Study Guide
Penguin Books

A Teacher's Guide to the Signet Classics Edition of Walden and "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed Standards
According to Henry David Thoreau, every citizen must object to unjust laws. The teacher's guide to Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" begins with a detailed essay synopsis to help readers understand Thoreau's rationale in the challenging...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Year in Review: The Memoir

For Teachers 9th - 12th
If you are planning a unit on memoir and autobiographical narrative, you should consider this resource. Using Internet research skills, pupils review works by James Frey and Henry David Thoreau. In response to these works, learners...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Henry David Thoreau's Philosophy

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students research and report on the life and times of Henry David Thoreau. In this Thoreau research lesson, students visit the given website and freewrite about Thoreau's life and home. Students work in groups to research and report on...
Unit Plan
Walden Woods Project

19th Century Lessons for 21st Century Lives

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Finding Comfort in an Unfamiliar Landscape

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students recognize the writings of a prominent American writer. They analyze written text making connections to personal prior experience. Students discuss in small and large groups their findings. They organize ideas in writing using...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Walden

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students participate in a panel discussion on materialism, assuming the identities of Henry David Thoreau and other experts on materialism.  In this Walden instructional activity, students create a panel discussion of prominent...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Legacy of Emerson and Thoreau

For Teachers 11th
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Finding Walden: Using Henry David Thoreau in Nature And Writing

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders appreciate and better understand nature by reflecting on Henry David Thoreau's quotes, making observations of the outside world, and using nature in their writings of stories and/or poems.
Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Marching to the Beat of a Different Drum

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
Henry David Thoreau and Linda Ronstadt? Ann Tyler and Pete Townshend? Joyce Carol Oates and Pearl Jam? This richly detailed plan pairs classic literature with contemporary music and asks learners to analyze how the theme of conformity is...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Approaching Walden

For Teachers 11th
Eleventh graders examine their natural surroundings as a way to begin thinking about an abstract idea. They analyze and compare or contrast the rhetorical stategies of two essayists. Students interpret and evaluate images culled from...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Approaching Walden: Paths to Emerson and Thoreau

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students explore readings from Emerson, Thoreau and Melville. In preparation for writing, students sit in a quiet, tranquil location and observe their surroundings. Later, they recreate the experience by putting it into words. ...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Walking With Thoreau

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Students engage in a series of activities geared towards studying the author Henry David Thoreau. They use different sources to obtain information to create context for future lessons. Students attempt to model their own lives to that of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Abolitionists in U.S. History

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students read and discuss excerpts from the writings of Henry David Thoreau, Frederick Douglass and Sarah Parker Redmond. They compare and contrast the views of the three abolitionists concentrating on the experiences and reasons for...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dipping Into the Pond: Transcendentalism and Us

For Teachers 11th
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. ...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Thoreau Look at Our Environment

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders write journal entries o school site at least once during each season, including sketched and written observations of present environment. They can use sample topographical maps and student's own maps. Students can use...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Where The Wild Things Are

For Teachers 12th
Twelfth graders brainstorm where they think wild things exist. Then using the same strategy they discuss natural surroundings from using prior life experience. This part of the lesson can also be done with using a nature hike. Students...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Where Do We Come From? who Are We? Where Are We Going?

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Pupils are responsible for producing works for, coordinating (with the teacher?s assistance) and mounting an exhibition to be presented at a parent-teacher open house. They examine literature by Henry David Thoreau and other writers....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Approaching Walden Curriculum Unit

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners engage in a literature study unit. They use various exercises to build reading comprehension using a wide variety of literature texts. While reading the books, students are encouraged to think reflectively in order to appreciate...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Individual and His Role in Society

For Teachers 10th
Tenth graders discover how various writers approach the themes of : alienation and solitude, living life "deliberately" and "phonies." Through reading, journaling, class discussion, and writing assignments they realize the power of the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creative Writing

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students criticially read an unfinished creative writing piece, answer factual questions concerning the piece, and then finish the story or create their own story about their own neigborhood and possible environmental issues.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Water Creative Writing

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students red and discuss an example of a biographical essay. They read The Last of the Falling Tide by Car Hiassen, answer factual questions concerning the work, and create their own story about a natural place they are familiar with ,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Literature of Democracy

For Teachers 11th
Eleventh graders analyze how American literature shows a lot of different genres. In groups, 11th graders create a short report about the passage they have chosen.

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