Creating Reading/Writing Workshops

Workshopping Night

           This workshop narrative will provide an outline on how I plan to workshop the canonical text, Night by Elie Wiesel. Using a wide variety of instructional methods that correlate with the workshop approach illustrated by Dr. Styslinger and other scholars. Some of the focus questions for this unit will include How do we as a society come to terms with our past and present patterns of Genocide?, How does the genre of Memoir help society understand the struggle between memory, loss, and survival?, and lastly, Can Genocide or the act of “otherness” be a part of our human nature? These questions will foster a wider and broader conversation that include various cultural perspectives as the students read Night and their book club books.

            To introduce this unit, I want to use a few different strategies, but focusing on reader response and background information. I would do a quick anticipation guide that has questions focused on the multiple themes that they will encounter while reading Night. I would like to read a loud the picture book The Wall, which will also further conversation into the themes we will discuss in the book. Because the Holocaust is something that the students have probably already encountered, I want to know what they already know about it from a historical perspective. I think having a few small informational texts that define or illustrate the major points of WWII and the Holocaust will help students understand the historical significance.

            For the reading workshop students will understand that book clubs will happen every Thursday or every other Thursday. Students will be able to choose between the memoirs that I have provided and select their top three as well as picking one person that they would ideally like to have in their book club. Also on Tuesday and Thursday, the bellringer will always be independent reading in which students will be given 15 minutes to read independently. Ideally this would be their memoirs for book clubs, but if they are on pace with their group or ahead, they can definitely read something else. Book clubs will offer several functions for the class. The students will use have several different reading strategies that they will employ, which will depend upon the week. Before Thursday we will have tried that specific reading strategy as a class during our in class reading of Night. I want the students to use book clubs to look at the journey their character goes through and make connections with Elie’s journey. I want students to think about the significance of all of these stories and their connection to the continuining issue of genocide.

            Since this is a reading and writing workshop class, students will be expected to write about literature as well as creative. Since this is a memoir piece and most of their book clubs fall underneath that genre, students will have to write their own memoir in which they will take this through the whole writing process. Students will be able to use Fridays as our writing workshop day. This also will ideally allow me to have students look at author’s craft and the elements of writing a memoir. Also, this will allow me tackle grammar in an authentic context and focused on grammar mini-lessons that they need help with to elevate writing their memoir. To begin with writing a memoir, I would use either a rambling autobiography or a six-word memoir to get the kids thinking about specific moments in their lives.

            We will not read Night cover to cover and will probably skip a few parts in the middle of the book. As we start reading the book, I would like to read aloud and do some modeling as to what questions arise as I read and show the students my process as a reader. Even though students might not have experience with genocide, I think the emotions that Elie Wiesel presents in book are definitely relatable to some students. Through different strategies, students will constantly be asked or prodded to make personal connections.

            I love socratic seminars and whole group discussion; however, I realize ninth graders will need heavy scaffolding into that process. I want to discuss and show examples of how literature circles work and my expectations for talking about or through literature. In order for students to feel safe and comfortable talking about and through literature, I would employ a strategy called Finding the Poem by Probst. I would use this strategy with several poems that we will look through over the course of this unit. The poems would be cut up into strips of paper in which the students will randomly select from and will be instructed to find a partner who might have the same line in the poem. After students figure out the poems, I would like them to have mini socratic circles for each poem and in that group they will discuss the poem for meaning. This would take multiple days because after the students would combine into a larger socratic circle that compares the poems and what the groups discussed. I would also include some questions for the groups that will scaffold them from personal response to critical synthesis and formal analysis. Somewhere in the middle of the unit, I would like to have students do a formal Socratic seminar in which we will go back to those unit focus questions and start broadening our perspective. Using their books from book club as well as the informational text presented throughout the novel, students will discuss the act of genocide.

            Another text that I would love the whole class to read segments of is Art Speigelman’s MAUS.  I think that this book compliments Night very well and I could do both read alouds as well as have students read sections independently. This is also a great book for group work and group conversations. Starting off with the book, I want students to analyze the way Art Spiegelman artistically represents the Holocaust and the story of his father. I want students to explore the propaganda and the animal stereotype. If approved, I would like to include how Jewish humor and stereotypes still persist in todays society by showing clips from Family Guy and South Park. Students would look at the different animal imagery he uses and further discussion on current stereotypes. Students will think about stereotypes create a sense of otherness and really analyze human nature’s role in creating and perpetuating acts of genocide.

Another way that I would use MAUS would be to help engage students in using their critical synthesis skills and reading strategies that allow them to close read the text, I would have them compare the two texts by looking at how memory pervades throughout the two texts and what they signify to the text. This came from the memory signpost activity and I would have students specifically look at Art’s father and their relationship. Students will analyze this in groups and then have whole group discussion on their findings as well as talk about the way in which memory provides insight to the reader about those characters or situations. Along with this concept of memory and re-telling past, students will read an article that highlights the suicide rate of genocide survivals and the issue of survival’s guilt. The book talks a great deal about memory as well as living with the things we have done or seen.

I love teaching through film and other multi media platforms; however, it is very difficult to show certain films that will potentially have graphic portrayals of the Holocaust or genocide. Even though I believe that students who are reading this kind of material can equally handle seeing it, I will proceed with caution based on school policy and student’s maturity or appropriateness level. One film I would love to use would be clips of Schindler’s List, Hotel Rwanda, and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. If I have to change these due to school restrictions, I would still show the students Oprah’s interview with Elie Wiesel as they go through the concentration camp and talk about writing the book and his amazing journey. I think it is a very powerful documentary to watch especially towards the end of the novel. Correlating with the interview, I would like students to read his statement from when he won the Nobel piece prize. It is very short, yet impactful and sums up despair, hope, and resilience. Surprisingly, there was more music related to genocide than I had thought and I would love for students to listen about how musicians are interpreting and expressing their feelings or opinions on issues of Genocide.

Workshopping this unit and book was more difficult because of the endless possibilities. This book presents so many different aspects to human nature and explores so many deep themes. Even though this is a rough outline, I would monitor and adjust depending on where my students interests lay because they might be more fascinated with issues concerning the bystander, loss, memory rather than genocide as a whole. I do think it is important for them to talk about and consider; however, I want to see what part of his history resonates with them and go from there in terms of coming up with daily focused plans. Workshopping the canon really does allow the teacher and students to experience a text in a more broad context. I don’t want students to compartmentalize the information that they will learn through reading Night and really push their thinking into the world that they are living in.