerson to identify...

Eleventh graders are introduced to Transcendentalism through the writing of Emerson and Thoreau. They keep a journal in which they respond to quotes and prompts. Students write longer essays on conformity, being alone and a "field...

What were the virtues and values that helped form America? Pupils watch and discuss a video, read biographies of early Americans, chart the differences between early American religious movements, write journals and letters, draw, and...

Water is the source of life. It appears in poetry in both peaceful and torrential descriptions; it appears in earth science in its liquid, gaseous, and solid states. Combine these interpretations of our planet's most precious and...

The words of Henry David Thoreau on Civil Disobedience seem particularly relevant today, as are his writings and those of other transcendental thinkers who ask what it mean to live deliberately and what are the responsibilities of...

Eleventh graders have a basic comprehension of transcendentalism and a familiarity with the principal propenents of the philosophy. They recognize of the unique role played by Concord, MA in the dispersion of transcendentalism. ...

What makes giving meaningful? Class members discuss this question, then listen to Alberto Rios reading his poem, "When Giving Is All We Have." Finally, the class considers what the poet says about the question.

Give your class a deeper understanding of the context and meaning behind early American song lyrics. By reading the lyrics to "Yankee Doodle" and  "Revolutionary Tea," high schoolers will practice analysis by examining the...

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter" provides the text for an activity that asks readers to select specific passages from the story, identify the aspect of American Romanticism the passage exemplifies, and then provide an...

Young scholars research heroism online. In this heroism lesson, students use the documentary of Heroes of Ground Zero to explore the theme of heroism. Young scholars complete five days of activities to research and participate in...

Students read about romance in order to develop a variety of reading skills.

Students work collaboratively to analyze the various religious beliefs of Zen Buddhists. Emphasis is placed upon class discussion and the ideal of a Utopian environment or society.