Participant Projects
The principal project will be the creation of a curriculum unit that uses as a base the observations Thoreau made, the questions he asked, and the questions that the teachers (and ultimately their students) will articulate based on their own observations. Participants will have a choice of seven major threads to follow which connect to what we believe are the most important aspects of Thoreau’s thought for young people, and to answer perhaps the most important question of all: Why does Thoreau matter?
Participants will develop lessons based on one of the threads, lessons focused around Thoreau’s inquiries, and their relevance to what students worry and wonder about today. The Concord Museum will develop a website for the use of the Summer Scholars, which will serve as a place for all to contribute their quotes, questions, and visuals around each thread as a shared database. Their lessons will also be mounted on the website under each thread, arranged by grade level, and available freely to educators and students everywhere.
Lesson Title | Teacher Name | Grade Level Taught | Link to Lesson | Course Subject |
Thoreau & Words | Serrin Anderson | 11 and 12 | Anderson Lesson Plan | English |
The Language of Nature: An exploration of the individual and society from Transcendenalism to Today | Kerri Bundy | 11 and 12 | Bundy Lesson Plan | English |
Into the Wild and Transcendentalism | Charles Cangemi | 11 | Cangemi Lesson Plan | English |
Living and Writing Deliberately: The Concord Landscapes and Legacy of Henry Thoreau | Kathy Carrol | 9 – 12 | Carrol Lesson Plan | Library |
Henry David Thoreau – Curriculum Unit | Christopher Donovan | 11 | Donovan Lesson Plan | American Literature |
Henry David Thoreau Unit | David Duer | 9 – 12 | Duer Lesson Plan | English |
Focus: Being Awake, Aware and Alive | Maura Dwyer | 11 | Dwyer Lesson Plan | English |
Thoreau: Desperate and Deliberate Lives | Bradley Fletcher | 9 – 12 | Fletcher Lesson Plan | History |
Living Life Deliberately – Journal Activities | Barbara Fowler | 9 – 12 | Fowler Lesson Plan | Social Sciences |
Thoreau, Social Location, and the Personal Statement | Merry Gordon | 9 – 12 | Gordon Lesson Plan | English |
Henry David Thoreau and The Green New Deal | Carol Graham | 11 | Graham Lesson Plan | English Literature |
Deliberate Choices | Stephanie Gronholz | 10 | Gronholz Lesson Plan | English |
Whole Life Examined: Transcendentalist Ideas in the Modern Era | David P. Iverson | 11 | Iverson Lesson Plan | English |
Walking as a Data Collection Process | Dr. David Valdez | 12 | Valdez Lesson Plan | IB Psychology |
Living and Writing Deliberately: The Concord Landscapes and Legacy of Henry Thoreau | Rebecca Newland | 9 – 12 | Newland Lesson Plan | Library |
How did Thoreau’s writing and work influcence the American Environtmental movement? | Laura Gallant | 9 – 12 | Gallant Lesson Plan | Environmental Technology |
Examinging Desperate and Deliberate Lives: Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom | Sarah Jelinski | 9 – 12 | Jelinski Lesson Plan | Instructional Services |
Living and Writing Deliberately: The Concord Landscapes and Legacy of Henry Thoreau | Amy Krukowski | 11 – 12 | Krukowski Lesson Plan | English |
Contact! Thoreau’s Most Pivotal Passage | Tim Larsen | 11 – 12 | Larsen Lesson Plan | English |
Connotative and Denotative meaning: an intro to reading and thinking expectations through Transcendentalist literature | Shannon Martin | 10 | Martin Lesson Plan | English |
Choosing a Life of Principle | Robert McClung | 9, 10, 11 | McClung Lesson Plan | English |
Within and Without: Living in and out of Society with Henry David Thoreau | Erik Mortenson | 8 – 12 | Mortenson Lesson Plan | English |
Being Awake, Aware, and Alive | Kristin Pollack | 9 – 12 | Pollack Lesson Plan | English |
What is the relationship of man to society? Thoreaut’s Texts | Deborah Posner | 9 and 11 | Posner Lesson Plan | English |
Into the Wild: Chris McCandless as a reflection of Henry David Thoreau | Paula Priour | 10 and 11 | Priour Lesson Plan | English |
Thoreau’s Rhetoric in Civil Disobedience | Rebecca Randolph | 11 and 12 | Randolph Lesson Plan | English |
Citizens of Concord! Sophocles’ Antigone and Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” | John Rearick | 10 and 12 | Rearick Lesson Plan | English |
Podcasting Like Thoreau | Kim Rott | 12 | Rott Lesson Plan | English |
Obey or Rebel: Obeying Authority or One’s Conscience after reading Antigone and “Civil Disobedience” | Ryan Smith | 9, 11, 12 | Smith Lesson Plan | English |
A Dead Cat at Last: Connecting Thoreau’s Resistance to Dystopian Text | Michael Arthur Soares | 11 and 12 | Soares Lesson Plan | English |
The Individual and Society | Crystal Spackman | 11 and 12 | Spackman Lesson Plan | English |
Transcendentalism’s Enduring Principles | Lyndsay Thompson | 10 and 11 | Thompson Lesson Plan | |
Walden as Performance Art? | Anne Wenzel | 7 – 12 | Wenzel Lesson Plan | Creative Writing |
Being Awake, Aware, and Alive | Gary Wyss | 8 – 12 | Wyss Lesson Plan | English |
A Multimodal Urban Walden | Courtney Beavan | 6 and 7 | Beaven Lesson Plan | Science |
Repurposing and Old book into Something New – A Nature Journal! | Beverly Black | 4 | Black Lesson plan | Elementary |
Observing and Measuring with Thoreau | Elizabeth Jorden | 5 | Jorden Lesson Plan | Elementary |
Awake, Aware, Alive | Danny Carratala | 6 | Carratala Lesson Plan | English Lanuage Arts |
Living Deliberately – Thoreau | Stephanie Dixon | 7 | Dixon Lesson Plan | English Language Arts |
Practiving Simplicity (And Planting a Seed) | Elizabeth Ellingson | 6 | Ellingson Lesson Plan | English Language Arts |
Hearing that Different Drummer | Josh Gilgoff | 6, 7, 8 | Gilgoff Lesson Plan | English Language Arts |
Journal Unit | Jeannine Mendoza | 7 | Mendoza Lesson Plan | Language Arts/Social Studies |
Using Thoreau’s Words and Way of Living to Inspire Creativity in our Writing | Kerri Packwood | 6 | Packwood Lesson Plan | English Lanuage Arts |
Using Paired Passages to contemplate “Hearing that Different Drummer” | Anne Pennypacker | 8 | Pennypacker Lesson Plan | English Lanuage Arts |
Living in Nature | Danielle Snyder | 7 and 8 | Snyder Lesson Plan | Humanities |
My Wild Life: Choosing Individualism in Society | Vanessa Carroll | 7 | Carroll Lesson Plan | English |
Living in Society: Conforming to Expectations | Kaytlin Yachim | 6 | Yachim Lesson Plan | English |
Living in Society: Global Citizenship | Catherine Christensen | 3 – 5 | Christense Lesson Plan | Elementary |
Thoreau’s Relationship with Nature | Clara Defilippis | 4 | Defilippis Lesson Plan | Elementary |
The Concord Landscapes and Legacy of Henry David Thoreau | Jacqueline Gregory | Pre K – 4 | Gregory Lesson Plan | Elementary |
Thoreau and His Work | Jodie Lang | 4 | Lang Lesson Plan | Elementary |
Portraying Nature: Deliberate art making inspired by the writing of Henry Thoreau | Elizabeth Sobkiw-Williams | K – 5 | Sobkiw-Williams Lesson Plan | Visual Arts |
Living in Nature: Looking at the Natural World with both “scientist eyes” and “poet’s eyes.” | Rosemary Barilla | 4 | Barilla Lesson Plan | Elementary |
Living in Nature: Where is my Walden Pond? | Randolph Costilow | 2 – 6 (gifted) | Costilow Lesson Plan | Elementary |
Henry David Thoreau: Place, People, Purpose | Ted Donahue | 5 | Donahue Lesson Plan | Elementary |
Hearing that Different Drummer: Henry Builds a Cabin | Tina Genay | Pre K – 4 | Genay Lesson Plan | Elementary |
Choosing Life with Principle | Katie Hartman | 3 – 5 | Hartman Lesson Plan | Elementary |
Living Deliberately: Henry Hikes to Fitchuburg | Aimee Levesque | 2 | Levesque Lesson Plan | Elementary |
Choosing Life with Principle: How can we do routine tasks in more mindful, conscious way? | Elaine Phipps | 5 | Phipps Lesson Plan | Elementary |
How does paying more attention to our world change our writing? | Annmarie Rad | 3 – 5 | Rad Lesson Plan | Elementary |
Henry David Thoreau at a Primary Level | Zamaria Rocio | K – 1 | Rocio Lesson Plan | Elementary |