Warm Up:
Take a few moments to sit quietly. Consider the silence. Now consider the sounds that are not there. Consider the sounds that fill your daily experience.
Finally, take a few minutes to write down the sounds that define your existence. Don't be picky, but try to dig deep enough to discover some sounds that might set your existence apart from other people in the world.
Standards:
ELAGSE11-12RL2 Determine two or more themes or central ideas of text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
ELAGSE11-12RL9 Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and early twentieth-century foundational works (of American Literature, British Literature, World Literature, or Multicultural Literature), including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics.
ELAGSE11-12SL1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups,and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11-12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Essential Questions:
- How did the Romantics help create an American mythology?
- What role does sound play in our experience of the world?
- "Atlanta Sounds" is a feature on 90.1 WABE that attempts to capture the texture of the city through the sounds that permeate it. As we listen to these sounds, consider the way that each sound adds richness to your understanding of the city. Also, consider what argument about the city the producers are trying to shape in their choices of what sounds to mention.
- Read/Discuss "I Hear America Singing"
- "I Hear America Singing" MP3 performance piece.
- Continue work on Walden Journal
