Course Reflection

At the beginning of this class I felt overwhelmed. We met in Hickory for an introductory meeting and spent some time discussing alternate resources. I just couldn’t get it. Then when we had to actually do the assignment with alternate resources, I still didn’t get it. But now, it all makes sense. Starting in the first 2 units, it doesn’t make sense how everything is going to tie together. Now that I have completed the 4^th unit, I see how everything builds upon that initial designing backwards assignment. It was also very different for me to have the majority of this class completed through blogging versus ASULearn. Many times I would go to ASULearn for information and I couldn’t find it. Then I went to our class blog and was able to find it. It also took me awhile to learn how to navigate the class blog. Once I figured it out though, it was a great resource. I also greatly depended on the sample class blogs. If it hadn’t been for those, I don’t think I would have been sure about many of my assignments nor am I sure I would have done some of them correctly.

In my research for lessons plans, resources and materials, I found a lot of useful websites. Some of the websites I had visited before and some I had never heard of. I really liked the SAS Curriculum Pathways website. What I liked most about this website is the link to the standards by state. Some other sites that I found useful for my research into the Holocaust were Scholastics, lessonplans.com, and PBS Learning Media. I also found some good website for instructional strategies. The one I liked the most and used was Reading Rockets. I referred to it often. I also accessed the links posted on our class blog.

As to future use of these websites, I’m not sure if I will access them to use. I found some useful lesson plans that I could always take pieces from for my current job as a SLP-Assistant. If I change my mind and decide to teach, then I think that I might use some of these in my teaching. I definitely plan to save these sites for future reference. It may be possible that I find them useful when I do my student teaching. I’m always on the lookout for resources. I also love finding an idea of a lesson or something that I can turn into a game to use in my current job. Sometimes I just need to read over something and I can turn it into something else.

This type of blogging is new to me. I’ve never had a blogging page like this. I’ve looked at blogging pages for other people in my quest to find information in the past. I eventually would like to make a blog that centers on my profession as a SLP-Assistant. I love to make materials for my profession and would one day like to post all the materials I have made.

-S. Kohnle

Virtual Literacy Circle

Rebecca Harris and I have created a virtual literacy circle for “The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank. A literature circle is composed of a group of people who meet together to discuss the reading of a book. This virtual literacy circle is centered around the Holocaust and Rebecca’s theme of Overcoming Adversity and my theme of Persecution and Survival.

Within a literature circle, students are assigned roles. The roles are used to ensure that students are active in the participation of the literacy circle. These roles also keep the discussions interesting. The roles change each time the literacy circle meets allowing students to take on different leadership responsibilities. For this literacy circle, we have the roles of discussion director/facilitator, literary luminary/alternate facilitator, community connector, character captain, vocabulary enricher and interested investigator. These are not the only roles that can be used. Other roles can be used.

Each day the students will have assigned readings to complete for discussion in their literacy circle. Students will complete the book in 5 weeks giving them multiple opportunities to take on the different job roles. Students will be given a choice of 8 journal response topics. One journal response must be completed each week and students will have the option of choosing each week which journal response they want to complete.

More detailed information is located on the virtual literacy circle page.

Link to virtual literacy circle: http://kohnleandharris.wordpress.com/

I am Poem – Survival

“Survival”

I am here to outlast.

I wonder about those that do not believe in me.

I hear the ticking of the clock.

I see the flames that I will escape.

I want the unnecessary deaths to stop.

I am here to outlast.

I pretend that my rate will go up.

I feel the tears of relief.

I touch the hope you have.

I worry about tomorrow.

I cry for the lost ones.

I am here to outlast.

I understand that I’m not for everyone.

I say I will see tomorrow.

I dream that death is not my enemy.

I try to hold out for you.

I hope you have the courage to believe in me.

I am here to outlast for you.

 

In order to assess student learning for the I-Poem, I would use a scoring rubric. Students can make a 4 – Excellent, 3 – Satisfactory, 2 – Fair, or 1 – Needs Improvement. I will assess form, word usage, conventions, and creativity/presentation of the I-Poem. Students will be able to score a total of 16 points.

Lesson Plan Review – World War II: The Holocaust and Hiroshima

World War II: The Holocaust and Hiroshima

• SAS Curriculum Pathways
• https://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/Launch?id=393
• This lesson is for 7^th grade Social Studies and World History and American History II taught in high school.
• The theme of this lesson would be persecution and survival. The topic for this lesson would be the Holocaust. The purpose of this lesson would be to reflect on the Holocaust and the use of nuclear weapons in World War II.
• NC Essential Standards https://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/standards/standardsFromResource.jsf?resourceID=393
• This lesson plan does not include any Common Core Literacy Standards in History/Social Studies nor Writing Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies. I would add for 7^th grade:

Reading Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies

• Integration of Knowledge and Ideas – 7. Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.

Writing Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies

• Text Types and Purposes – 2. Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes.
• Research to Build and Present Knowledge – 7. Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
• Research to Build and Present Knowledge – 9. Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis reflection, and research.

I would add for 9th – 10th grade:

Writing Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies

• Text Types and Purposes – 2. Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes.
• Research to Build and Present Knowledge – 7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
• Research to Build and Present Knowledge – 9. Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis reflection, and research.
• The alternate text resource used for this assignment includes a list of websites that contains information about the Holocaust and Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• The purpose of this lesson is to reflect on the Holocaust and the use of nuclear weapons in World War II.

Lesson Phases

1. The first phase of the lesson will require students to decide which topic, Holocaust or U.S. decision to drop nuclear bombs on Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they will research.
2. The second phase of the lesson will require students to complete an extensive research on their topic.
3. The third phase of the lesson requires students to reflect on their research and consider the impact their chosen topic has had on the view of human nature and the expectations about the future.
4. The fourth phase of the lesson requires the students to organize their thoughts and write a journal entry of three questions on the topic. The questions are to reflect the student’s insight into the topic and they are to write a conclusion about its historical impact.

• In order to ensure long term learning, many instructional strategies are incorporated. The first one is active learning. By allowing students to research these topics, they are being active in the learning process and will remember information from their research. Another instructional strategy is critical thinking. This lesson will allow students to discover information and understand the information that has been discovered. It will allow them to analyze it and synthesize the information. By doing this, students will be able to build upon this information at a future date. A third instructional strategy evident in this lesson is the writing assignment. This strategy will allow students to build on their critical thinking skills.
• This assignment engages students in the learning process. This assignment requires students to deeply think about an event and think of the impact that this event had on not just those of the present time but on future generations. They have to make connections from past to present. Students are also engaged through reading and writing. The writing assignment allows the students to express ideas without it being a right or wrong answer.
• This lesson requires students to apply Bloom’s Taxonomy of higher thinking skills. In order to complete this assignment, students will use understanding to interpret and infer the information that is being researched. Students will use analyzing to break down the information and think about how it relates to the topic. Students will then evaluate the information to determine the impact the topic has on our view of human nature. Lastly, the students will then create their journal response to express their insight and conclusions about the topic.
• For my lesson, I wanted to focus on why these things happen and the morals that people have to let this happen. I feel that this lesson is a great way to further delve into this idea. It makes the students reflect on human nature and the consequences that humans have to face from decisions whether it is directly or indirectly. Another reason I like this lesson, it allows students to express thoughts and ideas and gives them an opportunity to learn that not everyone has the same view but it doesn’t mean that your view is wrong.
• If I was using this lesson, I would probably have students only focus on the Holocaust and not the use of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I think that students with disabilities might benefit from working with a partner on this lesson. Therefore I separate students into pairs and have the group come up with 5 questions instead of 3. Another possible modification that I might make with groups is to have the students participate in a talk show. One student can be the host and ask the other student the questions that the students came up with and discuss their response to the questions as a part of the talk show with the class being an audience that can ask questions also.
• Technology was used for the research for this lesson. This lesson provides websites that the students must use in order to obtain the information that is needed to complete this lesson. Using these websites help the students learn to look at a variety of sources and a mixture of alternate text to complete the research.

“World War II: The Holocaust and Hiroshima”. SAS Curriculum Pathways.2014. SAS Institute, Inc. 19 Nov. 2014. <https://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/Launch?id=393&gt;

-S. Kohnle

 

 

The multigenre paper: Increasing interest, motivation, and functionality in research by Margarent R. “Cookie” Moulton

I decided to do a quick write summarization of this article. I paused after each bold heading. The summarization technique calls for 2-3 sentences but I used 4-5 due to the amount of material I was reading.

• Traditional research papers are not the way to go anymore. Teaching needs to be more relevant to our everyday lives and our interest. A new type of way to do a research paper is a multigenre paper which is a method of making different genres to present the information researched. It can be in the form of a birth announcement, newspaper article journal entry or a invitation.
• The author chose to do this type of research with college students but it was not an easy assignment. Many problems were encountered during this research project mainly because the instructor and students did not have an example to follow for this project. Some specific problems included actually teaching different genres and the grading criteria. The students were required to have a minimum of 8 genres each and students kept learning logs instead of notes that were a factor in their grades.
• Topics were selected on student interest and they were encouraged to not do an author’s point of view. During the research, students made notes of different types of genres they could use for the information they had found. Poems and letters became the widely used type of genre. Each genre was presented separately but some were intermingled. Endnotes were used to help with avoiding plagiarism and to help give an insight into the source of material and what inspired the genre.
• Overall, the students enjoyed doing this type of research paper. It was also something that these students wanted to do as a high school project but with more structure than they had had. One student encouraged her mother to use a multigenre approach in her classroom and another student tried it during her student teaching. This student though set up specific guidelines including making everyone have the same topic.
• Students’ learning logs and endnotes became the most important piece of the multigenre project as these proved the research that was put into the project. Writing a multigenre project is an opportunity for students to experiment with different types of writing. It is also useful in teaching students computer skills when designing different genres. Lastly it is a way to teach students creativity. Students are more likely to do a great job when they enjoy it and it has a benefit for them versus being a purely academic endeavor.

Three Thinking Questions Related to Article

1. What parts of this project would you consider the most important when grading it?
2. What types of things could students learn from doing a multigenre paper versus a traditional research paper?
3. Do you think that this would be good to do with middle school students or even older elementary age students?

-S. Kohnle

Moulton, Margaret R. “The Multigenre Paper: Increasing Interest Movtivation, and Functionality in Research.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 42.7 (April 1999): 528-39. Web.

“I” poems: Invitations for students to deepen literary understanding by Linda Kucan

I used a key point strategy to summarize this article.

• Inviting students to write in the first person is a way to allow them to express their own voices and to deepen their literary experiences of characters, setting, plot and narrative point of view.
• Narrator of “I” poem can be person, place or object that speaks directly to readers and there are no set formats.
• Invitations to write about the people and places encountered in stories are invitations to continue thinking about and imagining them.
• Composing becomes a context that elicits and supports students in comprehending.
• Reading and writing involves understanding, knowledge of authors, and knowing as an audience member what to expect.
• Understanding during reading and enhanced during writing.
• By writing, the text is allowed to be viewed deeper and in different ways.
• “I” poems allow students to be more imaginative when thinking about situations and events.
• Teach two instructional sequences for writing “I” poems as a way to deepen students’ understanding of setting, character, plot and narrative point of view.
• Each sequence begins with short description of novel that students are reading and an analysis of how an understanding of novel can be supported or enhanced by writing “I” poems.
• Students do research about details from novel then use research to write “I” poems.
• Narrator does not have to be person.
• “I” poems are composed before reading to support students in building background and activating relevant-knowledge and experience.
• Crafting “I” poems can be way for students to respond to their reading.
• Writing “I” poems after reading allows students to use models from reading.
• “I” poems can also be done with read alouds.
• Inviting and supporting students in writing “I” poems is one way to help students to begin noticing who characters are, why they feel and act as they do, and how they see things, to begin noticing what places are like and what makes one place different from another, and to begin noticing the impact of the carefully chosen and placed word.

Three Thinking Questions Related to Article

1. When doing “I” poems with younger students, should you give them more specific directions/criteria to follow then older students?
2. The article uses “I” poems for literary understanding. Would “I” poems be effective to use during research versus related to a reading?
3. Can “I” poems be a good way to incorporate computer skills? Why or why not?

-S. Kohnle

Kucan, Linda. “”I” Poems: Invitations for Students to Deepen Literary Understanding.” International Reading Association 6.6 (March 2007): 518-25. Web.

After Reading Instructional Strategy

Compare and Contrast

Comparing and contrasting is a strategy that can be used after reading. It allows you to look at similarities and differences of text or material that has been presented to the students. Most often a Venn Diagram or a T-chart can be used for this strategy. To use this strategy, students will need to be told specifically what they are comparing and contrasting. When this strategy is used to compare and contrast reading material, it allows students the opportunity to use more in-depth thinking about the different versions of the text. Additionally, it increases student’s comprehension of the text. This strategy is also good for teaching vocabulary.

I will provide students with a template to compare and contrast Salitter’s Report and Hilde Sherman’s Testimony. They will be given this after they have read this article. Each section of the reading will be divided out for the students to compare and contrast the section. I will tell my students that I want them to focus on similarities of the accounts each person gives and the differences that are given for each account. By having the students do this, I believe that they will be able to better comprehend the difference of how events are perceived by those in power and those that have no power. I also believe it will show them how that some events are more important to some than others based on the individual’s ideals and beliefs.

Student Example

Resources

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/110126/chapters/Section-1@-Why-Compare-$-Contrast%C2%A2.aspx

During Reading Instructional Strategy

Partner Reading

Partner reading is a reading strategy that involves a pair of students reading together. Students can be paired up with someone who has the same reading ability as themselves or can be paired up with someone who has a more fluent or less fluent reading ability. One student is identified as the coach and the other student is identified as the player. The student with the more fluent reading ability will be the coach and will read first. This strategy has many benefits for students. It helps to provide feedback and monitor comprehension. It also provides a model and improves fluent reading. Increasing social skills and motivating students to read are some other benefits of partner reading. Teachers also benefit from partner reading. It allows teachers to observe the class and offer individual assistance as needed.

Students will use the partner reading strategy to read Salitter’s Report and Hilde Sherman’s Testimony. I will divide students up based on their reading abilities. Prior to reading, bookmarks will be marked as to where the students switch reading. I will also inform students that at each bookmark, they must retell what they have read and state any thoughts they have about the material read. I chose this reading strategy because I believe that it is a great strategy to use for students with disabilities. Students with disabilities may struggle with reading fluency and comprehension. This strategy will allow them to have someone to help them with reading and be able to them understand what they have read. I believe that this strategy will allow the students to gain a better understanding of the literature they have read.

Example of Partner Reading

Coach:

The Jew transport planned for 11 December 1941 included 1,007 Jews … The transport was compiled of Jews of both sexes, of various ages – from babies to 65-year-olds… On the way from the slaughterhouse yard [the designated assembly point] to the platform, a male Jew attempted to commit suicide by throwing himself in front of the streetcar. But he was caught by the streetcar’s bumper and only slightly injured. He recovered during the trip, and realized that he could not avoid sharing the fate of the evacuees. An elderly Jewish woman walked away from the platform without anyone noticing – it was raining and it was very dark – entered a neighboring house, took off her clothes and sat on a toilet. However a cleaning woman noticed her and she too was led back to the transport.

Player

…According to the Gestapo’s orders, we could take up to 50 Kg. of luggage and a bedroll 70 cm. long and 30 cm. wide with blankets etc. Of course, everyone tried to squeeze his best belongings into the suitcase, as no one knew how long they would have to last during this so-called ‘resettlement’. …And so we boarded the train on the 10th [of December 1941]. I said goodbye to my parents….

 Resources

http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/partner_reading

http://www.ala.org/offices/resources/partnerreading

http://www.adlit.org/strategies/23274/

https://www.aea267.k12.ia.us/english-language-arts/reading/fluency/partner-reading/

Pre-Reading Instructional Strategy

Gallery Walk

The gallery walk teaching strategy allows students to explore a variety of text and/or images placed around the classroom. By placing the text and images around the classroom, students are able to gain knowledge about the topic/theme being taught. It allows teachers to see how students interact with the text and images and gain knowledge of what they know based on recorded thoughts. Students can walk around the classroom and view the text and images individually or in small groups. Students can be required to only view the material or they may be required to do an assignment with the material. Assignments that can be given with this can range from taking notes while viewing material to filling in a graphic organizer provided by the teacher. The gallery walk has three steps:

1. Select texts
2. Organize text around the classroom
3. Instruct students on how to walk through the gallery

To use the gallery walk as a pre-reading strategy for the Holocaust unit, I will mostly post images on the classroom wall for students to view. I will also post a timeline of WWII. As students do the gallery walk, they will be required to take notes to write a ½ page to 1 page reflection of their thoughts about the pictures and their thoughts about the Holocaust based on the images they have viewed. They will do this individually. After students have written their reflections, we will discuss in class what students thought about the images and their reactions to the images. I believe that doing this assignment will help students answer the essential question.

Websites containing images to use for gallery walk:

• http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_list.php?MediaType=ph
• http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/himmler_inspect.html
• http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/world-war-ii-timeline

Example of Journal Response

The pictures of the Holocaust are an eye opener for me. We learn about events of history but learning about it and actually seeing it are two different things. I’m appalled at some of the images I have viewed. My brain automatically says that this is a casualty of war but my heart says how could this have happened. I couldn’t imagine being exposed physically to others in that manner. I also could not imagine what it would be like to one day having everything taken away from me and sent to some type of jail where I had no rights. I think that it is terrible that these mass killings happened and that these people’s bodies were cremated as though they didn’t matter. Looking at these images makes me thankful for my family and the freedom that I have.

Resources

http://www.lessonplans.com/ext-resource.php?l=http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/00-2/lp2019.shtml

Socratic Seminar

9^th Grade World History

Theme/Concept: Persecution and Survival

Topic: Holocaust

Anchor Text: Salitter’s Report and Hilde Sherman’s Testimony

http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/lesson_plans/pdf/transport.pdf

Rationale

Through this Socratic seminar, I expect my students to view the Holocaust from the eyes of the persecutors and the persecuted. I expect my students to learn that people have different viewpoints and that what may seem wrong to some may seem right to others. It will also provide an understanding of how it was humanly possible for an event like this to happen. I want my students to be able to discuss the relevancy of these issues today.

NC Essential Standards

Social Studies – World History Course

WH.H.1

Apply the four interconnected dimensions of historical thinking to the Essential Standards for World History in order to understand the creation and development of societies/civilizations/nations over time.

WH.H.1.2

2. Differentiate between historical facts and historical interpretations.
3. Analyze visual, literary, and musical sources.

WH.H.1.3

1. Identify issues and problems in the past.
2. Consider multiple perspectives of various peoples in the past.
3. Analyze cause-and-effect relationships and multiple causations.

WH.H.7

Understand how national, regional, and ethnic interests have contributed to conflict among groups and nations in the modern era.

WH.H.7.1

Evaluate key turning points of the modern era in terms of their lasting impact (e.g., conflicts, documents, policies, movements, etc).

WH.H.7.3

Analyze economic and political rivalries, ethnic and regional conflicts, and nationalism and imperialism as underlying causes of war (e.g., WWI, Russian Revolution, WWII).

WH.H.8

Analyze global interdependence and shifts in power in terms of political, economic, social and environmental changes and conflicts since the last half of the twentieth century.

WH.H.8.1

Evaluate global wars in terms of how they challenged political and economic power structures and gave rise to new balances of power (e.g., Spanish American War, WWI, WWII, Vietnam War, Colonial Wars in Africa, Persian Gulf War, etc).

Common Core Reading Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies 6 – 12

Key Ideas and Details

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.3 Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.

Craft and Structure

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.6 Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.9 Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.

Essential Question:

1. How is it morally possible for human beings to treat other human beings appallingly?

Open-Ended Questions

1. Is Salitter a murderer?
2. Do you think Salitter considers himself to be a murderer?
3. Why does Salitter leave out of his report the beatings that Hilde Sherman mentions?
4. Does Salitter show any acts of kindness? What does this imply about his character?
5. How would you describe Salitter?
6. What does the term “Jew” mean to Salitter? What did it mean to the stationmaster?
7. Does every person acting within the killing machinery act for the same motivations?
8. What can we learn about human behavior from this report and testimony?

Student Learning Outcomes

• Students will be able to analyze an account from a persecutor and a persecuted perspective.
• Students will compare and contrast the persecutor role and the persecuted role.
• Students will understand the different roles individuals played in the transportation of the Jews and their motivations.
• Students will understand how a person’s role influences their perspective of an event.
• Students will be able to explain how events differ based on different perspectives and explain why they are different.

Thematic Based Vocabulary

1. Persecution
2. Genocide
3. Prejudice
4. Assimilation
5. Ghetto
6. Anti-Semitism
7. Dehumanization

References

• “The Transport of Jews from Dusseldorf to Riga 11 – 17 December 1941.” The International School for Holocaust Studies Yad Vashem, Jerusalem.d. International School for Holocaust Studies. 8 October 2014. <http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/lesson_plans/pdf/transport.pdf&gt;.
• “The Transport.” Yad Vashem. International School for Holocaust Studies.8 October 2014. < http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/lesson_plans/transport.asp&gt;.