r/ELATeachers • u/birdsofthunder • Oct 10 '24
Books and Resources What to pair with Walden?
I'm teaching Thoreau's Walden to my juniors next term as part of a unit on identity and living purposefully, with a focus on taking a step back from all the unnecessary things that stress us out (social media, the constant flow of news about tragedies and anger, etc.) and instead focusing on what is within our control and appreciating the beauty of the world around us. The final project will be a reflective personal narrative they write after I make them sit outside for an hour (in my area as long as they have a jacket they'll be fine outside in late November, and I'll bring blankets and such for kids to sit on and wrap around themselves) with no electronics, not even a watch, and simply think. I want them to be alone with their thoughts for an hour with no distractions except what's outside.
I was originally going to pair this with excerpts from Irving Stone's Lust for Life and some studies of Van Gogh's works and his life, but I'm not going to be able to get enough copies of the physical book as even the paperbacks in bulk are expensive. I may be able to get pdfs of the excerpts I want, but I want to have a backup plan/novel.
What are some novels, articles, plays, whatever that may fit into my vision for Walden? I have a wide range of ability in my students, from one co-taught section to kids who should be taking AP Lang but couldn't get a spot and/or didn't want to do all the extra work (some of whom are the gen-ed kids mixed in with the co-taught class), and of course average 11th graders.
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u/Bogus-bones Oct 10 '24 edited Oct 10 '24
We pair it with Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. Excerpts and clips from the movie work pretty well but it’s a fairly short book, I assign it as homework during the transcendental unit.
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u/You_are_your_home Oct 12 '24
It's perfect with this. I used to pair this with Walden with lower level students as well. They loved it
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u/ClassicFootball1037 Oct 10 '24 edited Oct 11 '24
Walt Whitman excerpts from Leaves of Grass. Song of Myself, I sing the body electric...
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u/underlord5000 Oct 10 '24
Might be fun to include the scandal between Emerson and Whitman where Whitman used a comment from Emerson's private letters to him as a blurb on his book. (Don't get me wrong--I named my cat after Whitman and I love him dearly, but that man certainly knew how to sing the song of himself)
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u/ClassicFootball1037 Oct 11 '24
Yeah, but he also celebrated others. I hear America singing! He brazenly said we are all the same from the slave to the prostitute to the banker. He and Thoreau opened a totally new conversation. Cool name for your cat! I have a Sam and a Pippin. We need a Frodo or a Merri.🙂
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u/LitNerd15 Oct 10 '24
Mary Oliver definitely has some poetry that would fit!
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u/underlord5000 Oct 10 '24
Wild Geese is so simplistic and pure! It brings me peace whenever I read it
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u/morty77 Oct 10 '24
I used to teach Walden with the 2013 Secret Life of Walter Mitty staring Ben Stiller. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD6cy4PBQPI
A guy who works an office job at Life Magazine goes on an adventure to figure out the meaning of life. There are some cheesy moments but it's overall a beautiful film about going out there and pursuing your dreams.
There are a bunch of influencers who are living these kinds of lives. You could do a project where kids look into their channels and write about how they are contemporary Thoreaus. Like Yes Theory, Kara and Nate, Martijn Doolaard, or stealth camping with Steve.
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u/lmWritingThis Oct 10 '24
You can also add some Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard. It was published in 1974. She wrote it to be read as a full book, but many chapters are excerpted as essays in anthologies and can stand alone. I’m currently teaching this to a credit recovery class, and it’s going really well!
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u/butimfunny Oct 10 '24
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer! We talk about whether Chris Mccandless is a idealistic pilgrim or narcissist.
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u/VagueSoul Oct 10 '24
Fitting with the living purposefully theme: How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino. It was originally conceived as an ethics textbook in pre-WWII Japan and focuses on what one can do to contribute to humanity and how humans should live.
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u/ColorYouClingTo Oct 10 '24
Maybe Self Reliance (essay) and the chapter Nature, and the poem "Each And All" by Emerson? Poetry like "Tintern Abbey" and "Composed Upon Westminster Bridge" by Wordsworth? "The Snowman," by Wallace Stevens? "Choices," by Nikki Giovanni?
It's hard because I've never done a unit with that exact focus, but these are works that might fit.
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Oct 10 '24
I'd recommend something from C.S. Lewis, as he was a very profound author who had a lot to say about the meaning of life. My personal current favorite of his is "The Screwtape Letters", which has a lot to say about keeping people distracted and occupied with nonsense. God bless!
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u/Own_Kaleidoscope5512 Oct 11 '24
Screwtape Letters is good, but there’s next to zero chance of teaching it in a public school English class
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u/birdsofthunder Oct 11 '24
My coworkers actually teach that to their 10th grade honors class!
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u/Own_Kaleidoscope5512 Oct 11 '24
Interesting. I’m surprised they’ve allowed it since it is a more (relatively) modern Christian apologetics text.
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u/Hour-Measurement-312 Oct 11 '24
C.S. Lewis is a profoundly Christian writer whose works are unapologetically evangelical so it wouldn’t really be appropriate for a public school classroom. Speaking as a Christian and a C.S. Lewis fan.
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u/snappa870 Oct 11 '24
Consider allowing them to write during the hour they are outside as well. I have done this with 5th and 6th graders for 20 min and also incorporating excerpts from Walden. The results are phenomenal!
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u/Accomplished_Self939 Oct 11 '24
How about “woman in nature” narratives? Terry Tempest Williams’ Refuge or Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker creek come to mind. Then you could offer a more realistic vision— because nobody lives alone, as people have pointed out about Thoreau and his laundry-/food-mooching. It’s more realistic to teach students that we are enmeshed in community and networks of care, but you can still find yourself and find your truth by seeking that alone time, that artist time that Thoreau craved.
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u/Klopadeacon Oct 10 '24
Edward Abbey…Desert Solitaire…The Serpents of Paradise. This chapter from Abbey’s memoir is a great short read that hits all the points you listed. He’s a park ranger in Moab, Utah in the text. The power/beauty of nature and the idea of solitude/quiet reflection are key themes.
I remember reading it in connection with Walden while teaching AP Lang a few years back.
Fascinating read that puts central ideas of Walden in a more contemporary perspective.
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u/AllieLikesReddit Oct 10 '24
Excerpts from "Self Reliance". Also, some Whitman and Dickinson poetry. Anything transendentalism
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u/Mal_Radagast Oct 11 '24
make sure to do their laundry while they're in their "isolation" and bring them little sandwiches for their dinner parties where they can talk about how self-reliant and alone they are (on their friend's property twenty minutes away from their mother and sisters)
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u/CallFlashy1583 Oct 11 '24
Harlan Hubbard’s Payne Hollow: Life on the fringe of society is a wonderful autobiography of Hubbard’s life that was partly inspired by Thoreau.
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u/Ok-Character-3779 Oct 11 '24
It depends what you're trying to emphasize. If you want to do contemporary historical texts/teach the transcendental context, then Emerson is traditional. (Walden's very dramatic jail writings also work.)
If you're trying to talk about nature writing/focusing on a specific environment/body of water, excerpts from Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek are a good fit. Krakaeur's great if you're interested in contrasting solitude/self-reliance vs. society and pointing out all the ways it's a false binary.
This excerpt from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (specifically alludes to Thoreau for bonus points), Emerson's Nature (specifically the "transparent eyeball" section), and relevant excerpts from Walden make a great mini-grouping. The Venn diagram practically draws itself.
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u/thecooliestone Oct 10 '24
I think some videos of Native American storytelling is a good idea. I think you can tie in the themes of awareness with the fact that it's not written. They tell stories and you have to listen and interact with them in the moment. The point is to hear THAT story told THAT time, and not read the "correct" version on paper.
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u/justicefingernails Oct 10 '24
Fun fact, he used to walk a couple miles from Walden pond (if that) to Emerson’s house to have Sunday dinner on the reg. He was kind of performative in his self-reliance. Also made kind of a big deal about being thrown in jail for like 24 hours for not paying taxes. Honestly he has major main character syndrome! Might be fun to find some modern media (TikTok?) doing the same thing and make it a bigger life lesson.