Santa Ana Unified School District
Early American Poets
The poems of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are the focus of a unit that asks readers to consider how an artist's life and changes in society influences his or her work. After careful study of Whitman's and Dickinson's perspectives on...
Santa Ana Unified School District
Getting to the Core: Early American Poets
How do poets convey emotion and represent their views of life? Pupils learn more about Whitman and Dickinson through the unit and analyze their bold reinvention of craft and style for poets to come. Looking at classic pieces such as...
Walden Woods Project
19th Century Lessons for 21st Century Lives
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...
Simon & Schuster
A Teacher's Guide to 1776 by David McCullough
David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, 1776, is the focus of a 28-page teacher's guide. The guide includes pre-reading questions, background information about key British and American figures, and chapter-by-chapter lessons.
National Endowment for the Humanities
American Literary Humor: Mark Twain, George Harris, and Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne as a humorist? Really? The three lessons in this series focus on the the storytelling style, conventions, and literary techniques employed by Hawthorne, George Washington Harris, and Mark Twain.
Curated OER
The Bard, the Globe, the Midsummer Night's Dream
Students complete a unit of lessons to learn about William Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre. In this William Shakespeare lesson, students complete 7 lessons of activities to study William Shakespeare, the Globe Theatre, and the play 'A...
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: American Literature and Composition: Transcendentalism
This is an introduction to the Transcendentalism period (1836-1860) in American Literature. It focuses on the beliefs and characteristics of transcendentalism and its leading authors: Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson and...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Rhythms in Poetry: Ezra Pound
Poet and mentor Ezra Pound is the focus of this brief biography highlighting his works and energy for new artistic movements of the early twentieth century. Click on "Ezra Pound Activities" for related materials.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Regional Realism: Mark Twain
This biography features Mark Twain as a regional realist author, world renown for his ability to portray real Americans in the late nineteenth century. Click "Mark Twain Activities" for artifacts and activities.
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning:american Literature and Composition: Modernism:carl Sandburg
This lesson focuses on Carl Sanburg and his poem "Chicago." It includes biographical information, as well as links to the poem, a video of pictures of Chicago in the early 20th century, and a "Discovery Education" video on Carl Sandburg....
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Spirit of Nationalism: Phillis Wheatley
Phillis Wheatley, an African-American slave, is featured for her neoclassical poetry of pre-nineteenth century America. Click on "Phillis Wheatley Activities" for more resources.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Puritan and Quaker Utopian Promise
This unit explores the documented perceptions of Native Americans, religious faiths, physical challenges of new lands and how the combination of immigrants and Native Americans shaped the New World. Click on "Activities" for related...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Native Voices
This unit features the rich oral tradition of Native Americans storytelling in various genres predating the introduction and influence of English writings, bringing three contemporary authors to light. RI.11-12.8 seminal U.S. texts,...
TES Global
Blendspace: American Literature Early Poets
A learning module with twenty-one links to texts, websites, videos, and quizzes on early American poets including Anne Bradstreet, William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Edgar Allen Poe.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Social Realism: Henry James
Henry James is the focus of this biography for his ability to write about how people deal with problems with attention drawn to Europeans versus Americans in the early twentieth century. See "Henry James Activities" for more resources.
Washington State University
Washington State University: Timeline of American Literature 1840 1849
Compare the events of the country to the literature being produced at the time of the early 19th century.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Masculine Heroes: James Fenimore Cooper
This brief biography of James Fenimore Cooper highlights his life as an author who was able to incorporate politics, wilderness and Native Americans into fictitious novels. Click on "James Fenimore Cooper Activities" for related materials.
Other
Uua: Louisa May Alcott
Detailed biography of Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888 CE) from the Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography. Contains a couple of pictures as well.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Utopian Promise: Edward Taylor
Born in England, emigrant Edward Taylor was a Harvard educated minister, writer, and poet of orthodox Puritan theology. Click on "Edward Taylor Activities" for related materials.
PBS
Pbs: "Kill the Indian and Save the Man": Native American Representation
Learn about the impact of US government policies of assimilation, relocation, and urbanization on Native American identity and culture in this series of videos from the American Masters film Words from a Bear: N. Scott Momaday. Years...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Rhythms in Poetry: Jean Toomer
This is a brief biography of Jean Toomer, an African American author of poetry and short stories, published in many magazines in the early twentieth century. Click on "Jean Toomer Activities" for related materials.
Bartleby
Bartleby.com: Washington Irving: Early Years
This Cambridge History of English and American Literature site provides biographical information and analysis of the works and literary contribution of Washington Irving. Use the forward arrows at the bottom of the web page to read a...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Regional Realism: Sarah Orne Jewett
This is a brief biography of Sarah Orne Jewett, known for her realistic writings of life in Maine during the nineteenth century. See "Sarah Orne Jewett Activities" for more resources.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Social Realism: Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser is featured as a realistic author who draws upon the social conditions and humanity in America in his writings. Click on "Theodore Dreiser Activities" for related materials.