Garnet Mayo

ENGL 5922

11/05/08

The Romantic Tide:  A Unit on Romanticism

Romanticism is found precisely neither in the choice of subjects nor in exact truth, but in a way of feeling.   - Charles Baudelaire

Prefatory Statement:

              Romanticism is a movement that took the world by storm in the 1770’s and still has an impact on today’s society.  This phenomenon was not only felt within literary circles but all across the board in the appreciation of the arts.  This unit was put together for students to learn where the roots of the Romantic Era started and how far it went.  Specifically, students will be looking at the beginnings of the Romantic Movement in Germany and following it throughout England and Ireland and onward to America. 

              I created this unit because Romanticism is still very much alive in today’s society.  The theme song to Star Wars is identified as a Romantic piece and that song can be identified anywhere in the world.  I want students to walk away with an understanding of what this movement consists of, where and why it was started, and how they can identify with it in today’s society.  The students will also be looking at different types of mediums that were affected by this creative movement.  The Romantic Movement inspired many different types of writing, music, and art.  Throughout the unit we will be looking at different art works, musical pieces, and writing styles to understand how the elements that made up Romanticism were used to help artists express their ideas.  Romanticism was started and continued through a very exciting time in Europe, and the history of that will help the students make connections with the literature that they may not have seen prior to this unit.  I want the students to walk away with a better understanding of different types of expression and inspiration.  Along with that I want them to better understand the elements that go into different types of writing and the evolution of writing genres over time.

              The unit will begin with discussing what romance means and how that idea has evolved over time.  We will look at Romanticism in Germany, where it first began, and read Grimm’s Fairytales to enhance the understanding of the written works that appeared at this time.  Grimm’s Fairytales were written early on within the Romantic Movement and they are familiar to many students.  The artwork that was popular throughout the era will be studied and used to enhance their reading.  Some of the artwork that we will study was actually used within the literature of the time or was created by a writer of the same period.  This section of the unit will be looking at cultural aspects of the stories and how they can be found in other cultures.  We then will travel to England and Ireland and see how the poets, Wordsworth and Keats, take on Romanticism. The music that accompanied the era will also be studied, again to see how the culture affected the literature and what was happening throughout the time period.  After we learn about the elements that came from the British Isles, we travel to America and read Irving Washington’s “Sleepy Hollow.” This story helps to lighten up the unit and connects well with student’s prior knowledge and popular culture.  It also brings out the folk aspect of Romanticism, like the Grimm brothers, and helps show how the movement traveled and still stayed true to the format that it was created in. Media will also be used to help students make connections to today’s society.  Students will be journaling throughout the unit and the final assessment is a project/paper connecting Romantic elements to today’s culture in a romantic movie of their choice.

Class Specification: 11th or 12th graders

              This unit is appropriate for upper high school students because it asks them to partake in a substantial amount of critical thinking.  This level of students is up to the challenge and can connect with the material in a more mature and meaningful way.  This unit can be modified to fit any type of classroom because it was not created to fit any specific type of student body.  There is no specific “class” that would benefit more from it.  You can modify the unit for a younger classroom but you will probably have to incorporate less of the art and music and focus more on the literature, with a heavy emphasis on the multi-media end to help with connecting students to the material.  At risk students will do very well with this unit as long as you help them connect to the material, again with the media aspect, and possibly adding or subtracting group work; it all depends on your students and their preferences.  See possible whole class and small group work activities.  I would recommend giving some of the reading material, especially when reading Wordsworth and Keats, to ELL students a few days early so that they can decode the material at a slower pace and still not end up behind on the material.  Allow them to just listen in class and soak in the discussion that will surround that part of the unit.  Preparing notes for them may help them enjoy this part of the unit and not be as anxious over understanding the material.  A great aspect of the fairy tale section is that, if your ELL students have similar stories from their cultures, you can try and have the students share their versions with the entire class.  This can add a great richness to the unit and teach the students a lot about other cultures just within their classroom.

Significant Assumptions:

• My biggest belief as an educator is that students learn more from each other than they do from their teachers.  Students can communicate on a level that we as teachers are not privy to.  With that in mind a lot of my unit revolves around group work so that in pairs or as a class they can interpret the material together and try to understand how the Romantic Movement made its mark on the literary world. 
• I also strongly believe that if I want students to understand and connect to the literature, then I need to make it relevant to them.  I use a lot of media within this unit because it helps the students to visualize how Romanticism is still around today and to look back and see how we interpret what was and what is still happening.
• I know that my students have already read poetry, prose, and short stories.  I want them to look at these genres of writing and to see how the Romantic elements were used to enhance and evolve these genres of writing. 
• I know that most of my students have heard a few of Grimm’s Fairytales and Irving Washington’s “Sleepy Hollow.”  I am using these pieces to help demonstrate how the Romantic period started, what it looked like, and what some of the prominent aspects of the era were, and how they traveled to America and still stayed in tact to what the movement started.  I am utilizing these literary tools that I know my students are familiar with to help them make the step to a bigger idea.  Scaffolding the basic concepts to the bigger idea is another tool that I use to help students command the material.

Desired Outcomes/Standards/Objectives to be Met:

              The standards I am working towards are:

Minnesota State Standard:

              I.  Reading and Literature

                            D.  Literature

                                          9.  Analyze the characteristics of literary forms

11.  Demonstrate how literary works reflect the historical contexts that shaped them.       

              I want the students to have learned about the history behind the Romanticism Movement and how it affects the arts during that time.  This movement affected all music, art, and literature. I want students to walk away from that and see how big ideas, like Romanticism, can affect the arts long after they are no longer prominent.  The history of Romanticism was attached to the idea of the artists connecting to their natural roots and backing away from societies expectations.  It began as a type of revolution and grew into a voice of establishment supported by the bourgeoisie in the end.  A well-known author, William Shakespeare, was an inspiration to this movement because of his appreciation of his characters voice and display of nature throughout his works.  Before this movement, the arts were stuck in a type of mold that was staunch and brittle to change.  By having students learn and appreciate this knowledge I am reaching the goal that is attached to the standard of knowing the historical contexts that shaped literary works.  I also want my students to understand that Romanticism is still around today and many artists use elements of Romanticism in their works.  Tim Burton is one great example of an artist who uses Romantic elements in his work all the time.  I want my students to be able to compare and contrast Romanticism from its beginning and how it has evolved over time in many different mediums. This connects with the standard on literary forms.  The three writing genres that we are studying all evolved over time and I want the students to see the connection of how the literature and history were directly a part of that evolution.  The different assessments will be found in the assessment section.

Objectives:

• Historical roots in the Romantic Movement in literature, art, and music
• Contemporary examples of Romanticism
• Comparison and contrasts of Romanticism in different historical texts

Possible Whole-Class Activities:

• The whole class will take part in a jigsaw activity at the beginning of the Grimm’s Fairytale section of the unit (There will be points added to this group activity)
• Students will all participate in analyzing different media interpretations of Grimm’s Fairytales and Irving Washington’s “Sleepy Hollow.”  As a class they will discover how Romantic elements present themselves in different media interpretations of these stories.
• As a group we will brainstorm the different ideas behind the idea of “romance”
• As a class we will try to identify the different movie adaptations of the literature we read in class
• As a class we will look at artwork from the period and listen to music that was produced from the period as well
• As a group we will discuss the common themes that they found within the literature and the common threads connecting the material to the Romantic Movement found throughout the different literary devices used (poems, prose, short story)

Possible Small-Group Activities:

• Students will get into small groups and research stories that are similar to the Grimm’s Fairytales but from other cultures (participation points included)
• Students will get into small groups and act out one of the fairytales using readers theater techniques and telling the class the lesson learned from the tale (participation points included)
• Students in small groups will create a collage that interprets the poems they read by Wordsworth and Keats.  The devices they can choose to focus on could be nature, feelings, gothic symbolism, folktales, etc.  They can use magazines or images from the internet to express an idea they felt or found within the poetry
• Break into smaller groups and look at the poetry from different critical viewpoints to stretch their understanding of the poems

Possible Individual Activities:

• Students will give a presentation or write a paper explaining how elements of Romanticism can be found in a romantic movie of their choice (will be worth 50 pts.)
• Students will be asked throughout the unit to mimic the writing genre that we are looking at.  These pieces will be graded but as a teacher I am looking to see how they grasp the understanding of the literary genre. 

Ongoing Activities:

• Everyday the students will journal (prompts available in the weekly breakdown.)  Most of the journals will be response journaling to prompts that I will give them each day.  Some of the journal entries will last longer and will ask the students to mimic the writing genre we have been studying for the past couple of days.  Some days I will have the students write at the end of class after we have looked at different media interpretations and the students will reflect on what they saw.  The beginning of class the next day I will start with what the students wrote by having the students read their thoughts from the day before and continue the lesson from there.  The prompts could also be asking the students to write about an abstract idea and then introducing that idea because it is in the literature read for that day.
• Most of the reading will be done in class. The on going activity of reading as a group and interpreting as a group will be a huge part of this unit.  Some of your students may not be able to grasp the information if it is only read out loud or cannot concentrate long enough to read their stories within the classroom.  If your students learn or read better on their own, then you can modify this unit, or certain sections of the unit, to fit that aspect of your class or individual students.  This could pertain to special education students or students who do not frequent your classroom as often as you would like.

Student Resources:

• Students will need a notebook and pencil everyday in class.  The students will have the option of keeping their journals in class if they would like, and they can take it home only when they are not done with their journal prompt or would like to add more to it at home rather than in school.
• Students will receive a copy of several Grimm’s tales, three Wordsworth poems, 3 Keats poems, and a copy of Irving Washington’s “Sleepy Hollow”
• Students will also need computer access of some kind for the final webquest assessment and ongoing activities throughout the unit, ex. looking into different cultural stories.
• Students will need access to some type of video outlet and either a VCR or DVD player to watch their movie for the final assessment and a way to bring in visuals for their presentation/paper

Unit Launch/Anticipatory set/Set Induction:

              Starting off the unit will be done by using a concept map and attaching all the ideas that students come up with on what “romance” means to them and to all that implies.  The day that the unit starts the word ROMANCE will be up on the board and class will start by the Star Wars theme song playing.  After the students have a few minutes to giggle, perhaps a clip of the movie will be played for more of a visual, and a few more minutes will be used to make sure that all the students are on the same page with the music and the movie, etc.  Then a general question of what comes to mind when they see the word on the board will be posed.  Suggestions will be considered and thrown out and the concept map will be started.  Then ask the students to get into smaller groups and see what else they can come up with on the concept presented.  After about 5-10 minutes bring the students back together and expand on the concept map.

              After this activity launch into what Romanticism is and give them the big ideas behind the Romanticism movement and name some familiar figures that are attached to Romanticism in some way: Mozart, Grimm’s brothers, Beethoven, Napoleon Bonaparte, Edgar Allen Poe, and Emily Dickinson.  Then recite a couple of names that are popular Grimm’s Fairytales and see how much prior knowledge the students have with the stories.  After figuring out where your students are on their knowledge of the stories, introduce the prose genre.  Grimm’s Fairy Tales was written in this style and it’s important for your students to understand the style before they read the stories and also so that they can compare and contrast the prose style later on in their literary experiences.  Time will most likely be over by then and continue on the next day by reintroducing the prose genre and then introduce the one of the Grimm stories and artwork that relates to the Grimm’s brothers and go from there.

Some of the bigger ideas behind Romanticism:

• The Gothic Romance:  Connected to Poe, Bronte, horror novels, and women’s romance novels.  Elements include mystical, hysterical, passionate adventures of heroes and heroines. 
• Sentimentalism and Love:  moving and beautiful elements, romantic love considered a natural birthright for the first time in history, and the ideas of love that were formed inspire our ideas on relationship, marriage, and family.
• Exoticism:  Distant places were longed for; didn’t have to be far away but more relaxed, colorful, sensual.
• Individualism:  people could afford to pursue their individual tastes (launch of the bourgeoisie class), rebellion to find oneself.
• Religion:  artists felt free to use religious themes, and the best path toward finding faith was an individual choice.
• Nature:  people felt freer to travel and explore nature.  Cultivated a sensitivity to emotion and nature in general.  People more aware of the stark contrast between the city and nature.  Folk culture also embraced because of the trace of roots and origins.

Organization of the Unit:

              Week One:  The unit will start off with me introducing the idea of “romance” and then building off of that.  Then we will introduce the Romantic Era and some of the key features to look for in the movement and what started it.  Students will be introduced to the prose style and start reading three Grimm’s Fairy Tales.  The three stories will be picked a few days before the unit starts.  Try to choose stories that may appeal to your students’ personalities, it will be very beneficial.  For the sake of this unit, the three stories will be “Rumpelstiltskin,” “Rapunzel,” and “The Glass Coffin.”  As a class we will discuss the stories, the folklore behind them, and the meanings or “morals” that extend from each story during the second or third day of the week.  Around the third or fourth day the students will choose another story that they want to read by himself or herself or a partner and then they will read the stories and act them out for us in class.  We will spend a day going over Reader’s Theater techniques and how they can incorporate them into their portrayal of the fairy tale.  Using Readers Theater techniques that we will talk about, they will portray their interpretation of the story, everyone will have a different story, and they will tell us what elements of Romanticism they used or identified within their story and what moral they thought we as an audience should take away from it.  There will be 20 points for this activity.  On Friday we will be watching different media interpretations of the stories, how the adaptations differ or enhance the stories and how that is significant.  There are many movie interpretations of all three of the stories; going to your local Blockbuster or youtube will provide you with a couple of versions of the stories.  A book, Zel, which is a twist on the story of “Rapunzel” or “Ella Enchanted.”  Perhaps even using on of these stories to compare and contrast themes between the two versions will help students to make connections.  All these activities may not be able to fit into this first week.  Some students need more than a day to be able to fully understand Reader’s Theater, or there may be more discussion on the fairy tales than you expected.  Leave room for this and keep an extra couple of days after the third week open for catching up.

• The prompts for their journals will start on Tuesday and are;
• What was your favorite story when you were younger and why?  (This story can be a family tale, urban legend, town history, or favorite book growing up.  There is not a specific type of story.)
• What children’s author do you admire? Give three reasons why this author sticks out in your mind.
• What does folklore mean to you?  Are their certain images that go with that idea?  If so, what are they?
• What is your favorite film adaptation of a book?  (Mine is Pride and Prejudice.)  What pulls you to that adaptation?

• Lecture Questions:
• What were two elements that all three of the tales that we read have in common?
• How is your idea of “Romance” changed since learning about its origins?  Were you surprised? 
• What were some historical aspects that influenced the Romantic Era?  How did history play a role in starting this artistic movement, and why do you feel it has been able to last this long?
• Why would the Grimm’s brothers want to write folk fairy tales?  Do you think this is a tradition that is apparent in other cultures?  Do you have any examples?

Week Two:  This week we will transition into England/Ireland and look into Wordsworth and Keats.  I will start by having the class look at popular art and music of the Romantic Period.  Some of the musicians that we will look into are Peter Tchaikovsky, Richard Wagner, and Ludwig van Beethoven.  For artwork we will look at William Blake, who was also a popular writer at the time and Henry Fuseli.  Both artists were part of the British Romantic Movement, which fits into our geographical focus.  Some of the influence of the era came from figures in Greek mythology and Shakespeare, so we are going to explore those figures for Monday and expand our knowledge of the Romantic Era.  The industrial revolution had a profound impact on this movement, and the students and I will spend a day looking into that and how it impacted the poets’ writing.  Then we will spend a day reading Wordsworth and discussing what drove him as a poet and what conventions he liked to use within his poetry.  He was deeply moved by simplicity, and his love of nature was a constant theme within his works.  Wordsworth was known as using a new type of poetry based on the “language of men.”  His famous definition of poetry is: "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings from emotions recollected in tranquility.” (Wordsworth Home Page)  Also a big influence was his close relationship with William Coleridge.  Then we will continue on looking at more art and listening to different music while transitioning to Keats.  Nature was a big inspiration for Romanticism, and I’m hoping that one day this week we will be able to go outside and write our journals entries in nature, perhaps even spend the whole class time out there reading Keats and possibly even Wordsworth.  We will look at a couple of Keats’ poems and again see what elements he uses within his poetry and how he fits into the Romantic Ideals.  Keats was not a part of the poetic community long, but he was known for using extensive word choice and sensual imagery, which later influenced artists like Alfred Tennyson.  Keats was also known for writing Odes, which are his most famous works and within this section of the unit.  A quote by Keats that describes his ideas about poetry is, “The great beauty of Poetry is, that it makes every thing every place interesting.” (Keats’ Home Page)  I will be using a lot of artwork and music to help create the mood of these poets and to help make their poetry come to life. The artwork will include the famous portraits of Lady Macbeth and the Lady of Shallot and works from British artists William Blake and Henry Fuseli.  Fuseli is known for his artwork representing a lot of famous Shakespeare characters.  The main pieces of music being heard within class will be Mozart, Beethoven, and different romantic ballet pieces (Giselle, La Sylphide, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty).  The prompts for their journals are:

• Do you have a favorite artwork? Or Song?  What is it and how does it speak to you?
• The town that you live in no longer has any open spaces, no trees, no fields, in the big picture no nature.  Reply as you see fit.
• Death is a strange concept and is looked at in many different ways in many different cultures; what is your view?
• Rain, Snow or Sunshine.  Which one?  Elaborate
• In your eyes, what are legends made of?

• Lecture Question:
• What would be some reasoning to explain why Keats did not become popular until after his death?
• How did the artwork and music of the time period influence the literature?  Explain.
• What Romantic artists have you enjoyed so far?  What elements of the artist have spoken to you?
• Why do you think that the movement has not overly evolved over time?
• What contrasts can you find between the city and nature within the poetry we have studied?
• What are some common allusions we have seen between the poetry and other mediums?

Week Three:  When class begins this week, I am going to give them a journal prompt that describes their favorite holiday.  We will then discuss as a group what they wrote, using their entries as a guide.  Then we will get to my favorite holiday, which is Halloween, and I will ask them some stories or movies that are attached to Halloween that are their favorites or that have always terrified them.  We will at some point throughout the discussion come to the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”  It might take awhile or be brought up right away.  We will have fun with this process and discussion of “ghost stories” that they remember.  I will probably ask the students if they knew that the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” was based off of a true place in the U.S. and that it is also a short story.  Other figures that we can compare are Edgar Allen Poe and Emily Dickinson.  This will help spark their prior knowledge and will give them a sense of some of the Gothic American writers who took Romantic elements and warped them into their writing.  We will discuss how “Sleepy Hollow” could be attached to the Romantic Era and we will read the short story.  Again I may split the story into parts and have students do a dramatic reading of the story.  I will go first to model the activity. Then we will spend the next day watching different interpretations of the story and compare and contrast the movie adaptations and compare what the directors chose to keep or exclude in the interpretation of the story.  We will have a few transition days where we can finish up “Sleepy Hollow” and then work into the final webquest assessment.  I will spend a day explaining the final assessment, how it’s broken down, what I expect of them, and how they could go about presenting their movie.  I will probably show a few clips of a romantic movie (Casablanca) and show them how I would present the movie and what clips help show the Romantic elements that I found.  The assignment will probably be due that next Monday, in order to give them time to work on the project.  We will slowly transition into another unit, possibly one on the Gothic genre.  Some ideas for the next stories could be Frankenstein or Wuthering Heights; both of these novels have romantic elements and are a part of the Gothic writing genre.

• The prompts for their journals will be all week and are;
• What is your favorite holiday?  What aspects make it the best?
• Favorite horror film?  Describe the elements that scare you.  Is it based off of a true story? Legend? Book?  (If they don’t have a favorite movie, then perhaps a book or scary legend they heard)
• What makes something scary?  Explain.
• How has your perception of “romance” changed?  If it hasn’t, what is your perception and why hasn’t it changed?
• Romanticism….does it appeal to you? What do you agree with or nod your head and say, “I get it”?  What do you still shake your head at and say, “No way…doesn’t make any sense.”

• Lecture Questions:
• What are the connections between “Sleepy Hollow” and the material we have studied so far?
• How do our interpretations affect what we read?  What could be some causes? Effects?  How do we recognize this within common media interpretations?
• Compare and contrast the Gothic genre and the Romantic Movement.
• What are some common elements of short stories?
• Name two other Gothic authors that we’ve discussed and how they relate to “Sleepy Hollow.”

Supporting Materials for Teachers Who Teach the Unit:

• Any anthology that includes Romanticism
• The Keats' and Wordsworth home web pages give a lot of helpful information on the authors.
• Watch at least two versions of Sleepy Hollow, Tim Burton and Disney both have produced versions of this short story
• Grimm’s Fairy Tales and some of the movie adaptations of the stories; there are several adaptations of the tales; any local Blockbuster has a few versions or youtube is another great resource
• Zel by Donna Jo Napoli is another resource for Grimms; it’s a retelling of Rapunzel.  Also Ella Enchanted by
• The following websites have a lot of history for the Romantic era and are great resources to refresh on Romantic elements and the history of the time period:
• http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_701765971/Romanticism.html
• http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/romanticism.html
• http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.html

Handouts:

   Attached to Unit (most for the Webquest)

Discussion Questions:

• What is the significance of the history behind the Romantic Era?
• What is folklore?  What aspects are attached to this genre?
• How does the folklore of a country affect your understanding of the culture?
• Grimm’s Fairy Tales is based off of folklore, yet the stories span into many different cultures.  Why?
• How do movie adaptations affect your sense of that story?
• What is significant about director’s decisions in the adaptation of a story to film?
• What is today’s society interpretation of “romance,” and how is that significant?  Where did those ideas come from?
• How in Romanticism around today?  Explain.

Assessment Task:

              My big assessment will be to have the students do a webquest where they dissect a romantic movie of their choosing and identify the Romantic elements that are used within the film.  The students will have a few worksheets to help them look critically at their movie, and then they will give a presentation or write a paper on the elements of Romanticism that they identified within their film and their significance.  The students also will show visuals to help explain their findings for both the paper and the presentation.  Other assessment tasks throughout the unit will be their mini-acting skits, the jigsaw and other group work, and their journals throughout the three weeks.

Grades:

• The journals will be broken down to 15 pts. per five entries.  These entries are used to help them expand their ideas and to get them started on thinking about the material.  They will also be working towards better writing skills.
• The jigsaw activity will be worth 20 pts.  It’s a cooperative learning exercise and they will be able to use their knowledge to help each other understand the material.
• The mini-acting will be worth 20 pts.  They have to work together or by themselves and identify the Romantic elements within the story.
• The Webquest will be worth 50 pts.  Explained in the assessment section and on the Webquest.  *See assignment see for more explanation on the Webquest assignment or see webquest at http://www.d.umn.edu/~mayox034/Webquest.htm)
• So far the grand total of points would be around 140, with participation points being thrown in if needed.