Knowing how to enrich your lesson plans can help you to turn a boring and ineffective teaching session into the kind of lesson plan that you and your students will want to revisit in the future. Learning to enrich your lesson plan requires nothing more than creatively applying a few of the central principles drawn from Henry David Thoreau’s 19Th Century masterpiece, Walden. Dipped into liberally, the 200 pages of Walden can provide you with the framework on which to construct a lesson plan you will be glad to call your own.
Most useful in my own teaching experience have been chapters from Walden entitled “Economy”, “Sounds” and Solitude”, but truly there are nuggets that can enrich your lesson plans scattered throughout the pages of Walden.
Simplify. When teachers try to put together a lesson plan they frequently are guilty of over packing the plan. Anxious to fully load their lesson they can too easily end up by obscuring the key points they have been trying so hard to reveal.
Surprisingly enough Thoreau addresses this kind of overloading problem in the pages of Walden and suggests a reasonable solution. Thoreau’s experiences in the woods gave him hands on experience in reducing reality to what is truly important and learning to pass on what is not. Teachers like Thoreau living in the woods, can enrich their lesson plans by simplifying them, trimming them down, weeding them out, learning to remain focused on the essentials in a lesson. Every lesson plan ever written can benefit from following Thoreau’s exhortation to simplify.
Bring Nature into the Lesson . If you invite Thoreau to be your companion as you prepare your lesson you will find that the Concord philosopher, though an avid reader of the classics, had little use for education that was confined to simply reading and writing.
Reading Thoreau will encourage you to lavishly garnish your lesson plans with opportunities for students to explore the subject matter by observing the natural world around them, putting their senses fully into play. You too will discover the adventure to be found in stimulating student responses by incorporating activities, games and experiences that lead your students beyond the written word.
Introducing Solitude. Thoreau noted in a chapter of Walden entitled “Solitude” that “I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time.” Today teachers often use lesson plans to encourage topical dialog or small group discussions which promote student interaction. Nothing wrong with that approach, but if you wish to enrich your lesson plans you may want to consider what Thoreau has to say and add a dose of solitude to your finished product.
In a world full of technology that encourages us always to be in touch with someone, students may actually enjoy lesson plans that lead them to a stillness in which they can process what they have been learning surrounded by a peaceful and quiet environment.
I have visited Walden Pond, Concord, MA just short of a dozen times. Each visit renews my belief that any lesson plan can be enriched by careful attention to a few of the major elements of living and learning Thoreau cherished and celebrated during his stay there. Simplify your teaching topic, include activities built around observation and the senses, add a few moments of irreplaceable solitude and discover that you have indeed enriched your lesson plan. And while you’re at it you might also enjoy visiting Walden – the pond or the book whenever you feel in need of a little enriching yourself.
Source: Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. The New American Library, New York, New York, 1960.
