NEH Grant Workshop: Clintons Ditch: The Erie Canal in Western New York Sample Interdisciplinary Lesson Plan

11th grade ELA classrooms (in collaborating with 11th grade US History teachers) Thematic Unit in 11th grade ELA: American Exceptionalism Essential Unit Questions: To what extent is America unique among the nations of the world? What are the ideological origins of the notion of American exceptionalism? How has the notion of American exceptionalism evolved throughout American history? How have notions of American exceptionalism been used to justify particular government policies and courses of action? Is American exceptionalism a myth?

Unit Assessment Persuasive essay that answers one of the essential unit questions (student choice)

Sample Works Analyzed During this Unit ELA Text John Winthrop A Model on Christian Charity J. Hector St. John Crevecoeur What is an American? Thomas Paine Common Sense Thomas Jefferson Declaration of Independence Philip Freneau the Great Western Canal Raphael Beck The Opening of the Erie Canal (painting) John Gast American Progress (painting) John OSullivan Manifest Destiny Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America Frederick Douglass What to the Slave is the 4th of July? Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg Address Emma Lazarus the New Colossus Theodore Roosevelt the Strenuous Life Woodrow Wilson Declaration of War speech JFK First Inaugural Address MLK Letter from Birmingham Jail MLK - I Have a Dream Social Studies Topic Puritan New England Life in 18th Century American Colonies American Revolution

Early National Period and the Market Revolution

Manifest Destiny and Western Expansion

Jacksonian Democracy Slavery and Abolitionism Civil War Immigration Imperialism World War I and Treaty of Versailles Cold War and Consensus Civil Rights

 Jimmy Carter Crisis of Confidence Speech Ronald Reagan Farewell Address Case Study: the Construction of the Erie Canal

1970s and the Conservative Revival

Intellectual Rationale: the construction of the Erie Canal during the Early National Period bound together a nation that otherwise may have fallen victim to geographically imposed sectional tensions. The Canal provided an essential artery for commerce and communication that connected the coastal United States and lands beyond the Appalachian Mountains. The successful completion of the Canal in 1824 occurred in climate of post-war (War of 1812) nationalism following years of political debate and doubts regarding the feasibility of the project. With an efficient means of transportation to the old Northwest, the development of the west quickened and helped give rise to the concept of Manifest Destiny. In this lesson, Philip Freneaus poem The Great Western Canal will be analyzed to examine how the rhetoric of American exceptionalism was applied to this great construction and engineering feat. Following the analysis, the social studies lesson will take place which will chronicle the construction of the Canal and the challenges and opportunities that it brought to upstate New York and the nation Essential Questions for this lesson: How does Freneau portray the opening of the Erie Canal? How does the structure of the poem reinforce the meaning that Freneau is trying to impart on the reader? What similarities exist between the rhetoric Freneau uses and the rhetoric of prior texts?

Common Core Standards

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.2 Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.3 Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.5 Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.6 Determine an authors point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.9 Analyze seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century foundational U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (including The Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Lincolns Second Inaugural Address) for their themes, purposes, and rhetorical features.

Preparation To gain necessary background information on the Erie Canal, the US History teacher will provide content support for the Early National period and the Market Revolution (which the Erie Canal helped to spawn). Detailed information will be covered regarding the conception and construction of the Canal so that students will have the prior knowledge necessary to fully analyze this poem. Procedure English teacher (with shared students) will introduce and analyze Freneaus poem. Students will read through the poem silently and then the poem will be read aloud. The instructor will then facilitate analysis of the poem by asking students (working in pairs) to write a short summary of Freneaus portrayal of the opening of the Erie Canal. After a short discussion of the summaries to ensure student understanding, students will be tasked to review the poem again to find evidence for this question: What similarities exist between the rhetoric Freneau uses and the rhetoric of prior texts? Students could come up with the following references: equal rights and equal laws Contrast the nation true to honors cause with the monarchs of the east Reasons plan and the rights of man nature, herself, will change her face (can be interpreted as a reference to God) in works of peace, mankind engage close the despots iron age Theme of the wilderness being conquered or transformed where liberty enlightens man Which to our use no tyrant gave, nor owes its grandeur to one slave A new republic in the west (compare America to monarchies) What Freedoms nervous sons can do a work from natures chaos won

Transition: what is the significance of applying this rhetoric of Americas exceptionalism (which is occurring over and over again) to a construction project? How is this different from the other texts that we have read? Transition: Canal is an extension of the same American ingenuity that launched the American Revolution..Teacher will then lead students through a stanza by stanza breakdown of key literary techniques, poetic structure, and word choice. Extension In US History, students will read and discuss chapter 3 of Carol Sheriffs The Artificial River, which provides a perspective that students can use to reflect on Freneaus poem. This chapter highlight an unintended consequence of the Erie Canal the development of a permanent laboring class and the potential for the rise of class conflict as America transitioned from a moral economy to a market-based economy and eventually an industrial economy (thanks in part to transportation improvements like the Erie Canal) Closure and Formative Assessment: Students will write a short response: what new insights about the concept of American exceptionalism did you gain from this poem?