Washington Irving from A History of New York

Aim: Why is the excerpt not an objective description of New York history ,rather a sentimental account of history from a personal point of view?

Do Now:

Procedure:

  1. Review the New Vocabulary

  2. Discuss the following questions about the excerpt:

    i. How did Manhattan come into being?
    ii. What is Irving's tone when describing the development of the town of new Amsterdam?
    iii. What are the positive aspects described? The negative ones?
    iv. What literary techniques did Irving use in describing the town?
    v. What is the most interesting thing described?
    vi. What point of view is used in the writing?
    vii. What style is the "History" written? What ideas or writing techniques can you adopt in your writing about New York?

  3. Discuss the writing techniques we can adopt from Irving's writing and use them in our "History of My Neighborhood"

    Homework #3:
    Imitate Irving's way of describing the history of Manhattan to describe the "history" of your neighborhood( or other impressive landmarks in NY such as the Empire Building, the Brooklyn Bridge). To find out the history of your neighborhood, you can either interview a senior neighbor or your family member, or do research in the Internet or go to the local library and ask the librarian to help with the research on the topic.