The unit title is Children and War. It is one in the first year cycle for HS ESOL classes. The focus is on how children react to the experience of war. It is a broadening of the study of the Holocaust to give a wider perspective of historical, world-wide genocide experiences and to relate it more directly to students through focusing on experiences of children.
Note that this is a unit for ESOL class, NOT History or Social Studies. The content is a vehicle for language acquisition. The purpose is really to help students acquire more skill in reading academic language, deriving meaning from informational text, and increase their ability to summarize and draw conclusions from informational text.
Essential Question
What influences how people see the world?
Unit Questions
How does the experience of war influence the values of children?
How have reoccurring historical holocausts influenced our world view?
Content Questions
What facts and examples support your opinion of how war impacts the development of children?
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Kate,
ReplyDeleteMy first thought after reading your information about children and war is how you can tie this into our children here at home who have parents, siblings, family and friends fighting overseas right now. Your students can do interviews.
You have a good start on your unit.
What a unique topic to use in an ESOL class. I like the fact that the focus is not just on "THE" Holocaust, but on genocide throughout the world and other periods of history. Your questions are good for the topic. If I had to give you advice on them, I would just suggest that the content questions be more specific and numerous.
ReplyDeleteKate, I posted a comment last night to you but I see it is not here today:( My first thoughts were because this is for language acquisition it would be an opportunity for students to conduct interviews with peers who have loved ones overseas. This would give them information for the 1st unit question. I like your topic because students can relate to present day issues and conflicts going on in the world.
ReplyDeleteFor your content questions I would ask the students to identify major holocausts. I would identify specific wars and how the specifics of each war impacted the children.
I had not thought about the aspect of children with parents in the service and away from home, perhaps because that is not the case for my students due to their immigrant status, although I know some immigrants are in the US service. I was thinking about more direct experiences in war, actually being there. But I appreciate the suggestion and it gives students another option to investigate and the interview idea is excellent!
ReplyDeleteI grapple with the content questions, since this is NOT a history or social studies class, BUT, I do want students to have more exposure to history and social studies content so it may not be so new to them when they have it in their other classes. Balancing how much emphasis to put on the subject content vs the language acquisition process content is always a question for me. I DO want them to be able to find factual information in informational text and then draw conclusions and analyze what they find. Those skills are really the goal in ESOL.
Thanks for the feedback. It gives me more to consider!
Kate,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your class reflections. If a blog or wiki does not fit your class needs then perhaps you will see some of these types of uses when we look at Google Docs. Your unit on war looks well thought out and you appear to have developed appropriate questions. It looks like you have received some valuable feedback. Thanks.
Kate: Thank you for your comments. I agree with you 100 per cent. Unfortunately, I had inadvertently posted my very first draft of Curriculum-Framing Questions. I had already revised them to incorporate what I had since learned about the way they should be. I have also changed my blog to reflect these changes. I hope you'll have time to go back in and check my revised questions out. Thank you again.
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