Welcome to our final project! Michelle and I have created a PowerPoint that is designed to help teach students about the principles of transcendentalism that are depicted in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self Reliance.” The PowerPoint, which can be accessed through the link below, provides educators with a list of age-appropriate Disney films along with a short description on how each movie relates to one or more of the beliefs of Transcendentalism like nonconformity, self-reliance, intuition, simplicity, or the importance of nature. We believe that it is great for those interested in teaching their students about the Gothic and Romantic periods. We recommend teaching this to a fifth and sixth grade class because the material that is being presented may be a little challenging for a younger audience. This teaching tool is designed to engage Gardner’s spatial and musical intelligences. The main goal of this tool is to allow students to make connections between movies they are familiar with and the new concepts that they are being presented to them through the text. We believe that Emerson’s book can help children develop skills to make themselves self-reliant by realizing it takes courage to be an individual and that the way we use our minds will guide our lives by controlling what we think and how we feel. That being said, the text itself is a hard read so we took into consideration that many children love Disney movies and this would therefore help them learn the concepts in the text best. We hope you enjoy and find it useful!
The Tenets of Transcendentalism in Disney Films Presentation
American Literature for Elementary Education 