American Dream: Various Vantage Points
11th Grade Unit Plan
Wide Open Spaces-
Dixie Chicks
�Who doesn't know
what I'm talking about
�Who's never left
home, who's never struck out
�To find a dream
and a life of their own
�A place in the
clouds, a foundation of stone
�Many precede and
many will follow
�A young girl's
dream no longer hollow
�It takes the
shape of a place out west
�But what it holds
for her, she hasn't yet guessed
�[Chorus:]
�She needs wide
open spaces
�Room to make her
big mistakes
�She needs new
faces
�She knows the
high stakes
�She traveled this
road as a child
�Wide eyed and
grinning, she never tired
�But now she won't
be coming back with the rest
�If these are
life's lessons, she'll take this test
�[Repeat Chorus]
�She knows the
high stakes
�As her folks
drive away, her dad yells, "Check the oil!"
�Mom stares out
the window and says, "I'm leaving my girl"
�She said,
"It didn't seem like that long ago"
�When she stood
there and let her own folks know
�[Repeat Chorus]
�She knows the
highest stakes (x4)
�www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/dixiechicks/wideopenspaces.html
The Great Gatsby-
F. Scott Fitzgerald
��I hope
she�ll be a fool, that�s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a
beautiful little fool�- Daisy in reference to her infant daughter
�www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/
�2000 TV/film
adaptation:
I Hear America Singing-
Walt Whitman
�I HEAR America singing, the varied
carols I hear;
�Those of mechanics,each one singing
his, as it should be, blithe and strong;
�The carpenter singing his, as he
measures his plank or beam,
�The mason singing his, as he makes
ready for work, or leaves off work;
�The boatman singing what belongs to
him in his boat the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck;
�The shoemaker singing as he sits on
his bench—the hatter singing as he stands;
�The wood-cutter�s song—the
ploughboy�s, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown;
�The delicious singing of the
mother—or of the young wife at work—or of the girl sewing or
washing—Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else;
�The day what belongs to the
day—At night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
�Singing, with open mouths, their
strong melodious songs www.bartleby.com/142/91.html
A Northern Light-
Jennifer Donnelly
www.jenniferdonnelly.com/nl_home.htm
�I knew why they didn�t marry. Emily and Jane and Louisa�I
also knew what being lonely was and I didn�t want to be lonely my whole life. I
didn�t want to give up my words. I didn�t want to choose one over the other.
Mark Twain didn�t have to. Charles Dickens didn�t. And John Milton didn�t,
either, though he might have made life easier for untold generations of
schoolkids if he had� (274).
Critical Theories
�New Historicism
�Performativity
(gender issues)
�Social/Cultural
issues (racism)
�History juxtaposed
with Modern Notions
This is my Letter to the World-Emily Dickenson
�This is my letter to the world,
�That never wrote to me,--
�The simple news that Nature told,
�With tender majesty.
�Her message is committed
�To hands I cannot see;
�For love of her, sweet
countrymen,
�Judge tenderly of me!
�www.poemofquotes.com/emilydickenson/thisismylettertotheworld.php
Poem Pass
�Students can bring
in any poem, song or film they feel deals with issues discussed in unit
Yellow Wallpaper-
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
�www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/wallpaper.html
�Story of a
housewife slowly losing her mind as part of the leisure class. Everyone tells
her to rest her nerves, but the more she tries to rest, the more anxious she
becomes.
The Author to her Book-
Anne Bradstreet
�Thou ill-formed
offspring of my feeble brain,
�Who after birth
didst by my side remain,
�Till snatched
from thence by friends, less wise than true,
�Who thee abroad,
exposed to public view,
�Made thee in
rags, halting to th' press to trudge,
�Where errors
were not lessened (all may judge).
�At thy return my
blushing was not small,
�My rambling brat
(in print) should mother call,
�I cast thee by
as one unfit for light,
�The visage was
so irksome in my sight;
�Yet being mine
own, at length affection would
�Thy blemishes
amend, if so I could.
�I washed thy
face, but more defects I saw,
�And rubbing off
a spot still made a flaw.
�I stretched thy
joints to make thee even feet,
�Yet still thou
run'st more hobbling than is meet;
�In better dress
to trim thee was my mind,
�But nought save
homespun cloth i' th' house I find.
�In this array
'mongst vulgars may'st thou roam.
�In critic's
hands beware thou dost not come,
�And take thy way
where yet thou art not known;
�If for thy
father asked, say thou hadst none;
�And for thy
mother, she alas is poor,
�Which caused her
thus to send thee out of door.
�www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMI69D/160
Term Paper
�Option A: Creative
writing, poem, short story or drama using themes discussed in unit
�Option B: Essay in
response to prompt question (ISAW format)