- Why is Susan Sontag important today?
- What are the contemporary roles of writers, thinkers, and artists?
- What are the roles and responsibilities of activists?
- What do students want to change or inspire in their own communities?
- How can students use writing, art, and activism to deepen understanding and create change?
- Understand the main arguments of key works by Susan Sontag
- Connect Sontag’s arguments to those of historical writers and thinkers
- Relate Sontag’s ideas to contemporary events and perspectives
- Assess the impact of Sontag’s writing and activism across disciplines, and identify her most effective strategies
- Investigate the social responsibilities of writers, artists, public intellectuals, and activists
- Use writing, art, and activism to express complex ideas creatively
- High School Grades 11-12
- College or University
- Art and Culture
Medium > Architecture
Medium > Visual Arts
Subject Matter > Art History
Subject Matter > Music
Subject Matter > Philosophy
- History and Social Studies
People > African American
People > Latinx
People > LGBTQ
People > Native American
People > Other
People > Women
Place > Africa
Place > The Americas
Place > Asia
Place > Europe
Place > The Middle East
Themes > Civil Rights
Themes > Culture
Themes > Exploration and Discovery
Themes > Globalization
Themes > History of Science and Technology
Themes > Immigration/Migration
Themes > Politics and Citizenship
Themes > Religion
Themes > War and Foreign Policy
U.S. > Civil War
U.S. > Colonization and Settlement
U.S. > The Great Depression
U.S. > World War II
U.S. > U. S. History
World > The Modern World (1500 CE-Present)
- Literature and Language Arts
Genre > Biography
Genre > Drama
Genre > Essay
Genre > Fable, Fairy Tales and Folklore
Genre > Novels
Genre > Poetry
Genre > Short Stories
Place > Africa
Place > The Americas
Place > Ancient World
Place > Britain
Place > Europe
Place > Modern World
- Analysis
- Architectural analysis
- Auditory analysis
- Compare and contrast
- Creative writing
- Critical analysis
- Critical thinking
- Cultural analysis
- Data analysis
- Debate skills
- Discussion
- Evaluating arguments
- Expository writing
- Film editing
- Gathering, classifying and interpreting written, oral and visual information
- Historical analysis
- Internet skills
- Interpretation
- Interview/survey skills
- Investigating/journalistic writing
- Journal writing
- Letter writing
- Literary analysis
- Logical reasoning
- Making inferences and drawing conclusions
- Map skills
- Media analysis
- Musical analysis
- Online research
- Oral analysis
- Oral communication
- Oral presentation skills
- Painting
- Persuasive writing and speaking
- Photography
- Poetry analysis
- Poetry writing
- Report writing
- Representing ideas and information orally, graphically and in writing
- Research
- Role-playing/Performance
- Summarizing
- Synthesis
- Technology
- Textual analysis
- Using archival documents
- Using primary sources
- Using secondary sources
- Visual analysis
- Visual art analysis
- Visual art skills
- Visual presentation skills
- Vocabulary
- Writing skills
- ELA Reading: 1- 7, 10
- ELA Writing: 1-10
- ELA Speaking & Listening: 1-6
- ELA Language: 3-6
- HSS Reading: 1-10
- HSS Writing: 2, 4-10
Regarding Susan Sontag curriculum guide by Susannah Morse and Nancy Kates with consultation by Melina O’Grady. Educator reviews by Allen Frost, William Johnson, and Ashley Lamb-Sinclair.
STUDYING SUSAN SONTAG
Studying Susan Sontag means studying the world: how we think about it, visualize it, engage with it, and learn from it. Sontag was famously interested in “everything,” and her work invites students to explore their own world and ideas as passionately as she did. She started out as the editor of her high school newspaper and went on to become one of the most important American intellectuals of the late 20th century. Sontag was a polymath, a radical, and a disruptive force in the world of ideas.
This curriculum guide to the documentary Regarding Susan Sontag brings students into Sontag’s rich intellectual realm, introducing her ideas on photography, war, illness, art, and other areas of critical thought through the film and primary nonfiction texts. Each lesson is designed to instill a sense of urgency—a need to pay attention to the world—and to spark student creativity, using Sontag’s work as a springboard for conversation, essay and writing assignments, art projects, and activism. In crafting this curriculum guide, we hope to inspire the next generation of thinkers, artists, writers, and activists.
- Watch Regarding Susan Sontag and reflect on its relevance to your students and subject area. For extracurricular organizations, community groups, and book clubs, consult our guide on adapting the curriculum.
- Review our curriculum units and lessons below, then choose the individual lesson(s) most aligned to your needs. See our interdisciplinary diagram for more help choosing an appropriate lesson and unit.
- Select the handout(s) and student activity you will use with each lesson.
- Begin the lesson by watching and discussing the lesson video module with Handout 1
- Continue the lesson with Handouts 2-4 to deepen learning (optional)
- Complete the lesson with a student activity: options include writing, presentation, and creative assignments as well as class projects or debates
- Download or print all related resources for your lesson at our resource center (video module, handouts, worksheets, teaching plans), and prepare for classroom use. Preview the lesson video module, familiarizing yourself with the content and any potential areas of sensitivity for your students (see viewing and discussing sensitive materials).
