BirthofAmericanDream

Alissa, Please fill in any gaps here.


 * American Dream**
 * Classic definition:** "Life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. James Truslow Adams (1931)
 * what are its features?
 * where does it come from? from what did it stem?
 * how has it evolved? how does it continue to evolve?


 * American Character**
 * what are its features?
 * how has it been exhibited in our history?
 * from where have we "inherited" these traits?
 * how have these traits propelled or troubled our country?
 * in what fictional characters/real people do these traits exist?

[|Lecture notes] || * rising above station
 * **Literary Period** || **Features wrt American Dream** || **Features wrt American Character** || **Examples of literature** || **Skills taught in conjunction w/ works** || **Lesson Plans for Unit** || **Notes about unit; resources** ||
 * Puritan
 * [|Lecture notes]
 * [|Good background notes]
 * Another good explanation for [|TULIP].
 * Sarah Vowell's Talk of the Nation [|interview]: about //Wordy Shipmates//
 * Children's education resourcePuritan Primer Packets
 * Activities for studying Salem Witch Trials || * remaking oneself
 * city on a hill
 * religious, economic, political, social freedom
 * || * introspective
 * "grand purpose"
 * intrepid || * Anne Bradstreet poetry
 * Children's primer
 * Edward Taylor poetry
 * Cotton Mather sermons
 * "plain style" (vs ornate style)
 * //The Crucible// || * explication of poetry
 * paraphrase of poetry
 * MLA citation of poetry
 * metaphor & conceit
 * elegy
 * MLA citation of play || * Day 1: Intro - lecture w/ fill in blank notes. Anne Bradstreet - bio and intro to poetry.
 * Day 2: Introduce children's education project (if assigned). More Anne; explication and paraphrase
 * Day 3: Edward Taylor and conceits
 * Day 4: Edward Taylor poetry - elegy (Pass out //Crucible// and essay prompt/journal prompt)
 * Day 5: Cotton Mather sermons
 * Day 6:Witches
 * Day 7: Decline of Puritanism
 * Day 8: //Crucible//
 * Day 9: //Crucible//
 * Day 10: //Crucible//
 * Day 11: //Crucible//
 * Day 12: //Crucible// link to today
 * Final: Human truths essay (//Crucible//) OR character journal (//Crucible//) || Focus on indoctrination - child is taught values of community; end product ||
 * Colonial
 * Colonial
 * independence || * entrepreneurial spirit
 * self-made man
 * democratic voice
 * self-improvement
 * faith in one's own reason
 * pride in creating country
 * rebellious
 * "power to the people" || * de Toqueville [|Democracy in America]
 * Ben Franklin: _______
 * Thomas Paine: _______
 * Thomas Jefferson: _______ || rhetorical strategies (analyzing [inaugural] speeches from past presidents and contemporary presidents)
 * Patrick Henry
 * Washington/Adams Inaugural || end product is speech to parents using same strategies? || Focus on society and rational/logical thinking. ||
 * Transcendentalist || * distinctive American intellectual life (from city on a hill to Boston as the hub of the universe) ||  ||   ||   || Passage paper (Alissa) || Focus on individual, especially non-conformity. ||
 * Romantic ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Romantic ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Romantic ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||