Kelsey+McClure

=Coming to Terms: Rebuilding after genocide=

Kelsey McClure
Student at Western Michigan University kelsey.m.mcclure@wmich.edu

Many people around the world believed that the words “never again” came true at the end of World War II. They believe that there have never again been acts that violate human rights the way the Holocaust did in the 1930’s and ‘40’s, but that is not true. Genocide has torn apart countries around the world and continues to ravage societies. Awareness has broken down since the Holocaust ended. Our society ignores the countries that have quietly cried in their parts of the world hoping that someone will come to their aid.

Every day new atrocities are happening around the world. Innocent people are being discriminated against and oppressed, while very few people in the world know it is happening. This unit will expose students to some of the genocides that have occurred around the world and resulted in the loss of millions of people’s lives. This unit is not all about the doom and gloom of the world; it is about helping people. Students will discover what they can do to help the people who have been affected by genocide, the people who are being affected, and how to prevent further mass killings. With this unit, students will learn that there are ways they can help the countries and peoples who have been affected by genocide. Students will learn that they have a voice that can help the voiceless.

This unit covers four different genocides that have occurred around the world and how the people affected have tried to come to terms and heal from those atrocities. Students will read one of four novels, each dealing with a different part of the world that has been affected by genocide. While there are many genocides that have occurred around the world, the books selected showcase just a few and provide students with a range of ability levels, genres and subjects.

Through writing in various forms, students will showcase what they have learned about the different genocides. Students will have an opportunity to respond in whatever form they feel is most effective. Students will be able to explore how they can give a voice to the people who have for so long been oppressed. Through writing, students will be able to bring together the issues they feel most need to be addressed.

__Objectives__
 * Read multiple genres of literature and analyze how that genre effects the meaning
 * Be able to explain, in detail, how genocide can effect a country and the world
 * Be able to explain why these events are not more widely known
 * Research and explain relief efforts of a chosen country/region effected by genocide
 * Use technology to research and present a chosen topic
 * Be able to connect events in novels with articles and other informational texts

__Books for Literary Groups__ //Maus: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History// by Art Spiegelman //Zlata’s Diary// by Zlata Filipović //First They Killed My Father// by Loung Ung //Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda// by Jean-Philippe Stassen

Additional resources

__Assignments__
 * Daily Journal
 * Students will be given time to write in their journals every day.
 * Relief Organizations Project
 * Each reading group will pick a charity or organization that has helped the people profiled in your chosen book.
 * Multigenre Project

Unit Schedule

__Common Core__ State Standards for 10th grade

Reading Standards for Literature - Craft and Structure Reading Standards for Informational Texts Writing Standards
 * 5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
 * 6. Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.
 * 7. Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a person’s life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account.
 * 2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
 * 4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
 * 5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.
 * 6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.
 * 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.
 * 9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
 * 10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.