Holocaust+Literature+Pairing+for+Young+Adults+(Pt.+2)

=Holocaust Literature Pairing Project, Part Two= Samer Umran, Jennifer Couzens, Heather Yzenbaard

Markus Zusak. //The Book Thief.// New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005 Links: N/A
 * The Book Theif**


 * Points of Connection**:

In order for students to be critical thinkers about //Night// and //The Book Thief// it will important to provide background understanding of WWII and the historical time period. The stories will then bring history to life. Where //Night// provides an autobiographical voice that reflects on actual account of events, the fictional voice of //The Book Thief// will provide the desired relate-ability to the material. This is one strong argument for pairing classics with contemporary literature. Today’s youth require relate-ability to the material in order to empathize directly with characters and get a firm grasp on the tragedies of social injustice during this time period. Once students have a grasp on the background knowledge, they can compare and contrast the similar events, themes, and perspectives within the pairing. Discussions can includes topics like; Death, Survivors guilt, resistance, power of words, different perspectives (German girl vs. Holocaust survivor), voice of the narrator, the struggle to survive, the struggle to save others, and fiction vs. autobiographical.

If we look at the resistance in the two novels we see two different stories. In Night we see men being beaten, whipped, shot, and hung for their attempts to resist. In The Book Thief we see Hans resisting by not putting up the flag, delaying his membership to the Nazi party, his willingness to hide a Jew in his basement, and his attempt to give bread to a marching Jew.

A main connection we can make from the recency effect is from page 546 of //The Book Thief// where we see the survivor's guilt in Liesel that Wiesel also shared. Although this is a fictional story we can still make distinct connections to the reality of events that occured during the Holocaust. What's more is that the perspectives from the two stories are from such different point-of-views yet they share so many similarities. Death is our narrator for //The Book Thief//, where the dying boy-turned-man in Wiesel is our narrator for //Night//. We can also compare Alex Steiner's "save someone, you kill them" to //Night// as a whole. Death as a savior from the suffering to be had with life in the labor camps was a question Wiesel entertained more than a few times during his imprisonment. Alex, Liesel, Elie, they survived and endured. Although death in //Night// may have seemed more appealing due the the longevity of the suffering, //The Book Thief//'s narrator, Death, made dying seem more like fate, not something we could control. What is most interesting, might be the difference in how each book judges humanity as the story unfolds. Death describes color, so many colors. It is his vacation, since he cannot take a real one (he is Death after all). The colors are not all dark and gloomy, but the dark chocolate is his favorite. These colors are represntative of Death's own judgements on humanity, which are neither all bad, or all good. In //Night//, Wiesel's opinions about humanity seem to start out good, although he is preoccupied with finding deep understanding within the holy book. We see Wiesel go from a rather impartial opinion on humanity to negative, but he ultimately ends at a similar conclusion as Liesel herself. Life is beauty and suffering. For the readers of the two books it might also be note-worthy to discuss how //The Book Thief// as fiction compares to the autobiographical //Night// in terms of accuacy of events (Death does discuss the gas chambers, but do they parallel the description of the death camps by Wiesel? How do they differ?).

The overall connection between these two texts is that both //Night// and //The Book Thief// focus on survival during tough circumstances. Elie Wiesel must survive the persecution of the Jews by the Germans and Liesel and her family must survive the unfathomable expectations that the Germans have for all of their citizens. In both books we see that many characters cannot survive these tragic events and that only a few are able to survive their circumstances. Yet, both texts share this idea that at the end of a tragic event there can be hope. This is shown in //Night// by the fact that we know that Elie Wiesel's story is based on events that occurred in his own life. We know that Wiesel went on to write numerous books that brought attention to various topics. Even though Wiesel lived through a tragic event he still had enough hope and determination to make something good come out of his experience; he was able to let the world know what the Holocaust was really like and shine a light on the fact that we can't let this type of situation ever happen again. The idea of hope is shown in //The Book Thief// by the fact that Liesel goes on to get married, have children, have grandchildren, and live a long life. While Liesel lived through a painful life she still managed to hold on to what life had to offer and make the most of it by creating the family she always needed, she didn't just give up on life once she lost everything. Both of these texts talk about surviving tough situations which is something that students could relate too. While not all students have experienced really tough situations that they have struggled to survive, they have all probably gone through situations that at the time felt like the end of the world and were a struggle to get through.

=Research: Online Instruction= //**Article: Head in the clouds: a review of current and future potential for cloud-enabled pedagogies.**//

Stevenson, Michael, and John G. Hedberg. "Head In The Clouds: A Review Of Current And Future Potential For Cloud-Enabled Pedagogies." //Educational// //Media International// 48.4 (2011): 321-333. //Academic Search Premier//. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.

This article discusses how technology is becoming more prevalent in society and as a result is showing up as a useful resource in the classroom. The article focuses on Web 2.0 and cloud computing to discuss the new ways that technology is being utilized in the classroom. Instead of schools focusing on using books in the classroom this article focuses on how technology can create other useful sources for the classroom. Some of these sources include emails like Hotmail and Gmail that allow individuals to access their email from anywhere instead of on just one specific device. It also discusses Apple's Dropbox that allows individual's to access any information that has been stored in the cloud.

[|Head In The Clouds]

//**Article:**// **//Teaching With Content Curation//**

"Teaching With Content Curation." //THEJournal.com//. N.p., 18 Dec. 2012. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.

Hauna Zaich is a teacher of English in Stockton, CA who students have a very limited access to technology both in and out of school uses content curation to seeming bridge gaps, not only in the IT department but also with school and its relevence to the outside world. Zaich believes that a lesson will always "sink in better" when it can be linked to something relevent in the students' lives beyond the school walls. Granted this would be quite a challenge with a pairing project on the Holocaust for obvious reasons, the journey described in both stories is more than just a brutal description of historical events and the emotions each reading entices its audience to feel are at the very least feelings we can relate to at some level. The curation is the focus here as far as teaching the holocaust. There are so many wrong turns that can be made when a student is looking for things on the Holocaust and to cover your back as a teacher asking students to research these events it might be wise to have a pool of research they can pull from.

[|Teaching With Content Curation]


 * Article: Hacking the Classroom to Encourage Student Independence**

Fortson, Kim. "Hacking the Classroom to Encourage Student Independence." //THEJournal.com.// 13 February 2013.

This article talked about utilizing technology in a special education classroom but I still think the idea of "hacking the classroom" is an idea that can be incorporated into all classrooms. The article talked about how the class uses QR codes to take attendance and turn in assignments. That is an idea that can be included in any classroom. How much time in a class period is wasted on taking attendance and turning in homework? How much time would be saved if students could take care of attendance and homework before the bell even rings? The article also talked about the ProLoQuo2Go program that helps nonverbal students have a voice in the classroom and the outside world. I think this same idea might be helpful when dealing with special education students learning in a normal classroom and potentially with shy students. If students could have a voice without their classmates knowing who it belonged to they might be more likely to share their ideas in class which would increase discussion and learning. Overall, the article made it seem that "hacking the classroom" can have some major benefits.

[|Hacking the Classroom]

Process I think the next step is to have each member of the group spend some time over Spring Break thinking about what the main focus of our mini-unit is going to be. I think we can also utilize this time to come up with some discussion questions about //Night//, //The Book Thief,// and how the two books can be looked at together. Once we get back from Spring Break the big task will be to decide what multimedia task we want to start working on. We have already had some discussion about possible class activities. We discussed having students create their own novels from the perspective of Liesel, about their own story of survival, or a story depicting a situation in today's age that is a struggle to survive. Finally, we can probably split up additional resources so that each of us have to find five online resources.