Emily Dickinson (U.S. Literature)
What's inside this high school literature unit:
An introduction to critical reading and annotating
A warm-up activity to highlight Dickinson's modern voice — can you tell if a line comes from a Dickinson poem or a 1970s glam rock band?
A research activity that digs into the historical and poetic context of Dickinson's work
3 multi-week lessons focused on building an increasingly sophisticated understanding of poetic analysis
A creative hands-on project that plays with language just like Dickinson does
A final project that lets you get creative building connections to Dickinson's work
Bonus: Cards Against Emily Dickinson poetry game
This Emily Dickinson think book is designed as a self-contained, student-led high school curriculum unit. (Credit recommendation: 0.25 credits; schedule recommendation: 7-8 weeks/0.5 semester)
Emily Dickinson is arguably the first U.S. poet to develop an authentically original voice. Dickinson isn't building on classical or Enlightenment poetic foundations; instead, she's innovating a mash-up of Protestant hymns, quirky rhymes and meters, and riddling poetic language combined with her favorite parts of Romanticism and Transcendentalism.
In this unit, we'll explore what makes her voice unique — while also learning about the fundamentals of poetry analysis with step-by-step exercises and activities.
This is part of the U.S. Literature full-year curriculum think book. (Available in the SEA Homeschoolers store)
What students say:
"This is my all-time favorite class, and this is the best literature project I have ever done."
"Cards Against Emily Dickinson is peak literature experience."
Placement recommendation: This is a high school level unit, designed for students who are already familiar with the basic elements of literature (plot, character, theme, setting, etc.) and who are comfortable applying those skills to texts. Like most high school level curricula, it includes works that could be rated M for Mature. If mature content is a concern for you with your student, I encourage you to preview texts to asses your personal comfort level. (I read these texts with my own high school student and teach them in high school classes, but comfort levels can be very personal things.) This is a completely secular program.
For secular homeschoolers who want a fun, decolonized, rigorous way to homeschool high school and middle school, home/school/life’s Deep Thought is the progressive high school curriculum that does the academic heavy lifting so that you can enjoy the fun stuff. Unlike other high school curriculum, home/school/life’s Deep Thought curriculum teaches students how to learn, not just what to learn and makes big academics surprisingly fun for the whole family.
All curriculum materials are digital and downloadable. Because of this, all sales are final. If you have questions, please ask before you buy.
