Overview“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad / Roughing It
If we follow Mark Twain’s advice, that the only way to overcome these evils and be whole is to travel, how can we possibly travel anywhere when we are stuck in a classroom in the modern world? The answer is simple: Literature. The beauty of literature is that it not only allows us to live the lives of other people, but it also allows us to travel across time and continents. This may not be what Twain envisioned as his definition of traveling, but it will be most important for us, as these topics span much farther back than our American right’s movements and existed in our English literature for hundreds of years. In this unit, we will be exploring the Renaissance, a period of literature filled with new life, where culture blossomed in Europe between the 14th to the 17th century. This period was focused on intellectual and cultural tendencies, including self-actualization and one’s ability to accept what is going on in one’s life. Although prejudice and discrimination are not the headline hot-topics as they are in today’s news and literature, these themes were still prevalent in the undercurrents of many prolific writers during this time period. We will first review historical events that have influenced the literature and lives of these people and then delve into poetry that reflects the stylistic flourishes of Renaissance writers. Our main text will be a play from Shakespeare, as his stories weave the real-world problems of discrimination and prejudice in with a slew of characters, plot twists, and magnetic poetics. By the end of the unit, students will be able to “demystify” the text, understand the meaning, and open the doors for deeper conversations through interactive instruction and independent studies. |
Main StandardsRL.11-12.3 Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama.
RL.11-12.5 Analyze how an author’s choice concerning how to construct specific parts of a text contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its effect on the reader. Focus Questions
Student Outcomes
|