Rationale Needs & Outline

Needs:
1. Justification for teaching a conceptual unit
- Must be convincing to target audience (administration, colleagues, board of education,
parents, etc.)
2. Take the form of an argument including
- Clearly articulated overall thesis
- Set of related claims
- Responsible evidence that supports claims (drawn from scholarship and properly cited)
- Warrants that explain how evidence supports claims
- Anticipation of counterargument
- Rebuttal of counterargument
- Language suitable to impress readers that you are qualified to be an English teacher
- Evidence of a rough draft that has been subjected to a peer critique
Unit Basics:
a theme, that is, a series of texts that treat a recurring motif, such as the outcast, gender roles,
war and peace, or prejudice; see, for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theme_(literature)
a literary period that is both significant and thematically unified, such as Victorian literature or
Post-Colonial literature
Theme :
Aesthetic Awareness The Good, the True, and the Beautiful
Final Exam Extended Definition paper on what makes literature Beautiful
Literary Period/Movement Romanticism
Romantic Writers:
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Walt Whitman
Edgar Allen Poe
Mary Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
William Wordsworth
Samuel Coleridge
Herman Melville
William Blake
Lord Byron
John Keats
William Cullen Bryant
James Fenimore Cooper
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Washington Irving
James Russel Lowell
John Greenleaf Whittier
Jane Austen

Bronte sisters
Thoreau
Emerson
Emily Dickinson
Romantic Composers:
Early:
Beethoven
Mozart
Rousseau
Haydn
Zenith:
Wagner
Chopin
Schumann
Lizst
Berlioz
Later:
Paganini (?)
Brahms
Greig
Sources:
http://www.online-literature.com/periods/romanticism.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/entertainment/romanticism-romanticism-literature.html
Questions:
Why teach Aesthetic Awareness?
Why teach Good, True, Beautiful?
Why teach Romanticism?
What is the value of Aesthetic Awareness?
What is the value if Good, True, Beautiful?
What is the value of Romanticism?
What is the literary significance of AA, GTB, and Romanticism?
What standards (common core) do these align with?
-

What concepts are central to the topic of this unit?

Why am I teaching this unit and its concepts?
What type(s) of justification am I primarily relying on to support my rationale
(psychology/human development, cultural significance, etc.)?
Within each justification, what are the main claims I can make about its relevance to the
unit Im proposing (e.g. studying protest literature is important because it helps students
understand the role of conscience in social action)?
For each claim, what kinds of evidence can I provide that would be persuasive to others, and
how can I include a warrant that explains the ways in which the evidence I present supports
my claim?

What counterargument against my rationale can I anticipate, and how can I provide a
rebuttal for them?
How can I provide a rationale for each of the texts that my students will read in conjunction
with the unit focus?

Lesson 1 15 minute (what makes a song beautiful part 1: one of my fav songs, student fav songs)
Lesson 2 30 minute (Romanticism introduction Romanticism in classical music beauty in that)
Lesson 3 60 minute (Romanticism in poetry British and American what makes poetry beautiful)
Lesson 4 90 minute (Romanticism in literature what makes literature beautiful extended definition)
My Favorite Romantic Poets:
Edgar Allen Poe
Lord Byron
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Emily Dickinson
Romantic Writers Ive Read:
Edgar Allen Poe
Emily Bronte
Charlotte Bronte
Ralph Waldo Emerson (Transcendentalist)
Henry David Thoreau (Transcendentalist)
Walt Whitman
Lord Byron:
She Walks in Beauty
When We Two Parted
And Thou art Dead, As Young and Fair
(all of the above are love poems)
Tennyson:
Charge of the Light Brigade
The Lady of Shalott
Poe:
The Raven
Annabelle Lee
The Bells
The Telltale Heart
Masque of the Red Death
The Pit and the Pendulum
Fall of the House of Usher
The Black Cat
Charlotte Bronte:
Jane Eyre

Emily Bronte:
Wuthering Heights
Thoreau:
Walden (read excerpts)
Civil Disobedience
All the above authors are DWP (Dead White People). Not diverse at all.
Aesthetic Awareness Questions:
By what criteria do I distinguish the aesthetic quality of a text?
What eternal truths does the literature suggest?
What notion of virtue does the author promote?
What does it mean to be good, true, and beautiful?

What concepts are central to the topic of this unit?

There is beauty in all kinds of works (song, poem, book, music, art, etc.)
Transactional learning (pp. 125-128 TED)
Literary Value (137-138 TED)

Why am I teaching this unit and its concepts?

Because I love romanticism and I think goodness truth and beauty should be taught more in the schools.
It is important for students to see the beautiful things not only in life but in what they read and listen to

What types of justification am I using to support this?

Literary significance what about AA (Aesthetic Awareness)/GTB (Good, True, Beautiful)/RMT
(Romanticism) makes it essential to any kind of cultural literacy; what is the cultural significance of RMT;
what did this movement serve
Preparing for the Future - Relevance

Within each justification, what are the main claims I can make about its
relevance to the unit Im proposing (e.g. studying protest literature is important
because it helps students understand the role of conscience in social action)?
Studying the romanticism movement as a part of aesthetic awareness section on beauty is important
because:
- Understanding different modes of expression (art, music, literature)
- What was considered beautiful in the 1800s
- What is considered beautiful in the 21st century
- Reading, seeing, hearing beautiful things adds to the quality of life
- Pleasant escape/contrast to harsh reality
- Different ways of thinking, seeing the world, appreciation of those differences
- The importance of emotion and freedom of expression

For each claim, what kinds of evidence can I provide that would be persuasive
to others, and how can I include a warrant that explains the ways in which the
evidence I present supports my claim?
Warrant an explanation of why the evidence supports the claim (often beginning with because).
Evidence of Claims:
Beethovens music
Byrons and/or Tennysons poetry (love poems)
Thoreaus Walden

What counterargument against my rationale can I anticipate, and how can I

provide a rebuttal for them?
Were not hippies; beauty doesnt go beyond skin-deep, too idealistic, quality of life doesnt depend on
beauty
Rebuttal what about art forms that touches the soul? Creates deep feeling within the
observer/listener/reader, that feels like beauty (deeper than skin)
I dont think theres anything wrong with ideals; conviction comes from ideals (in part); in order to
understand someone, its important to know what they believed

How can I provide a rationale for each of the texts that my students will read in
conjunction with the unit focus?
Why is Beethovens music important to Romanticism?
Why is Byrons/Tennysons poetry important to Romanticism?
Why is Thoreaus Walden important to Romanticism?