Last updated: October 28, 2022
Lesson Plan
A Space for Creativity: A Tao of My Own
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Literacy and Language Arts
- Lesson Duration:
- 30 Minutes
- Common Core Standards:
- 3.SL.3, 3.SL.4, 3.W.3.b, 3.W.3.d
- Additional Standards:
- This lesson has been aligned to Grade 3 CCSS standards but can be easily adapted for a wider range of elementary and secondary grade levels.
Essential Question
How can the places where we work help us become more productive or creative?
Objective
Students will be able to:
• Identify factors that help them to be productive or creative.
• Develop explanatory and descriptive writing skills.
• Share their writing and ideas clearly with their classmates.
Background
Lesson Synopsis - At the height of his popularity, playwright Eugene O’ Neill moved to a remote part of northern California looking to escape. The constant stream of reporters and fans distracted him from his work so badly that he and his wife built a retreat, Tao House. While isolated within its wall, O’Neill was able to complete his final and most important plays, including The Iceman Cometh and Long Day’s Journey Into Night, for which he would win his fourth and final Pulitzer Prize.
Tao House was meant to be Eugene O’ Neill’s, “final home and harbor” and was designed to be the perfect place for to work uninterrupted. Numerous features of the home helped feed his productivity and creativity. In this lesson, students explore this famous residence and learn about how the O’Neill’s designed it to help support his writing. Through a combination of readings, writing, and sharing they will design and describe a “Tao House” of their own that would stimulate their own creative and productive habits.
Preparation
In preparation for the lesson, it would be helpful to review the following:
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Images of Tao House and Eugene O’Neill’s Study in the “Lesson Assets” section of the lesson. These can be printed and/or distributed, or displayed in the classroom.
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Article “Eugene O’Neill and Tao House” in the “Lesson Assets” section of the lesson.
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“See-Think-Wonder” Thinking routine in the Procedure section of the lesson.
Lesson Hook/Preview
Students will learn about how Tao House was an important space of creativity and helped Eugene O’Neill to have a space where he felt comfortable and productive. They will then connect to their own creative needs as they design and describe a creative workspace for themselves.
Procedure
Students will begin the lesson by looking at images of Tao House and Eugene O’Neill’s Study. The teacher will introduce the "See-Think-Wonder” Thinking routine and use this method to record student’s observations and promote more active engagement. The teacher will help the students debrief what they see by creating a chart of the things they noticed about the house as they look at the images
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What specific things do you SEE in Tao House as you look at the images?
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What do you THINK the purpose of that thing (object) is?
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What questions or WONDERS do you still have after looking at these images?
After the debrief and chart creation, the teacher will ask students to read a short article about Eugene O’Neill and his time at the Tao House. In discussing the article, emphasize how the house was designed and furnished to allow O’Neill to focus on work without distractions.
Designing a Room
The teacher will direct the students to draw their ideal working environment. Asking questions like, “what do you need in order to focus on your work? What kinds of creative hobbies do you have?” Teachers can help students who are stuck. They can also look at the chart of things they saw in the images of Tao House and see if they might include similar things in their room. The teacher can also have students pair-share so that they can share their ideas and harvest ideas from what they saw in the images of Tao House.
Expressing Ideas in Writing
Have students write a paragraph describing the room and how it helps them to accomplish their work. You may want to model this process by sharing an example of your own creation. Provide students opportunities to engage with you as they write. This is one way that students can organize their room:
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Size, Shape, Colors
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Window (represents the setting)
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Chair (represents comfort)
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Desk (represents needs for focus)
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Pen (represents tools for work)
Vocabulary
1. Productivity
2. Creativity
3. Environment
Additional Resources
Eugene O’Neill Image Gallery
More about Eugene O’Neill at Tao House
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 280
Danville, CA 94526
Phone: 925-228-8860 x6422
Related Lessons or Education Materials
Lesson Assets
1. 5-10 Photos of Tao House and the Study
2. Article: Eugene O’Neill and Tao HouseEugene Gladstone O’Neill was born in 1888 and grew up to become one of America’s greatest playwrights, but he had a hard life. When he was a young man, he worked many hard jobs working in difficult places, but many of these experiences later became plays. Eugene O’Neill was finally able to find success when he began writing plays. He wrote realistic stories about people who had hard lives like his, something that not many other people had done before, and this won him a lot of praise. He wrote 51 plays in all and won many awards for his work including the Nobel Prize for literature, something no other American playwright has ever done. Writing plays took a lot of time, and his success made him so famous that it was hard for him to find time to be left alone. He needed a place where he could work and be creative in peace, so in 1936, he and his wife Carlotta bought a large piece of land in the hills of what is today Danville, California.
Eugene and Carlotta designed this house to be the perfect hideaway where they could work without interruption. They included a lot of design features inspired by their shared interests: Eugene O’Neill and his wife Carlotta admired the art and culture of Asia, so much so that they decided to add Chinese art and design ideas into their home. The gate which led to their house had Chinese characters decorating it. They also hung Asian masks and paintings on the walls and bought furniture designed to look like the kind used by Chinese royalty. At the foot of their staircase were two statues of Guardian Lions which the Chinese placed outside temples or other important buildings to provide protection. All of these design ideas helped Eugene work so well that he was able to complete six of his most famous plays in only seven years!
Eugene had many hobbies that helped him to relax and recharge after a long day of work. He loved toread, and some people say that he owned more than 8,000 books! He also liked poetry and would readit aloud for his wife in the evening. Eugene also loved music and had many records for his phonograph, atype of record player. One year as a birthday gift, Carlotta bought Eugene a piano which he named Rosie. He loved the piano so much he gave it its own room!
Eugene O’ Neill spent much of his life next to the sea and people like sailors, so he decided to includethe sea into the design of his bedroom and the study where he worked. His bedroom was painted greyand white, colors that reminded him of fog. His entire study was decorated to look like the inside of asailing ship and included model boats. The quiet peacefulness of life at sea was something O’Neillmissed and found comforting.
By 1940, O’Neill was getting sick and soon found it too difficult to write. It also became difficult for theO’Neill’s to find the help they needed to continue living at the house, so in 1944 they put the house upfor sale and moved away