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Dead poets society - Free Essay Examples and Topic Ideas

Dead Poets Society is a 1989 American drama film directed by Peter Weir. The story follows an English teacher at a conservative all-boys boarding school who inspires his students to seize the day and embrace their passions, including poetry, in defiance of the school’s strict cultural and academic expectations. The film explores themes of individualism, conformity, and the power of poetry and literature to inspire and transform one’s life. It stars Robin Williams as the inspiring teacher, John Keating, and a young cast of actors, including Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, and Josh Charles. Dead Poets Society has become a classic of American cinema and is recognized for its powerful performances and compelling storytelling.

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• Dead Poets Society: study notes
• Belaboring the Various Behaviors in Dead Poets Society:
• Dead Poets Society – Belonging
• Dead Poets Society – Responsibility
• Dead Poets Society in Formalism Critique Approach
• Transcendentalism – Dead Poets Society
• Dead Poets Society Assignment
• The Dead Poet’s Society
• Story Of The Dead Poets Society English Literature Essay
• The concepts of Belonging In “Dead Poet’s Society”
• Theory Analysis Dead Poets Society
• Knox Overstreet scene of the film “Dead Poets Society”
• “Dead Poets Society” essay
• The male and female relationship in Dead Poet Society and A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Dead Poets Society: Film Techniques
• Analyzing Mr. Keating’s Teaching Concept in Dead Poets Society from Progressivism
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Essay Samples on Dead Poets Society

The examples of transcendentalism in "dead poets society".

“Words and Ideas can change the world”. The movie “Dead Poets Society” is about a group of students that attend a very strict, New England prep school, during 1959. Their new teacher; John Keating, uses non-traditional methods of teaching to reach out to this group...

• Dead Poets Society
• Transcendentalism

Carpe Diem in Famous Works of Auden's Poetry

In the movie Dead Poets Society, Mr. Keating teaches his students to seize the day. While showing them a picture of some alumni on the walls of the academy, he draws them in close to hear their legacy, “carpe diem, seize the day.” The lesson...

The Presence of Transcendentalism in the Dead Poets Society 

Transcendentalism has to do with the idea, that in order to understand nature of reality, one must first examine and analyze the reasoning process which governors the nature of experience. At Welton Academy, Mr. Keating educates his students through transcendental ideas. Welton Academy is a...

Tradionality and Modernity of Education in Dead Poets Society

The movie, Dead Poets Society, directed by Peter Weir, tells the story of seven boys at a Catholic all-boys, conservative boarding school in Vermont called Welton Academy. The students who attend Welton, are strictly instructed to do exactly as anyone says whether they agree or...

• Movie Review

Analysis of Teaching Strategies in the Film "Dead Poets Society"

In 1989, the film Dead Poets Society was released in the United States starring Robin Williams; this cinematographic production’s intention was to make people reflect upon the different ways of teaching particular subjects. Thus, this leads to wonder about the various teaching strategies that can...

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Moral Issues In Dead Poets Society By N.H. Kleinbaum

From my opinion, the Utilitarian ethical theory stands appropriate for Mr. John Keating. Utilitarianism is good theory that promotes activities that advance by and large satisfaction or joy and rejects activities that reason misery or hurt. Mr. John Keating was not only a tutor who...

• Utilitarianism

Best topics on Dead Poets Society

1. The Examples Of Transcendentalism In “Dead Poets Society”

2. Carpe Diem in Famous Works of Auden’s Poetry

3. The Presence of Transcendentalism in the Dead Poets Society 

4. Tradionality and Modernity of Education in Dead Poets Society

5. Analysis of Teaching Strategies in the Film “Dead Poets Society”

6. Moral Issues In Dead Poets Society By N.H. Kleinbaum

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Dead Poets Society Lesson Plans for Teachers

Teaching Dead Poets Society

The Dead Poets Society lesson plan contains a variety of teaching materials that cater to all learning styles. Inside you'll find 30 Daily Lessons, 20 Fun Activities, 180 Multiple Choice Questions, 60 Short Essay Questions, 20 Essay Questions, Quizzes/Homework Assignments, Tests, and more. The lessons and activities will help students gain an intimate understanding of the text, while the tests and quizzes will help you evaluate how well the students have grasped the material. View a free sample

Target Grade: 7th-12th (Middle School and High School)

Length of Lesson Plan: Approximately 121 pages. Page count is estimated at 300 words per page. Length will vary depending on format viewed.

Browse The Dead Poets Society Lesson Plan:

Full Lesson Plan Overview

Completely customizable.

The Dead Poets Society lesson plan is downloadable in PDF and Word. The Word file is viewable with any PC or Mac and can be further adjusted if you want to mix questions around and/or add your own headers for things like "Name," "Period," and "Date." The Word file offers unlimited customizing options so that you can teach in the most efficient manner possible. Once you download the file, it is yours to keep and print for your classroom. View a FREE sample

Lesson Plan Calendars

The Lesson Plan Calendars provide daily suggestions about what to teach. They include detailed descriptions of when to assign reading, homework, in-class work, fun activities, quizzes, tests and more. Use the entire Dead Poets Society calendar, or supplement it with your own curriculum ideas. Calendars cover one, two, four, and eight week units. Determine how long your Dead Poets Society unit will be, then use one of the calendars provided to plan out your entire lesson.

Chapter Abstracts

Chapter abstracts are short descriptions of events that occur in each chapter of Dead Poets Society . They highlight major plot events and detail the important relationships and characteristics of important characters. The Chapter Abstracts can be used to review what the students have read, or to prepare the students for what they will read. Hand the abstracts out in class as a study guide, or use them as a "key" for a class discussion. They are relatively brief, but can serve to be an excellent refresher of Dead Poets Society for either a student or teacher.

Character and Object Descriptions

Character and Object Descriptions provide descriptions of the significant characters as well as objects and places in Dead Poets Society . These can be printed out and used as an individual study guide for students, a "key" for leading a class discussion, a summary review prior to exams, or a refresher for an educator. The character and object descriptions are also used in some of the quizzes and tests in this lesson plan. The longest descriptions run about 200 words. They become shorter as the importance of the character or object declines.

Daily Lessons

This section of the lesson plan contains 30 Daily Lessons. Daily Lessons each have a specific objective and offer at least three (often more) ways to teach that objective. Lessons include classroom discussions, group and partner activities, in-class handouts, individual writing assignments, at least one homework assignment, class participation exercises and other ways to teach students about Dead Poets Society in a classroom setting. You can combine daily lessons or use the ideas within them to create your own unique curriculum. They vary greatly from day to day and offer an array of creative ideas that provide many options for an educator.

Fun Classroom Activities

Fun Classroom Activities differ from Daily Lessons because they make "fun" a priority. The 20 enjoyable, interactive classroom activities that are included will help students understand Dead Poets Society in fun and entertaining ways. Fun Classroom Activities include group projects, games, critical thinking activities, brainstorming sessions, writing poems, drawing or sketching, and countless other creative exercises. Many of the activities encourage students to interact with each other, be creative and think "outside of the box," and ultimately grasp key concepts from the text by "doing" rather than simply studying. Fun activities are a great way to keep students interested and engaged while still providing a deeper understanding of Dead Poets Society and its themes.

Essay Questions/Writing Assignments

These 20 Essay Questions/Writing Assignments can be used as essay questions on a test, or as stand-alone essay topics for a take-home or in-class writing assignment on Dead Poets Society . Students should have a full understanding of the unit material in order to answer these questions. They often include multiple parts of the work and ask for a thorough analysis of the overall text. They nearly always require a substantial response. Essay responses are typically expected to be one (or more) page(s) and consist of multiple paragraphs, although it is possible to write answers more briefly. These essays are designed to challenge a student's understanding of the broad points in a work, interactions among the characters, and main points and themes of the text. But, they also cover many of the other issues specific to the work and to the world today.

Short Essay Questions

The 60 Short Essay Questions listed in this section require a one to two sentence answer. They ask students to demonstrate a deeper understanding of Dead Poets Society by describing what they've read, rather than just recalling it. The short essay questions evaluate not only whether students have read the material, but also how well they understand and can apply it. They require more thought than multiple choice questions, but are shorter than the essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

The 180 Multiple Choice Questions in this lesson plan will test a student's recall and understanding of Dead Poets Society . Use these questions for quizzes, homework assignments or tests. The questions are broken out into sections, so they focus on specific chapters within Dead Poets Society . This allows you to test and review the book as you proceed through the unit. Typically, there are 5-15 questions per chapter, act or section.

Evaluation Forms

Use the Oral Reading Evaluation Form when students are reading aloud in class. Pass the forms out before you assign reading, so students will know what to expect. You can use the forms to provide general feedback on audibility, pronunciation, articulation, expression and rate of speech. You can use this form to grade students, or simply comment on their progress.

Use the Writing Evaluation Form when you're grading student essays. This will help you establish uniform criteria for grading essays even though students may be writing about different aspects of the material. By following this form you will be able to evaluate the thesis, organization, supporting arguments, paragraph transitions, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. of each student's essay.

Quizzes/Homework Assignments

The Quizzes/Homework Assignments are worksheets that can be used in a variety of ways. They pull questions from the multiple choice and short essay sections, the character and object descriptions, and the chapter abstracts to create worksheets that can be used for pop quizzes, in-class assignments and homework. Periodic homework assignments and quizzes are a great way to encourage students to stay on top of their assigned reading. They can also help you determine which concepts and ideas your class grasps and which they need more guidance on. By pulling from the different sections of the lesson plan, quizzes and homework assignments offer a comprehensive review of Dead Poets Society in manageable increments that are less substantial than a full blown test.

Use the Test Summary page to determine which pre-made test is most relevant to your students' learning styles. This lesson plan provides both full unit tests and mid-unit tests. You can choose from several tests that include differing combinations of multiple choice questions, short answer questions, short essay questions, full essay questions, character and object matching, etc. Some of the tests are designed to be more difficult than others. Some have essay questions, while others are limited to short-response questions, like multiple choice, matching and short answer questions. If you don't find the combination of questions that best suits your class, you can also create your own test on Dead Poets Society .

Create Your Own Quiz or Test

You have the option to Create Your Own Quiz or Test. If you want to integrate questions you've developed for your curriculum with the questions in this lesson plan, or you simply want to create a unique test or quiz from the questions this lesson plan offers, it's easy to do. Cut and paste the information from the Create Your Own Quiz or Test page into a Word document to get started. Scroll through the sections of the lesson plan that most interest you and cut and paste the exact questions you want to use into your new, personalized Dead Poets Society lesson plan.

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Dead Poets Society

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A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-15

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Finding Your Voice

One of the main themes in Dead Poets Society is about finding your voice . This is applicable to all of the members of the Dead Poets Society, but it is perhaps the most relevant to the character of Todd Anderson . From the beginning of the novel, Todd is presented as struggling with speaking in front of others. When he receives his extracurricular assignment from Headmaster Nolan, he wants to ask to be on the rowing team instead of doing soccer. When he gets the chance to speak up, however, “Todd [stands] silent. He struggle[s] to say something, but the words just [won’t] come out” (11). As a result, he is kept on the soccer team instead of being allowed to row, like he wants.

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Movie Review — Transcendentalism In Dead Poets Society

Transcendentalism in Dead Poets Society

• Categories: Movie Review

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Published: Mar 14, 2024

Words: 719 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

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Dead Poets Society

By peter weir.

• Dead Poets Society Summary

In 1959, shy Todd Anderson begins his senior year of high school at elite boarding school Welton Academy, a prep school in the Northeastern United States. One of the most promising students at Welton, Neil Perry , is assigned as Todd's roommate and Todd is quickly initiated into Perry's circle of friends, including mischievous Charlie Dalton , romantic Knox Overstreet , high-flying overachiever Richard Cameron and best friends Gerard Pitts and Steven Meeks. On the first day of classes they are surprised to find that their new English teacher, Mr. Keating , is both entertaining and unorthodox, himself a Welton alumnus whose innovation in the classroom brings English class alive. He encourages his students to make their lives extraordinary and summarizes this sentiment with extorting them in Latin "carpe diem" (seize the day). Unfortunately this is in direct contrast to the ethos of the school where living a traditional and conformist life is preferred to living an extraordinary one.

John Keating's inspirational classes also include standing on his desk at the front of the classroom as an illustration to his students that they should try to look at life from a different perspective, and telling them to rip out the introduction section of their poetry books which explains a mathematical formula used to rate poetry. He also encourages them to create their own style of walking across the courtyard to encourage them to be individuals. Individuality is the antithesis of Welton's ethos, and not surprisingly, his teaching methods come to the attention of Gale Nolan, the strict and archaic headmaster.

Neil Perry discovers that Mr. Keating was once a member of the secret and unsanctioned "Dead Poets' Society" when he was a student at Welton. Neil restarts the club and each night he and his friends leave campus without permission and go to a cave where they read poetry, and write and recite their own compositions as well. As the school year goes on, Mr. Keating's classes and their involvement with the Club continue to inspire them to live life on their own terms; Knox Overstreet pursues Chris Noel, a girl who is dating a football player and whose family is friends with his. Neil Perry discovers a passion for acting and wins the lead role in a local production of A Midsummer Night's Dream , despite the fact that his cold and domineering father wants him to attend medical school not pursue a carter in the theater. Mr. Keating also helps Todd come out of his shell and takes him through an exercise in self-expression to help him realize his potential. The exercise culminates with Todd spontaneously composing a poem in front of the class.

Unfortunately, Charlie Dalton's inspiration leads him to go too far, and he publishes an article in the school newspaper under the byline of the Dead Poets Society , demanding that girls be accepted to Welton. Headmaster Nolan uses corporal punishment to try to force Charlie to tell him who else is a member of the club, but he refuses. Nolan also warns Keating that he must discourage his students from questioning authority or else face consequences of his own.

Neil's father discovers he is performing in the play and demands that he quit on the eve of his first performance. Neil is devastated and turns to Keating for advice; his teacher advises him to stand his ground and stand up to his father to demonstrate his seriousness about acting. The following day Keating asks if he has spoken to his father and Neil lies, saying that he had, and that he will be permitted to pursue an acting career provided his schoolwork does not suffer. The lie is discovered when Neil's father unexpectedly appears at the performance, taking his son home and then forcing him to go to military school so that he can go to Harvard and study medicine. Terrified of his father and at a loss for what to do, Neil commits suicide.

Gale Nolan, the headmaster, begins an investigation into the suicide at the request of the Perry family. Attempting to escape punishment for his own membership in the Dead Poet's Society, Richard Cameron tells Nolan that Neil's death is entirely Keating's fault. He names Overstreet, Meeks, Pitts, Anderson, Dalton and Perry as his fellow members. Charlie confronts him, but Cameron urges the others to put the blame on Mr. Keating. Charlie refuses and punches Cameron, which causes him to be expelled. Each of the boys is called to Nolan's office to sign a letter attesting that Cameron's version of events is true. When it is Todd's turn he does not want to sign but does so when he sees that the others have signed already.

Keating is fired and Nolan takes over teaching his class. Keating interrupts class to collect some personal possessions from his desk, and before he leaves Todd stands on his desk and salutes Keating with the words "Captain! My Captain!" Knox, Steven, Gerard and over half the class does the same. Todd shouts that they were forced to sign the letter and that Neil's death was not his fault. Deeply touched by this gesture, Keating thanks them.

Dead Poets Society Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Dead Poets Society is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What’s the theme of dead poets society rip it out

Do you mean the scene where Keeting asks his class to rip out the Pritchard text? He wants them to avoid conformity by ripping a text that treats poetry like a math equation.

Explore Keating's influence on his students and how his encouragement of originality and "carpe diem" affect them.

I can't write your essay for you but can make a general comment. One of Keating’s main, overarching lessons for the boys is the idea of “seizing the day”—that is, making the most of the time they have now and taking advantage of the opportunities...

According to Pitts, all of the girls go for “jerks”. Do you agree with his assessment? Why or why not?

Well, this is a pretty subjective answer from personal experience. Many many years ago I was captain of the chess team in high school. Lets just say girls were not clamouring to wear my jacket. The hockey players,they used to throw pucks at our...

Study Guide for Dead Poets Society

Dead Poets Society study guide contains a biography of director Peter Weir, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Dead Poets Society
• Character List
• Director's Influence

Essays for Dead Poets Society

Dead Poets Society literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of the film Dead Poets Society directed by Peter Weir.

• Authority Against Individualism: Dead Poets Society and The Rabbits
• Dead Poets Society: The Powerful Thought of Individuality
• Identity in Dead Poets Society and Frost's Poetry
• Exploring Transitions: Educating Rita and Dead Poets Society

Wikipedia Entries for Dead Poets Society

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Dead Poets Society

N. h. kleinbaum.

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Todd Anderson Quotes in Dead Poets Society

Sixteen-year-old Todd Anderson, one of the few students not wearing the school blazer, hesitated as the boys around him rose to their feet. His mother nudged him up. His face was drawn and unhappy, his eyes dark with anger. He watched silently as the boys around him shouted in unison, “Tradition! Honor! Discipline! Excellence!”

As the other boys stared at him, Todd fought back tears. “You'll like soccer here, Anderson. All right, boys. Dismissed.”

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