BirthofAmericanDream

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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?

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
  • 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
Lecture notes
  • rising above station
  • 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"
 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