Krause

English 4 / Spring 17

All Quiet on the Western Front—Unit Overview

Developing your comprehension of the concept of voice–an individualized expression of a person’s or character’s experience–will help you conceptualize the complexity of war as a personal, social, and human experience. To this end, we will read Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front, poetry written by WWI participants, short stories written by both Ernest Hemingway and Tim O’Brien, and contemporary texts (written and visual) that provide representations of military idealism and of current military engagements.

Main Subjects/Topics that Develop Thematically:

Relationships / How do the soldiers relate to one another during war? How do they relate to their own past, to their image of themselves from before the war?
Trench warfare/
the nature of warfare / What horrors do the men experience during battle? To what do they become numb?
The Enemy / How are enemy soldiers viewed? Who is an actual enemy?
The Home Front / What is life like at home? How does a soldier recollect home? How are soldiers viewed?
Fear / What does a soldier fear during war?

Your assignments:

  • Reading Assignment Journal Responses
  • In-class group work
/
  • Final Assessment: Call to Serve OR VoicingWar Compilation

Reading Assignment Journal Responses

For reading assignments (RA) 2, 4, and 5, provide a response/reaction demonstrating your intellectual consideration of Remarque’s style, content, and/or message. I’ve provided 3 options for your responses.Provide the date and a heading for each journal page.

  1. Quote and Respond
  • Choose 1 passage of at least 3 sentences that shows one of the main subjects develop. Look for quotes that are powerful, that are voiced in strong tones.
  • Copy the quote, using quotation marks and citing the page numbers correctly in parentheses.
  • After each quote, write commentary that explains why you chose this particular passage. Consider addressing what about the plot the quote shows, what subject the passage develops, and what idea about the subject the author suggests. You do not have to write about all three of these prompts, or just these prompts, or in this particular order. Still, you will be assessed on how thoroughly you reflect on the passage.
  1. Artistic Representation
  • If you have the skills to do so, construct an artistic representation of an important scene or a representative scene from the reading assignment. Your complex comprehension of the text should be displayed by your ability to capture the tone and mood of the depicted scene and of the characterization. I will assess your journals based on demonstrated insight AND on your artistic abilities.
  • Under or above the visual you’ve created, quote a portion of the text on which you have focused.
  1. Connect to Contemporary Voices
  • Provide a contemporary text that you feel provides perspective on Remarque’s novel. This can be in the form of a magazine/website advertisement, a photo from the newspaper, the cover of a war-based video game, etc.
  • Affix the contemporary text into your journal on the next available left-hand side page, and then on the right-hand page opposite it, provide an explanation of why you chose this text, what it’s important features are, and the perspective you feel it provides on the portion of All Quiet on the Western Front that you read.

Without previous announcement, I will periodically check your class journal for completeness. Missing reading responses on such days will be counted as late when I perform formal, announced journal checks.

Reading Assignments

  • RA 1:Chapter 1(18 pages)
/
  • RA 4:Chapters 6-7 (88 pages) + Journal

  • RA 2:Chapters 2-4 (55 pages) + Journal
/
  • RA 5:Chapters 8-9 (44 pages) + Journal

  • RA 3:Chapter 5(23 pages)
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  • RA 6:Chapters 10-12 (54 pages)

Unit Calendar

Monday / Tuesday / Thursday
1/9 / Read RA 1 in class
1/16
No School / RA 2 due + Journal response / RA 3 due
1/23 / RA 4 due + Journal Response
1/30
RA 5 due + Journal response / RA 6 due
2/6
2/13
Final Assignment due

Final Assessment—2 options:

Option 1:Call to Serve

Research contemporary recruitment techniques being used by the U.S. Armed Forces and compose an extended reflection and analysis of the strategies the military is currently using to appeal to you, the target audience for enlistment. Examine explicit and implicit messages being conveyed and the medium of the messages (social media; websites; print advertisements, etc.) In your examination, refer to specific details of specific messages. If possible, provide copies of the texts you come across.

Option 2: Voicing War Compilation

This is the final unit assessment. The documents included in the compilation will reflect your comprehension of the unit’s themes and concepts and will demonstrate your abilities to construct coherent and complex sentences and paragraphs.

Arrange the following documents into a singular compilation:

  1. A 3-4 paragraph narrative that describes your experience reading this novel. Refer to your first narrative writing of the unit (addressing your opinions and experience with war texts).
  2. An analytical paragraph that uses a passage from chapters 1-6 as the CD
  3. An analytical paragraph that uses a passage from chapters 7-12 as the CD
  4. One poem from WWI + commentary* that reflects on the tone and the attitude of the voice towards the war.
  5. One contemporary text + commentary* that reflects on the tone and the attitude of the voice towards war/the military. By “contemporary,” I mean a text that was originally produced since the year 2000.

* Your commentary is to follow a logical progression that develops your idea through explanation of how the text means, what the text means, and your critical opinion of that meaning.

  • You may not use any poems or contemporary texts that have been used during class assignments, either from what I provided for specific assignments or from what you found and used for your reading assignment journal responses.

Format Points:

  • Double-space all typing.
  • All pages are to be 1-inch margins on all 4 sides; use 12-point font, Times New Roman or Arial.
  • At the top of each page, provide the following heading, justified on the left-hand side of the page:
  • Your Name
  • The Class (English 4)
  • My name
  • Due Date
  • Specifically for the compilation:
  • Arrange the documents in the order listed above
  • Below the heading, on the next line, but centered, provide a title that identifies which document this is.