Week+3

=**Week Three class outline**=

Monday

 * The main goal of today is to learn and think about many of the different ways historical information has been kept throughout the past. To begin, students will do a quick write on the question, What is history? I will ask them to write for about five minutes, writing whatever comes to their minds. Students will then be asked to share some of their ideas. This is to encourage them to begin thinking about what history and historical knowledge "is."
 * Then, I will show them the image from the wiki's home page. I will ask them to tell me whether it looks like "history" to them, and why or why not.
 * Students will then be split up into groups and will be given different historical methods or styles, listed below, and they will research for about 15 minutes on their topic using the classroom's resources (articles and information I have pulled for them, as well as textbooks, dictionaries, encyclopedias, computers, etc.). Then we will use a jigsaw activity and have each student teach and discuss their methodology with their peers. Using a graphic organizer, students will take notes on the different methodologies presented. Then we will have a group discussion around the questions, do some of these types of history seem more "valid" than others? Why is that? What are the implications of us considering one type of history more valid than another, when to the people who use that method, it makes complete and perfect sense? Does this mean that all history is relative? The goal here is not to reach a "right" answer, but merely to begin to think about history through a skeptical lens.
 * Oral History (find some examples of this--The Odyssey, The Bible...)
 * Hieroglyphics
 * Native American painted calendars (see home page image)
 * annals/calendars
 * written/textual history
 * academic/current history: textbooks, historical and academic books
 * Homework: Students will be asked to read several short texts:
 * A textbook account of the Jamestown, Virginia settlement and John Smith's encounters with Powhatan.
 * "What Can You Get By Warre?" Speech to Captain John Smith, delivered by Powhatan, 1609. //The World Turned Upside Down: Indian Voices From Early America,// pp 38-39.
 * Chapter 1 of //A People's History of the United States//, pp 1-22.

Tuesday

 * The goal for today is to ask students to think deeper about the significance of having different accounts, and different kinds of accounts, about the same events. Yesterday we approached the concept of "validity" in history. Today I would like to take that a bit further by considering the specific texts read for homework last night. For the most part today's class will be a structured discussion, but I would like to allow the students to take the lead as much as they are willing--I have guiding concepts and themes I would like them to touch on, but I do not plan on lecturing.
 * First, I will ask for students to offer brief summaries of the texts, as well as any initial thoughts or opinions they provoked. Then we will do a guided reading of both the textbook account and the primary document. We will do a quick primary document analysis of Powhatan's speech, mostly to orient students in the speech's geographical and temporal space and context.
 * After this, I would like students to compare the texts and what they inform us about the audience, author and opinions presented. Then we will question the motives of all three authors we read. The goal here is to see that there can be multiple "valid" accounts of the same event, though the accounts do not sound or seem similar.

Wednesday

 * I first want to debrief yesterday's discussion, summarize what was talked about and ask students if they have any other thoughts on the issues raised about historical authenticity thus far. After this, I will present the goals for today, which revolve more around the issue of authenticity in authorship. We looked yesterday at several different accounts, all of which are considered historical in different respects. Today, I want to talk more about //Night// and //The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian//. In this discussion, I want first to have students suggest the aspects that create and define a work of fiction and autobiography. Specifically, I want to get students thinking about whether or not an autobiography is/should be considered a more authentic historical testimonial than a work of fiction. In other words, I want them to think about whether //Night// is more historical than //The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian,// even though the latter contains both real locations and a real tribe, and was written by a person who both lived at those locations, attended those schools, and belongs to that tribe.
 * During this discussion I would like them to also consider the impact of the ten-year distance with which Elie Wiesel approached writing //Night//. Do they think that the time distance can or does affect the historical authenticity of the text? Why or why not?
 * After this, I will have us read Rachel Donadio's article for the //New York Times//, "The Story of 'Night.'" We will pay particular attention to the discussion at the end of the article about the differences in the Yiddish version and the French and English versions of the text. It is pointed out in this article that Wiesel edited out a particularly vengeful scene that suggests Jewish victims raped German girls after being freed. In a Fishbowl discussion circle, I will ask them whether or not this affects the authenticity of the version of the text we have read. If it is indeed a historical account, what does it do to the authenticity of the text if it has been edited? Is this an important change? Why or why not?
 * If time, I would also like them to read Wiesel's "Preface to the New Translation" at the beginning of their books, and then engage in another Fishbowl discussion. Along the same vein as the discussion about Donadio's article, I would like them to think about the implications of editing his text for publication, as well consider what Wiesel is attempting to do by collecting some of these edits and including them now for readers. Is he trying to perfect his representation of the past, or simply elaborating for eloquence's sake? Is he doing anything else? My hope here is that students will incorporate this sort of thinking into their own analysis of texts from now on.

Thursday

 * After debriefing yesterday's Fishbowl discussion, we will spend the majority of today in Literature Circles, discussing significant themes and ideas present in either or both books. I want to give students the chance to explore any issues or ideas that have come up related to the books during the entire unit, without feeling constrained to any particular goals or expectations on my part. I will offer up some suggested topics if they have trouble getting started, but I would really like them to have the opportunity to explore what interested them most.
 * As they are discussing, I will ask one person to keep notes of what they talk about. About ten minutes before I want them to wrap up, I will ask each group to come up with one or two passages from each book that encapsulate some of the issues they talked about in their own groups, as well as what we considered this week in class, and create a discussion question around them. They will turn these in to me at the end of class, and I will use them to guide tomorrow's Socratic Seminar.
 * For the last ten or fifteen minutes of class, I will introduce the final project options and rubrics. We will run through all three options, and I will take any questions and make any clarifications necessary.

Friday

 * Today, I will begin by asking if anyone has questions about the final projects, and remind them of the due dates.
 * After that, I will randomly assign students to groups, and each group will take a turn being in a Fishbowl Socratic Seminar. My goal is to have this activity wrap up the entire unit by asking them to verbalize and incorporate much of what they have learned throughout the entire unit within the discussion.
 * I will end with a final reminder about their projects, and ask if anyone has any final thoughts!