+
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Spirit of Nationalism: Margaret Fuller

For Students 9th - 10th
Margaret Fuller is featured for her writings during the transcendentalist movement of the nineteenth century, considered progressive for her times as women of the era were not taught to think. Click "Margaret Fuller Activities" for...
+
Activity
Constitutional Rights Foundation

Constitutional Rights Foundation: The Transcendentalists in Action

For Students 9th - 10th
Activity on the religious, philosophical and literary movement of Transcendentalism founded by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Article outlines the history and main ideas as well as the far-reaching literary and societal impact of Transcendentalist...
+
Unit Plan
Georgia Department of Education

Ga Virtual Learning: American Literature: Transcendentalism: Walt Whitman

For Students 9th - 10th
This lesson from a unit on American Transcendentalism focuses on Walt Whitman and his invention of the American free verse. It includes links to his poems "Song of Myself" and "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer." It provides...
+
Handout
Library of Congress

Loc: Today in History: July 12: Henry David Thoreau

For Students 9th - 10th
From the Library of Congress "Today in History," this website provides biographical information about Henry David Thoreau along with photographs of Thoreau and Walden Pond. Provides links to online text for Thoreau's work, links to...
+
Handout
Library of Congress

Loc: Today in History: November 29: Bronson Alcott & Father

For Students 9th - 10th
From the Library of Congress "Today in History" website, this page provides biographical details about Louisa May Alcott and her family. The second section discusses her father, Bronson Alcott, and gives details about his ideas, the...
+
eBook
OpenStax

Open Stax: An Awakening of Religion and Individualism

For Students 11th - 12th
This section of a chapter on "Antebellum Idealism and Reform Impulses" explains the connection between Evangelical Protestantism and the Second Great Awakening and describes the message of the transcendentalists.
+
Activity
Library of Congress

Loc: Summer on the Lakes E Text

For Students 9th - 10th
Here is a short biography and a analysis of "Summer on the Lakes" by Margaret Fuller. It also contains links to the online text for this essay describing her trip to the Great Lakes in 1843. Text can be viewed on a page-by-page basis in...
+
eBook
Other

America Dept. Of State: Outline of American Literature [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This online book presents an overview of American literature chronologically. Eras and movements are explained and biographies of significant authors are provided. This is a good way to understand the background and influences of...
+
Activity
Washington State University

Washington State University: Literary Movements

For Students 9th - 10th
This Washington State University site provides a wonderful source for all the literary movements that have taken place in American Literature from 1620-1920. Click on the movement (listed on the left)you are interested in (Naturalism,...
+
Unit Plan
Department of Defense

Do Dea: Contemplation and Argumentation

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
In this self-guided unit, you will read Romantic and Transcendental literature and you will practice the art of persuasion using rhetorical devices, appeals, and refutation while avoiding logical fallacies. By the end of the unit, you...
+
Website
Eserver

E Server: The Thoreau Reader: Annotated Works of Henry David Thoreau

For Students 9th - 10th
This website provides an introduction to and the the text of some of Thoreau's most famous works.
+
Handout
Bartleby

Bartleby.com: Cambridge History of Eng and Am Lit: Transcendentalism

For Students 9th - 10th
This site provides details about the contributions of Bronson Alcott to transcendental thought and explains his role in Fruitlands and Brook Farm. Explains his innovative educational theories and provides details about his family life.
+
Unit Plan
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Louisa May Alcott: Transcendentalism

For Students 9th - 10th
Explore the impact of transcendentalism on the life of Louisa May Alcott and American society in this video [4:00] from the American Masters film Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind 'Little Women.' Emphasizing self-reliance, civil...
+
Unit Plan
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: American Masters Collection: Louisa May Alcott

For Students 9th - 10th
This is a collection of two video lessons about Louisa May Alcott and her works especially "Little Women."
+
Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Walt Whitman: Journalist and Poet

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Through an examination of primary sources and watching a short video, students will learn about Whitman's love for and criticism of the United States.
+
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Reading Guide: Henry David Thoreau, "Walden"

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Thoreau offers in this excerpt from Walden the Transcendentalist observation that each human must search for religious meaning within himself and not as a quest to glorify God.
+
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Triumph of Nationalism: America, 1815 1850: Religion

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
A collection of nine primary resources including historical documents, literary texts, visual images, and maps illuminated and contextualized by notes, thematic questions, and text-specific discussion questions for classroom instruction...
+
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: William Cullen Bryant and Philip Freneau

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Two poems examining divinity and concluding that while God is benevolent, one appreciates God either through a romantic lens or a rationalist calculation. Poems are William Cullen Bryant's, "To a Waterfowl," and Philip Freneau's, "On the...
+
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Religion: Henry David Thoreau

For Students 9th - 10th
The National Humanities Center presents collections of primary resources compatible with the Common Core State Standards - historical documents, literary texts, and works of art - thematically organized with notes and discussion...
+
Unit Plan
Cengage Learning

Houghton Mifflin: Emerson's Major Themes

For Students 9th - 10th
Houghton Mifflin site has an entry that discusses major themes, historical issues, writing style, audience, and literary criticism for Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). Contains discussion/study questions and a bibliography.
+
Article
University of Groningen

American History: Essays: Philosophy and Literature: Two Philosophies

For Students 9th - 10th
Explains what the 'Scottish philosophy' was and how well it fitted with American sensibilities in the 1800s. Over time it evolved into the American philosophy of Pragmatism. The other philosophy that took hold in some groups of society...
+
Website
Virginia Commonwealth University

Virginia Commonwealth University: Transcendentalism: Ideas and Thought

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource provides information about American Transcendentalism, and biographies of people who followed this philosophy.
+
Handout
Texas A&M University

American Transcendentalism Web: Henry David Thoreau

For Students 9th - 10th
Resource provides a biographical look at the Transcendentalist writer, Henry David Thoreau, as well as links to further biographical information, major Thoreau sites, Thoreau texts, and even a criticism of his work "Walden," in audio...
+
eBook
University of Michigan

American Verse Project: Early Poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson

For Students 9th - 10th
Read and search for thirty poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson, taken from the book "Early Poems." Includes a brief biography of Emerson.