9/18-19: Living
Timeline
The living timeline activity will:
• provide you a comprehensive review of our unit for the assessment next week!
• help us to process our work throughout the year and continue to activate our
knowledge about the historical context in which the major works we study are
situated.
• serve as a living document that can be used as a reference throughout the year.
Basic timeline: puts events in chronological order
1787:
Constitution
adopted as
law
1865:
Civil
war
ends
1918: End
of World
War I
1945:
End of
World
War II
Historical Events and content
1973-1975:
recession
2008:
Barack
Obama
elected
president
Literary Works and content
Romantic
Transcen
dentalism
1840s: Emerson
writes "Friendship"
and "Self-Reliance"
essays
1787:
Constitution
adopted as
law
Realism period
1865: Mark Twain
writes "Celebrated
Jumping Frog.."
1865:
Civil
war
ends
1918: End
of World
War I
1945:
End of
World
War II
1973-1975:
recession
2008:
Barack
Obama
elected
president
Multi-dimensional timeline: compares different
features/elements on the same line.
Romantic
ism
Realism period
Transcen
dentalism
1840s: Emerson
writes "Friendship"
and "Self-Reliance"
essays
1787:
Constitution
adopted as
law
Modern period
1865: Mark Twain
writes "Celebrated
Jumping Frog.."
1865:
Civil
war
ends
Post-Modern period
1952: Steinbeck
publishes East of
Eden
1918: End
of World
War I
1945:
End of
World
War II
1973-1975:
recession
2008:
Barack
Obama
elected
president
Living multi-dimensional timeline: compares different
features/elements on the same line and grows with our
knowledge
Purpose
Trace authors and texts and themes that we explore in
our class through the year
Give context to the works that we are reading: how are
they part of/do they contribute to American culture
and society?
Process
Every timeline will be different, but each will contain some
of the same key elements.
When we are done drafting our timelines, we will vote on one
timeline that we will work with all year as a class. This
timeline will be posted and used as a reference (yes, that
means for tests and reading assessments too!)
9/18-19: Living Timeline Group
Work Goals
Group work goals:
• Ensure everyone is participating: this is a big challenge
when you have one piece of paper and four people
huddled around it.
• Collaborative Process: How will you organize the work so
that everyone is involved?
• Time Management: we have a lot to get done in 4 days.
How will you accomplish the task effectively
• Creativity & Inclusion: how can you ensure that everyone
is heard and represented?
9/18-20: Living Timeline
Development
Part 1: Data collection
•
•
•
•
Gather all important historical/cultural/social events that you’ll want to
include on your timeline. Use all the resources that you have: personal
knowledge from history, notes from class, information from American
Radioworks History of the American Dream notes, Time magazine article,
“Keeping the Dream Alive”.
Gather titles/authors/periods from your notebooks for the work we’ve done
this unit that you will include on the timeline and outline your content.
Find a quote from a text that represents the values and styles of each
literary period.
Remember: this is not meant to be complete. There will be gaps in your
information. We’ll get there.
9/18-24: Living Timeline
Construction
Part 2: Construction
Consider how you will fit everything in the space that you have.
Where will your timeline start and end?
Will your dates be evenly spaced, or will you give more space to
certain periods?
How will you organize your information on your timeline so
that it is easy to follow and read once it is posted on the wall?
(Hint: it will be far away from close inspection)
How might you be strategic about the use of colors & symbols?
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•
•
•
•
9/25-26:
Periods of Early American Literature
Final Assessment
Assessment will consist of:
Essay
9/259/26
Multiple 9/27
Choice
Exam
60 points See prompt
next slide
40 points All content
covered in
the unit.
9/27:
Periods of Early American Literature
Essay Prompt
Jim Cullen, author of The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation, argues that the
American Dream has existed in spirit throughout our nation’s history. He writes,
“The Pilgrims may not have actually talked about the American dream, but they would have understood the idea:
after all, they lived it as people who imagined a destiny for themselves. So did the Founding Fathers. So did
illiterate immigrants who could not speak English but who intuitively expressed rhythms of the Dream with their
hands and their hearts. What Alexis de Tocqueville called 'the charm of anticipated success' in his classic
Democracy in America seemed palpable to him not only in the 1830s, but in his understanding of American
history for two hundred years before that.”
In a multi-paragraph response, explain the extent to which you agree or disagree with this statement, using
references the eras of American literature we have studied as evidence.
Your response should include:
An introduction to the concept of the “American dream”
A clear argument that responds to the question: to what extent do you agree with Cullen’s argument?
References to at least 3 texts/authors that we have read in American Literature this year that
demonstrate the way in which early American writers would have understood the concept of the
“American Dream” even if they did not yet have a term for it.