1
Siberian Life and Culture in the Golden Altai
Unit: Reading Closely for Textual Details
Lesson: Analyzing Details across Texts and Media Types
Instructional Staff Member:
Joan Leonard, Library Media Specialist
with Gr. 9-12 English and Social Studies Teachers
Location:
Geneva High School
Library Media Center
INTRODUCTION:
One of the goals of the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad grant is to promote the integration of international studies into the humanities and/or social sciences curriculum throughout U.S. schools at all levels.
Because so many Americans are unfamiliar with Siberia, its people, and its natural resources, I am sharing what I learned and acquired through being a FHGPA program participant with our Geneva High School students, families, and community members through various outreach opportunities.
There are three lessons in this unit, “Reading Closely for Textual Details” --- “Using Current Events for Informational Reading and Writing for Literacy,” “Analyzing Details Across Texts and Media Types,” and “Reading and Responding to Related Texts.” Materials were chosen for their rich content and also cultural significance or connection to Siberia’s Golden Altai region.
Since dissemination is a goal, each lesson is written so as to be used as a stand-alone one or one easily worked into a particular unit of study, by teachers who took part as FHGPA members and travelled to Siberia as well as those who did not. It is intentionally designed as skills-based instruction for the purpose of helping students develop core literacy proficiencies that will enrich their academic and civic lives.
Described below is one lesson using analysis of imagery, poetry, and historical speech to examine people’s treatment of each other. The tie-in to Siberian society, history, culture, economics, government, environment, arts and sciences, or religion is with a significant Russian historical event and the writing of a renowned and Altai-born poet.
This lesson is multi-disciplinary, in that it can apply well to ELA or Social Studies, as well as to Special Education or Art curriculum at our school. Topical areas are World War II, the Holocaust, genocide, terrorism, and artistic expression, to name a few. Teachers are encouraged tosequence it strategically within theircurriculum and instructional plans and toestablish content connections that will bemeaningful for their students. This might involveconnecting the lesson to the study of topics oreras in social studies, related genres or voices inliterature, or themes and guiding questions. Whatever the curricular context established bythe teacher, the central emphasis is on evidence-based, text-focusedinstruction.
The articles selected for the purpose of this lesson description are examples.
Teachers and students can always select topics and focus areas according to their need and interest using print newspapers and periodicals or online resources and websites such as are listed on the Current Events Quarterly Handout. Modifications are easily worked in as well in terms of lexile reading level and analytical ability or language, for example, for English Language Learners or those reading below grade level.
All of these efforts are designed to be dynamic and to make library research, programming, and use go beyond the walls of the Library Media Center.
Siberian Life and Culture in the Golden Altai
Unit: Reading Closely for Textual Details
Lesson: Analyzing Details across Texts and Media Types
To be used with AP and Gemini Honors Classes
Instructional Staff Member:
Joan Leonard, Library Media Specialist
“If within a lifetime a man changes his skin an infinite number of times, almost as often as his suits, he still does not change his heart; he has but one.” --- I. G. Ehrenburg (1891-1967), noted Soviet writer
INTRODUCTION TO LESSON:
The Unit: Reading Closely for Textual Details …
Reading Informational Texts / Key Ideas and Details / Objective Summary
Lesson: “Our Actions, Then and Now” – Analyzing Details across Texts and Media Types …
especially those with connection to Siberia’s Golden Mountains of Altai
- Specific goals/objectives:
What will the students learn by the end of the lesson? / Why are we learning this?
Goal 1: Students will … learn how to use print and nonprint resources for informational and personal needs.
Goal 2: Students will … evaluate an artist or author’s meaning by identifying point of view.
Goal 3: Students will … analyze a variety of text types using evidence from the work to support their interpretations.
Enduring Understandings:
- Inquiry-driven process is designed to deepen our understanding of information and ideas.
- Analysis, research, and reflection on information gained helps us better understand the world around us and allows us to share our thinking with others.
- Standards:
- NYS CC.SS-ELA Literacy – Reading Standards for Literature RL.9-12.11. Interpret, analyze, and evaluate narratives, poetry, and drama, aesthetically and ethically by making connections to: other texts, ideas, cultural perspectives, eras, personal events and situations.
- NYS CC.SS-ELA Literacy - Reading Standards for Informational Text RI.9-12.2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
- NYS CC.SS-ELA Literacy – Reading Standards for Informational Text RI.9-12.6. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.
- NYS CC.SS-ELA Literacy –Craft and Structure RI.9-12.8 – Evaluate an author’s premises, claims, and evidence by corroborating or challenging them with other information.
- NYS CC LS –SocSt Standard 1: History of the United States and New York - Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.
- NYS CC.LS-SocStStandard 2: World History – Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.
Siberian Life and Culture in the Golden Altai
Unit: Reading Closely for Textual Details
Lesson: Analyzing Details across Texts and Media Types
Instructional Staff Member:
Joan Leonard, Library Media Specialist
Additional Specific Standards ---
Since I am a Teacher/Library Media Specialist specializing in Information Studies and Information Science, I work in collaboration with all teachers and students in my school and apply both state and national information science standards to my work, in addition to NYS Common Core Standards for the various subject areas. Below, you will find reference to New York State’s Empire State Information Fluency Continuum standards and to the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) standards.
- NYS Empire State Information Fluency Continuum (IFC) Standard 1 – Using Inquiry to Build Understanding. Inquiry Phase - Construct RL 9-12.4 – Develops own point of view and supports with evidence.
- American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Literacy Standard 1: Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge – The student who is information literate accesses information efficiently and effectively by developing and using successful strategies for locating information.
- AASL Literacy Standard 2: Draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge – The student who is information literate applies critical-thinking skills (analysis, synthesis, evaluation, organization) to information and knowledge in order to construct new understandings, draw conclusions, and create new knowledge; organizes knowledge so that it is useful; uses technology and other information tools to analyze and organize information; and uses the writing process, media and visual literacy, and technology skills to create products that express new understandings.
- AASL Literacy Standard 3: Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of a democratic society – The student who is information literate concludes an inquiry-based research process by sharing new understandings and reflecting on the learning.
- AASL Literacy Standard 4: Pursue personal and aesthetic growth – The student who is information literate reads for pleasure and personal growth, thereby making connections with him/herself, the world, and previous reading.
Detailed AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner Skills Indicator(s):
AASL Standards
1.1.2 Use prior and background knowledge as context for new learning.
1.1.4 Find, evaluate, and select appropriate sources to answer questions.
2.1.6 Use the writing process, media and visual literacy, and technology skills to create
products that express new understandings.
Dispositions Indicator(s):
1.2.6 Display emotional resilience by persisting in information searching despite challenges.
2.2.3 Employ a critical stance in drawing conclusions by demonstrating that the pattern of
evidence leads to a decision or conclusion.
Responsibilities Indicator(s):
1.3.1 Respect copyright/intellectual property rights of creators and producers.
1.3.3 Follow ethical and legal guidelines in gathering and using information.
2.3.1 Connect understanding to the real world.
Self-Assessment Strategies Indicator(s):
1.4.2 Use interaction with and feedback from teachers and peers to guide own inquiry process.
2.4.1 Determine how to act on information (accept, reject, modify).
Siberian Life and Culture in the Golden Altai
Unit: Reading Closely for Textual Details
Lesson: Analyzing Details across Texts and Media Types
Instructional Staff Member:
Joan Leonard, Library Media Specialist
LESSON:
“Our Actions, Then and Now – Analyzing Details across Text and Media Types”
Grade Level: 9-12
Type of Lesson: Stand-alone lesson
Estimated Lesson Time: 90 -180 minutes
Collaboration Continuum: Intensive
Content Area Profiled Here: Language Arts
Content Topic: Compare primary sources from two time periods to analyze issues from a work of literature.
Essential Questions (for each primary source set, and to be answered by students in their Writer’s Notebooks):
Do ideas and perspectives about the issues presented here (intolerance and terrorism) change with time?
To what extent has/have the issue(s) been resolved?
Activating Learning Strategy
Getting Started: Understanding Close Reading
The LMS and Teacher present an overview of the lesson,discussing the purposes and elements ofclose reading and reviewing the varied text types we’ll cover (political cartoon, poem, photograph, speech excerpt) and tying in the connections to Siberia’s Golden Altai Territory (historical event of Babi Yar, Soviet writers Ehrenberg and Yevtushenko).
We lead off with the quote above by Ehrenberg (“If within a lifetime a man changes his skin an infinite number of times, almost as often as his suits, he still does not change his heart; he has but one”) to set thematic tone about how people treat or mistreat one another historically and in contemporary time.
Students are oriented to the idea of attendingto details through examining images and literature.
Students use guiding questions to lookclosely for details in a multi-media image andwrite a few sentences explainingsomething they have learned.
Students use guiding questions to lookclosely for details in a text and write a few sentences about what the author’s purpose and message is.
Scenario:
Connection may be made after reading a novel or play for English class. Students pick a main issue in the work they read and compare how the issue is perceived in two primary source sets from two time periods.
Students will also consider these questions:
Are there comparisons and contrasts concerning the issue in history and contemporary times?
What do you think the authorsof the primary sources(images) and of the literary pieces (poem and speech excerpt, as here) are trying to say?
Additionally, students will have this time to review and respond to a specific historical event in Siberia’s past as well as to the writing of one notable Siberian author born in the Golden Altai territory and still writing today.
Siberian Life and Culture in the Golden Altai
Unit: Reading Closely for Textual Details
Lesson: Analyzing Details across Texts and Media Types
Instructional Staff Member:
Joan Leonard, Library Media Specialist
Instructional Plan:
First, have students lookat the first primary source from “yesterday,” an image from the Library of Congress about the relationship between Russia and Germany at the time of the Babi Yar massacre in 1941.
Then have them examine the poem, “Babi Yar,” by noted Soviet author Yevgeny Yevtushenko.
Next, do the same with the second Primary Source set, the 09/11 photograph and excerpt of Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.”
(These sources were teacher-selected this time around to tie in with Siberian emphasis).
Ask students to look closely at the multimedia examples and write down any questions they have about the piece's message, the subject, the artist's use of images, or the author’s use of language.
Have students discuss with a partner or in a small group reactions to what they see and read.
Refer to background information for more clarification on the event in history.
Refer also to the handout, “Reading Closely for Details: Guiding Questions,” to focus material examination.
Ask:
Have theideas and perspectives about the issues (intolerance, terrorism, remembrance) changed with time?
Has the issue been resolved? Why or why not?
Overview:
In the library, students compare primary sources from two time periods relating to an issue in their novel or play (for example, treatment of innocent victims, intolerance, survival, human rights violations, terrorism, remembrance).
Students will make connection with Siberian history, writing, and people of note by closely examining the Library of Congress image, “I Didn’t Say You Could Keep It,” and the poem memorializing Babi Yar by Altai-born writer, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, and comparing and contrasting the two with the 09/11 photo and the part of Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” that has been used as tribute to the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks.
Students compare how the issuesof intoleranceor terrorism or remembrancewere perceived then and in contemporary times.
Final Product:
Students will write a multi-paragraph explanation, using image and textual evidence that explains:
_ A central idea connecting the pieces and how it is developed or supported by the representation in
image or writing
_ What the central idea demonstrates about each author’s perspective on the topic
_ What they have come to understand about the topic from the text and background information
provided
Students will also analyze the issue in terms oftoday’s attitudes and defend their opinion.
Siberian Life and Culture in the Golden Altai
Unit: Reading Closely for Textual Details
Lesson: Analyzing Details across Texts and Media Types
Instructional Staff Member:
Joan Leonard, Library Media Specialist
Lesson Extensions in the Library:
Students will learn to analyze a topic for keywords and keyword combinations to use in online searches.
Students will learn to develop questions to answer in their research about an issue to determine what type of primary document to locate.
Students will learn to access primary sources online from the Library of Congress( and the Digital Public Library of America (
Students will learn to access historical newspapers Google News.
Assessment Product:
In a lesson where documents are not pre-selected, as with this Siberia-related lesson, Teacher/LMS and subject area teacher use a student self assessment checklist (see attachment) to verify that each student locates a primary document from two periods in time on a theme relating to their work.
Process:
Teacher/LMS and subject area teacher circulate as students use their own keywords to access other primary sources on the theme they deemed as evident in the pieces.
Students having difficulty locating primary sources at the time of their novel or play will need to be guided to revise their keywords or try other resources.
Student self-questioning:
Do I understand my issue?
Do I know what the characters in my book or play think about the issue?
Do I know which keywords I need to pull up the best primary sources or newspaper articles?
Did I use the best combination of search terms?
Did I use too many search terms in the same query?
Did I remember to match the search term with the correct field?
Instructional Plan
Resources students will use:
Dataset (ie. lists, tables, databases)
Still image (i.e.paintings, drawings, plans, and maps)
Interactive Resource (i.e. webpages, multimedia learning objects, chat services)
Text (books, letters, poems, newspapers, etc.)
Interactive Resource URL:
Resources instructor will use:
Projector
Laptop
Smart board
Siberian Life and Culture in the Golden Altai
Unit: Reading Closely for Textual Details
Lesson: Analyzing Details across Texts and Media Types
Instructional Staff Member:
Joan Leonard, Library Media Specialist
- Primary Source Set #1
a.)Image. Title: “I Didn’t Say You Could Keep It”
Library of Congress
Summary
World War II cartoon shows Stalin as a satisfied black bear sitting in front of a beehive labeled "Estonia, Latvia, Bessarabia, Lithuania, Ukraine." He is approached by Hitler, who carries a bucket and a large spoon. As a result of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, the Soviet Union was able to gain control of the Eastern European countries on its western borders. By the spring of 1941, however, relations between Germany and the Soviet Union were beginning to fray. Two days after this cartoon was published, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union.