A brief history of conflicting ideas about mankind's relation to the natural environment as exemplified in works of poetry, fiction, and discursive argument from ancient times to the present. What is the overall character of the natural world? Is mankind's relation to it one of stewardship and care, or of hostility and exploitation? Readings include Aristotle, The Book of Genesis, Shakespeare, Descartes, Robinson Crusoe, Swift, Rousseau, Wordsworth, Darwin, Thoreau, Faulkner, and Lovelock's Gaia. This subject offers a broad survey of texts (both literary and philosophical) drawn from the Western tradition and selected to trace the growth of ideas about nature and the natural environment of mankind. The term nature in this context has to do with the varying ways in which the physical world has been conceived as the habitation of mankind, a source of imperatives for the collective organization and conduct of human life. In this sense, nature is less the object of complex scientific investigation than the object of individual experience and direct observation. Using the term "nature" in this sense, we can say that modern reference to "the environment" owes much to three ideas about the relation of mankind to nature. In the first of these, which harks back to ancient medical theories and notions about weather, geographical nature was seen as a neutral agency affecting or transforming agent of mankind's character and institutions. In the second, which derives from religious and classical sources in the Western tradition, the earth was designed as a fit environment for mankind or, at the least, as adequately suited for its abode, and civic or political life was taken to be consonant with the natural world. In the third, which also makes its appearance in the ancient world but becomes important only much later, nature and mankind are regarded as antagonists, and one must conquer the other or be subjugated by it.

In this lesson, students will look behind the story at the historical, social, and cultural circumstances that shape the narrative throughout Esperanza Rising. The lesson also invites students to contemplate some of the changes Esperanza undergoes as she grows into a responsible young woman and the contradictions that she experiences.

Practice working with primary documents by comparing accounts of the Chicago Fire and testing the credibility of a Civil War diary.

This resource from CommonLit offers resources based on the work of American writer, poet, and activist Alice Walker from the short story "Everyday Use." To support student's understanding of the themes in the story, teachers can access guiding questions, assessment questions and discussion prompts as well as texts with similar themes literary devices, topics and writing style.

Students explore picture books to identify the characteristics of four types of conflict. They then write about a conflict they have experienced and compare it to a conflict from literature.

Using excerpts from the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, comics, and songs from different musical genres, students examine the characteristics of transcendentalism.

This lesson explores how The Giver addresses issues of personal identity, memory, and the value of reading and education. It also examines how this newer read relates to other famous classics in this genre and books that students may have read on their own.

This lesson from CommonLit features English writer Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) "A Room of One's Own." In this piece, Woolf discusses how the experiences of women pursuing artistic passions have differed from those of men. Through this lesson, students will explore word choice, tone, and figurative language and how these elements contribute to Woolf's point of view. A number of paired texts on similar themes, writing style, and point of view are provided to give students options to compare and contrast various texts.

Pairs of students respond to literature alternately in shared journals. Mini-lessons are presented on responding to prompts, creating dialogue, adding drawings, and asking and answering questions.

Students use art and poetry to explore and understand major characteristics of the Romantic period.

Students make sense of dollars and cents when they study the importance of saving and budgeting in this lesson.

One of the most famous political speeches on freedom in the twentieth century was delivered by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his 1941 State of the Union message to Congress. This lesson examines the rhetorical use of "freedom" with the objective of encouraging students to glimpse the broad range of hopes and aspirations that are expressed in the call of and for freedom.

"Focus on 'Henry V'" is a peer-reviewed, multimedia, digital Open Educational Resource co-authored and co-produced by faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates on the innovative digital publishing platform Scalar. Chapters include guides to early printed editions, sources, and performance and cinematic histories of the play, as well as teaching resources and in-depth case-studies of particular scenes. All chapters include rich multimedia and audio recordings of body text and image captions. In addition to a traditional Table of Contents, the digital book allows users to navigate the materials through multiple pathways and visualizations. In this way the book offers not only a cutting-edge, renewable OER for college and K-12 teachers but also a model for maximizing the affordances of the digital medium.

Students will begin to understand the concept of maps by describing the path that Little Red Riding Hood took on the way to Grandma's house. Main Curriculum Tie: Social Studies - Kindergarten, Standard 3 Objective 1, Identify geographic terms that describe their surroundings. Many fairy tales and nursery rhymes take the characters on a path through the rhyme/story. In this lesson, we will be making up maps for the characters to follow. In the first activity, the class will be recreating a map of the path that Little Red Riding Hood takes to Grandma’s house. The students will be exploring basic map directions and characteristics.

As some of the foundational texts for beginning readers, fairy tales are a staple of many classrooms. This lesson allows students to engage with fairy tales from different regions around the world and compare important cultural elements of these stories.

William Faulkner's self-proclaimed masterpiece, As I Lay Dying, originally published in 1930, is a fascinating exploration of the many voices found in a Southern family and community. The following curriculum unit examines the novel's use of multiple voices in its narrative.

This collection uses primary sources to explore The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

These lesson plans delve deep into the pivotal event of the 1878 Fireburn, a very significant labor uprising in the Virgin Islands, rooted in struggles for human and labor rights. The Fireburn remains a testament in Virign Islands history of the courage of estate laborers such as Mary Thomas, Axeline Salomon, Mathilde McBean, and Susanna Abramson. The students will be taken through the socio-political landscape of the former Danish West Indies through interactive activities, multimedia resources, and critical discussions that understand the events leading up to the uprising and its profound aftermath. This module is to be designed with the purpose of educating but, at the same time, encouraging pride and recognition from those who sacrificed so much by standing up against their own oppression and daring to imagine a more equitable life,, giving way to the current freedoms that exist today in the Virgin Islands of the United States. 

Known as both a Southern and a Catholic writer, Flannery O'Connor wrote stories that explore the complexities of these two identities. In this lesson, students will challengethese dichotomieswhile closely reading and analyzing "A Good Man is Hard to Find."

Students read literary and informational texts about knowledge and intelligence to understand what happens when humans try to manipulate the minds of others and how our understanding of intelligence has evolved over time. Students express their understanding of these ideas by exploring how authors draw on traditional stories and develop characters and themes to teach us about ourselves and others.