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:

•www.imdb.com/title/tt0210719

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)