Summary
Day and night, yin and yang, love and despair, Biggie and Tupac—all opposite yet equal counterparts to one another. In this lesson, students explore the reaction to the American Transcendental movement, dark romanticism. They Jigsaw informational texts of this subgenre and come to a consensus on what main characteristics make up these texts. Students will then, with a critical eye, read two of the three stories from Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment," "The Wives of the Dead," and "Young Goodman Brown," looking for examples of the characteristics they determined previously. Finally, students create an op-ed on this genre through Blackout Poetry.
Essential Question(s)
How do the elements of Gothic literature reflect the dark side of romanticism? How did the “American Identity” change during the Romantic period?
Snapshot
Engage
Students sort quotes into two groups, transcendentalism or dark romanticism, using their prior knowledge.
Explore
Students Jigsaw articles on the subgenre dark romanticism.
Explain
Students co-create a list of requirements for writing to fall within the subgenre.
Extend
Students read two short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Why-Light specific areas that connect to their co-created list.
Evaluate
Students create an op-ed using an excerpt from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and a technique called Blackout Poetry.
Materials
Lesson Slides (attached)
Card Sort (attached; one per group)
The Scarlet Letter (excerpt from The Project Gutenberg) (linked; one per student)
Dark Romanticism and American Renaissance (linked; one per group)
New World Encyclopedia - Dark Romanticism (linked; one per group)
Dark Romanticism Study Guide (linked; one per group)
Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment (linked; one per student)
The Wives of the Dead (linked; one per student)
Young Goodman Brown (linked; one per student)
Highlighters
Pens/pencils
Sticky notes
Engage
Introduce the lesson by displaying the title slide 2 from the attached Lesson Slides.
Display slides 3–4. Review the essential question and the learning objectives.
Display slide 5 and share the instructional strategy Card Sort with students. Have students partner up and pass out the attached copies of the Card Sort. Instruct students to read through each of the quotes with their partners. Once they have read through all of the quotes, they should sort them based on whether they believe them to be written by a transcendentalist or a dark romanticist. You can use slides 6–13 to have a whole class discussion on each of the quotes.
Explore
Display slide 14 and introduce the Jigsaw strategy. Divide students into three groups and pass out copies of the linked readings (each student in the group should have a copy of the same reading).
Instruct students to read the articles individually and highlight any information that stands out to them as important that they will want to share with the group. After they have had ample time to read and gather their thoughts, move to slide 15 and have group members work together to discuss what they learned and synthesize what they want to share with the rest of the class.
Divide students into new groups of three so that each person in the new group has read a different article. Move to slide 16 and students take turns sharing with their new groups what they have learned from their reading.
Explain
Display slide 17 with students and share the instructional strategy Affinity Process with them. Pass out stacks of sticky notes to the class. Have students write down as many characteristics of the subgenre Dark Romanticism as they can think of. They should limit themselves to one characteristic per sticky note. There is a 3-minute timer on the slide for you to use. If you believe students may need more or less time, you can find additional timers on the K20 Center’s YouTube Channel.
Move to slide 18 once students have exhausted their knowledge. Ask students to work with a partner to compare their sticky notes. Instruct them to group similar sticky notes together. Label these as a category.
After pairs have completed their groupings, display slide 19. Have each pair combine with another pair, resulting in a group of four. Have these groups of four repeat the process.
At this time, groups share their big categories, or main characteristics for the subgenre dark romanticism. Create a whole class list on the board for them to refer to at a later time.
Extend
Display slide 20 and share with students that they are going to be reading two short stories today, both of which were written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Share some information about the author and ask students whether they have read anything else by the author.
Move to slide 21 and share the instructional strategy Why-Lighting with students. Instruct them to highlight examples throughout the reading that show that this story falls within the subgenre of Dark Romanticism. For each example they highlight, they should write in the margin their reasoning. Choose two of the three linked stories from CommonLit that you would like students to read at this time.
Display slide 22 and have students discuss their annotations with a partner.
Evaluate
Display slide 23 and share the instructional strategy Blackout Poetry with students. Move to slide 24 and play the following video for students that explains how to create Blackout Poetry with Google Slides.
Once the video is over, use slides 25–27 to share a couple of completed examples with students. Move to slide 28, pass out an excerpt from The Scarlet Letter, and share the instructions for the activity with students.
Resources
Collins, A. L. (2019, April 26). Dark romanticism & American renaissance: Context. Literary Landscapes. Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://adhc.lib.ua.edu/site/literarylandscapes/dark-romanticism-american-renaissance-context/
Dark romanticism study guide. Dark Romanticism Study Guide. (n.d.). Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://americanliterature.com/dark-romanticism-study-guide/
Dark romanticism. Visit the main page. (n.d.). Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Dark_romanticism
Hawthorne, N. (1837). Dr. Heidegger's experiment by Nathaniel Hawthorne. CommonLit. Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/dr-heidegger-s-experiment
Hawthorne, N. (1832). The wives of the dead by Nathaniel Hawthorne. CommonLit. Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/the-wives-of-the-dead
Hawthorne, N. (1835). Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne. CommonLit. Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/young-goodman-brown
K20 Center. (n.d.). Affinity process. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/87
K20 Center. (n.d.). Blackout poetry. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/84
K20 Center. (n.d.). Card sort. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/147
K20 Center. (n.d.). CommonLit. Tech Tool. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/2170
K20 Center. (n.d.). Jigsaw. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/179
K20 Center. (n.d.). Why-lighting. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/128
K20 Center. (n.d.). Project Gutenberg. Tech Tool. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/3033
K20 Center. (2021). Blackout Poetry - Google Slides [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved February 24, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADnAmvqXMRU