Module 1 (5-7 class periods)
Unifying Concept of Heroism
The idea of heroism is universal, yet people define heroism for themselves when they choose their personal heroes. What makes a hero? How is heroism decided? Is heroism planned? These are the types of questions that students will need to answer for themselves, and by examining what heroism means to them, they will have the ability to read Maus and view the story with the ideas of heroism and human resilience. For this module (this module needs is meant to be done over several days), students will be introduced to Close Reading, Cornell Notes, quoting text and the analysis of the text itself.
To start, familiarize yourself with the method of Close Reading you would like to use; Close Reading should allow students to identify specific things about the text (word choice, rhetoric, theme, character description, etc.) by circling, underlining, highlighting, etc., and margin comments should provide summary and analysis by utilizing both margins (take margin size into consideration when formatting your article and story). If you prefer to structure the Close Reading with specific questions for each chunk, you will need to prepare that ahead of time. By using an article and a story, students will have a chance to practice on both non-fiction and fiction. Next, you will need to introduce Cornell Notes (or a method you prefer), and using several of the Youtube clips, have students practice taking notes in the preferred format. Finally, students will write a brief piece about heroism, analyzing and evaluating their own feelings about heroes. They will need to use quotes from the articles, story, and video clips to support the claims they make. Because this is quarter 1, this is a good place to teach students how you want them to format writing, your writing rubric, and as well as introducing MLA style and why it’s important. This will also provide you with a writing sample with which to begin the year.
•Video clips for ‘heroism’
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•Short story guide
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•Articles for ‘heroism’:
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Module 2 (1-2 class periods)
Anticipation Survey and Discussion
Using an ‘Anticipation Survey’ to activate prior knowledge and interest in the book to be read is easy, fast, and gets good results. The students’ interest will be piqued and the questions will stimulate an active discussion. This is a good time to establish your expectations for discussion. Use the survey questions to facilitate a Socratic Seminar, or a Round Robin structure to get the students talking about the ideas brought up by the survey questions.
Socratic Seminar resources:
Use the following anticipation survey:
Survey:
Maus Anticipation Guide
For the following statements, circle Agree or Disagree.
Explain ALL responses in COMPLETE SENTENCES
1) It is okay to disrespect your parents if they get on your nerves.
Agree or Disagree Explanation:
2) Comic books are for little kids and have no real substance.
Agree or Disagree Explanation:
3) A parent should always stay with his/her child no matter what.
Agree or Disagree Explanation:
4) People no longer carry stereotypes about Jewish people or any other ethnicities.
Agree or Disagree Explanation:
5) Children should love their parents unconditionally and vice versa.
Agree or Disagree Explanation:
6) I would be willing to do anything for my family, even give up my life.
Agree or Disagree Explanation:
7) Families should always get along no matter what.
Agree or Disagree Explanation:
8) Let’s face it, some people are just better than others.
Agree or Disagree Explanation:
9) When you marry someone, you are with him/her for life no matter what.
Agree or Disagree Explanation:
10) It is a mother’s responsibility to protect her child no matter what.
Agree or Disagree Explanation:
Module 3 (3-4 periods)
Graphic Novel as Literature
Due to popular culture, many students will already be familiar with comics and how to read a graphic novel, but even those students may not know the academic language with which we talk about graphic novels as literature. Reading and understanding a graphic novel, and being able to talk about it in academic terms is the purpose of this module. These are websites that have glossaries and explanations:
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You may want to make a Power Point presentations and visual examples while having students create a glossary/dictionary of their own, as they will need to remind themselves of the terms in order to speak and write academically in order to complete this unit.
Dr. Katie Monnin* has published several books about teaching using graphic novels in the mainstream and ELL English classes. She suggests teaching students the three ‘windows’ through which they will ‘look’ while reading a graphic novel: 1) The Words window; 2) The Images window; 3) The Words and Images window. By using these ‘windows’, you will provide a guided way for students to read and analyze the graphic novel. Dr. Monnin’s books provide various handouts and graphic organizers to aid you in teaching how to read a graphic novel.
* Teaching Graphic Novels: Practical Strategies for the Secondary ELA Classroom, by Katie Monnin
Module 4 (1 class period)
Building Context: WWII and the Holocaust
In general, students have had intensive instruction about WWII and the Holocaust; it is a well-covered subject in middle school curriculum. Therefore, you don’t need to spend as much time front-loading before reading the novel. Have students fill out a KWHL chart for the Holocaust and WWII. Using the KWHL chart, you can see if you will need to give them any additional information.
New York: Random House, 1986.
Context: This strategy is to be used after reading the introduction in Maus I.
Purpose: Adapted from Ogle’s (1992) The K-W-H-L is used for the purpose of scaffolding students’ prior knowledge to new knowledge. This activity initiates active engagement in the reading/learning task and creates an instructional framework where students list (1) what they know, (2) what they want to find out, (3) how they plan to find new information, and (4) recording what they have learned or still want to learn. It can be applied to students in groups or individually.
Directions:
STEP 1: INTRODUCE THE STRATEGY - introduce the K-W-H-L strategy with the topic of the Holocaust.
Place a K-W-H-L chart on the board or an overhead where all the class can see. Explain that before studying a topic or reading a book, it is important to find out what we know about a topic. After organizing what we know, we can generate questions that will help us to focus our reading of Maus on what we want to find out. If new questions occur as we read, these can be written down on this chart as well.
STEP 2: LIST WHAT IS KNOWN - question and probe to create a list on the chart.
Brainstorm with the class to see what is known about the Holocaust. Record all responses, even incorrect assumptions or misconceptions to encourage risk-taking behavior and encourage a broad variety of statements. If there are challenges to information, tell students that they will come back to this chart after reading to confirm facts.
STEP 3: LIST WHAT THEY WANT TO LEARN - generate a list of student questions.
Begin by asking, “What about the Holocaust do you want to know more about” or “What questions do you have about the Holocaust?” List all the responses that are given on your chart. Model questioning techniques and probe until a list seems complete. Remember that many students will not volunteer information at this point.
STEP 4: STUDENTS GENERATE THEIR OWN QUESTIONS - allow time for students to work individually or in small groups.
Pass out individual charts to students. Leave the chart visible that was created by the class. Have each student decide which questions they want to research personally. Give students a few minutes to generate additional questions that they want to research.
STEP 5: DISCUSS HOW TO FIND ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
As a class, list possible sources where answers to the questions that were generated could be found. Guide students to sources other than just the primary text or the encyclopedia.
STEP 6: READ TO FIND OUT
Allow time to read in Maus, or to do further research to find answers to as many of the questions as possible. Tell students that some of their questions may not have easy answers. Encourage them to note on their charts any new things they want to learn or questions that come up during their reading of Maus.
STEP 7: SHARE ANSWERS
Invite students to share what they have found and record these on the chart. Share the fact that real-life learning is ongoing and invite students to submit additional statements about things that they want to learn as well as questions that they now have about the topic. Record and discuss the additional responses.
STEP 8: FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES
Use the K-W-H-L results to create further learning activities including graphic organizers, maps, outlines, learning logs, reports, and written summaries.
Assessment:
The K-W-H-L strategy allows the teacher to pre-assess what students already know about the Holocaust. This pre-assessment directs subsequent instruction during the Maus unit. At the conclusion of the K-W-H-L activity, a teacher can assess what was learned and what may still need to be taught. The chart should be posted in the classroom so that information can be added to it in following weeks. As learning is ongoing, students need to see that as we find out more or come up with additional questions, we can add this to our chart.
Module 5
Reading Maus
Because of the graphic novel formatting and familiarity with the subject of the Holocaust, Maus is an ideal book to use for literature circles. You know your class best, so choosing the appropriate literature circle format and guidelines will be your choice- resources provided below. You will also want to chunk out the chapters according to whether all reading is done in class or some reading is done as homework, and what works best in your schedule.
You will need at least one class period in which to teach the students about literature circles, how they work, students’ responsibility, and discussion norms should be reviewed. Students should be divided into groups of five to six (depending on your chosen lit circle format), you will want to either copy the job worksheets in packets that contain each job, or individually and students can create their own packet. Explain that they will switch jobs for each reading chunk, and that it is important that they thoroughly complete their job and do not repeat information that has already been presented during a previous discussion.
The following resources are for literature circle formats and procedures:
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Questions by chapter:
During reading activities:
Module 6
Art Spiegelman and Mais
This module can be done earlier in the unit, but the suggestion is to start the novel and after the students have been introduced to the author and Vladek (author’s father) in the book, by waiting until after the 4th or 5th chapter to reinforce the graphic novel as autobiographical and biographical informational text. This an opportunity to break up the reading of the novel and discussion by practicing Close Reading, reinforcing the academic vocabulary for graphic novels, and also a chance to look at author’s purpose/choices. They might also practice note-taking on the NPR clips, or view clips. The following can be used within the lit circle group, having the groups come up with answers and then report out to the class. It could also be done in Socratic Seminar. It will be important for students to have gained biographical information on Spiegelman before answering the questions below.
•Discuss the comic book form: What kinds of stories can you tell with a comic book? If you decided to tell a story about the Holocaust, what medium would you choose, and why? What would be the advantage of that medium?
•Comics Technique
•In Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud argues that a face drawn with great detail can represent only one specific person, but that a face drawn with few details—a smiley face, for instance—could be almost anyone. Source: Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics (DC Comics, 1999): 31.
•Describe the faces in Maus. Are they iconic (could be anyone) or particular (could only be Vladek)?
•Why do you think Spiegelman drew the characters this way? Hitler reduced Jews to vermin. Is Spiegelman doing the same thing? Why?
•What adjectives would you choose to describe Spiegelman’s artwork? Generally, comics artists draw their works twice the size of the eventual published product. When the artwork is reduced by half, the resulting image is crisp and detailed. Spiegelman drew Maus at its actual size. Why do you think he did? Look carefully at the frames (the lines around the panels) and the gutters (the space between the frames). Gaps in the borders, and lines intruding into the gutters are considered “unprofessional.” Why do you think Spiegelman drew Maus this way?
•Where do you think the artwork is most detailed? Where is it roughest? Is there something about those moments in the story that calls for a particular way of drawing?
•In the terminology of publishing, an image “bleeds” if it extends to—and implicitly beyond—the edge of the page. Where in book one does Spiegelman use a “bleed”? (See page 157, book one.) Why? Most panels are contained in frames. What effect does a frame create, and what effect does a bleed create? Explain the subtitle: “My Father Bleeds History.” (Also look for the bleed in book two.)
•Mice, Cats, Pigs, and Dogs
•N.B. Spiegelman wrote: “Stereos: Latin, meaning solid. Typus: late Latin, meaning form. Hence, stereotype: to give solid form to ideas. The stereotype was invented early in the eighteenth century as a way of making relief-printing plates from paper pulp molds. It’s the way newspaper comics plates were made until new technologies overtook the business in the 1960s. So comic strips were literally as well as figuratively generated from stereotypes.” (Source: Art Spiegelman, in “Mightier Than the Sorehead,” The Nation, January 17, 1994: 45.)
•What are stereotypes? Are they harmful, and if so, how? What are some current examples of stereotypes? How does Spiegelman use stereotypes in Maus? Seek and select specific examples. Summarize his techniques, and analyze why he uses them. Infer the artist’s attitudes, and the reasons for his choices.
•Think about “Tom and Jerry” or “Itchy and Scratchy.” How does the portrayal of cats and mice in those cartoons compare to those in Maus?
Biographical resources:
Module 7
Personal Written Response
After reading Maus the teacher can have students write a response to a prompt to help them make Maus relevant to their lives.
After a discussion about how we can remember the Holocaust, or whether it is important to remember it at all, students can write down their feelings following a prompt.
Directions:
Step 1: After reading Maus give students a prompt:
•In today’s world could we ever have another tragedy similar to the Holocaust and why? How is reading a graphic novel different than reading a text novel?
•How can we avoid another Holocaust-like tragedy?
•How do we know if our leaders are good leaders or bad leaders today?
This strategy will help students prepare for a the fishbowl discussion activity in Module 8.
Module 8
Fishbowl Discussion Activity
The fishbowl activity is similar to Socratic Seminar, but zeroes in on a few students versus everybody trying to get in on the discussion in Socratic Seminar. Having sussed out their ideas and feelings in their written response, they will fill out a “Stereotypes Worksheet”, which includes the fishbowl discussion questions. This will prepare them for the discussion itself, and help them to participate more fully.
Step 1: Stereotypes worksheet
By prefacing the actual fishbowl discussion with a stereotypes worksheet, students will be more prepared to discuss this issue, as they will have examined the role of stereotypes in contributing to prejudice. Pass out the stereotypes worksheet, and have students fill out the first half (sentence completion) on their own. Once the first part of the worksheet is filled out, have students complete the second part with a partner.
Once students have answered questions about how they have experienced stereotyping and prejudice in their own lives, they will be ready to discuss those topics in the fishbowl.
Step 2: Discussion set-up
Arrange the chairs/desks so that the class sits in a circle around a center grouping of 3-4 desks. Explain the fishbowl process to students. Three or four volunteers will enter the circle, sitting in the seats, and begin the discussion with one of the discussion questions listed on the stereotypes worksheet. Each student in the “fishbowl” must contribute to the discussion before they can leave the center, and in order to leave the center, they must be “tapped out” on the shoulder by another classmate, who wishes to enter into the discussion. Students surrounding the fishbowl are not allowed to talk, and must wait until they can tap someone out if they wish to add to the discussion. Students watching the fishbowl are to be taking notes on the back of their worksheet.