American Romantic Period

Part I

You are researching approximately 50 years in the United States, 1800-1850. Your research should center around answering the following questions. You could use some of the headings to help guide your presentation:        

I will assign one of the following categories and poets that you will also discuss in your presentation. You will be the expert scholar of these writers and their categories so please make sure to do your best, the other students are counting on you!

Romanticism Poets                           Transcendental Poets                                     American Gothic
Emily Dickenson                                              Walt Whitman                                               Edgar Allen Poe
Henry Longfellow                                     Ralph Waldo Emmerson
Henry David Thoreau

Note: Some of the poets and categories will have more than one group researching. 

Part II

Here is where you will work on your presentation. You are the scholar that is studying one of the poets and movements listed above. You and your partner will need to find a way to engage your students and audience. You can be creative and use Powerpoint, Google slide, or Prezi. The presentation format is up to you but; remember the more creative and more enthusiastic you are the more your audience will be engaged and will follow along and you should aim to have equal talking time with your partner. 

The following must be in your presentation:

Visuals: You should have visuals that help the Audience see what who and what you are describing. Each of the titles above can be shown in a creative way, so make sure to have fun with it and share what you can! 

Your Own Words: Don't just repeat what you read on the internet, make it your own!

-Explain the influences of the time! You should make connections on how these writers either went along with movements like the industrial revolution or against the Enlightenment. 

-Show what the US and the people were like!

-Define Romanticism/Transcendentalism/Gothic in your own words. What makes these movements special? What makes them unique? How do they differ from one another? How might they be the same? 

-Analyze the styles and lifestyles of these writers. How did their lives influence their writing? 

-Discuss what aspect of the American Identity did they define? What did they feel made someone an American? What do you think they feel makes someone an American? 

Part III

You will take poem/essay/story from one the writers that you researched and answer the questions on the steps to "identify the theme/central idea worksheet" You will need to take the background info and use it to explain the theme of the writing from your writer. After you complete an analysis of your text you will need to choose a poem from one of the writers that your classmates have researched and use the information that they presented to complete the poem of the writer they researched. I will provide a list of poems, essays and writings below.