Social Literacy in Social Studies

Social literacy is the ways that the students interact with each other as well as the texts in the curriculum. Most of the students in my practicum setting sit at their desks everyday where they take notes and engage in one activity that showcases the geography of the world. These texts are a way to allow the students to interact with each other as well as historical initiatives in a social and engaging manner. However, in some cases the social literacy within a piece can be within the ways that the characters interact. In terms of the content, the texts would be used together to take remembrance of the Holocaust and the relevant genocides in today’s cultures.

Night by Elie Wiesel-

Night by Elie Wiesel is an interesting book describing the holocaust from a first person point of view. The story starts out with Elie’s struggle for faith. His mentor mentioned that the Nazi regime was headed for their hometown. The Nazi’s took all of the people into a concentration camp where they were officials determined whether they were capable of work. Throughout the rest of the story, Elie Wiesel tells of the struggles that he had and how he was trying to outsmart and maintain emotional and faithful strength.

While the text is quite complex for readers, it would seem that excerpts would serve them best. In terms of examining the text, the students should examine the social strata of the people in the excerpts. Character relationships can be examined in partner groups to initiate discussion in order to promote social objectives of interaction. While social literacy is within that of the people of the work and in relation to each other, we notice that the students discussing the relationships of the characters are also building their own interpersonal development. These quantative measures are essential in the examination of this text in order to develop historical knowledge. In an alternative assignment, or an extension of this assignment, the students could make a play or a other media accessing the social features of the text in which they emulate the character and their traits in a modern form. In the assignment, the students will have examined social features, related them to Night, examined their own social features and characteristics, and then emulated the characters from Night. The students would have the ability to interpret the traits for themselves, determine the character, what ways they wanted to format and the script they would be using.

Vocabulary that aid in instructional support:

1. Annihilate: to destroy completely
2. Concentration Camp: Camps that were primarily used for slave labor, holding camps or transit camps.
3. Fascism: A system of government with centralized authority under a dictator who suppressed and censored through terror. 
4. Deportation: The action of deporting a foreigner from a country.
5. Aryan: In Nazi, ideology, the pure, superior Germanic race.
6.  Zionism: Political movement advocating the establishment of a Jewish state.

*Student generated vocabulary may also be added to the list.

The purpose for using the text would be during a unit on World War II and the Holocaust in which the students related their background knowledge from another class. If they have no previous background knowledge, this will aid in that discovery. The complexity of the task does in fact match the accessibility of the text and in some ways matches that of students prior knowledge. Since they are examining social features, relating these to the characters as well as themselves, they would be able to self reflect and bring forth meaningful work in embarking on a project to reinforce. Overall, the social literacy within this assignment is fulfilling and relatable to students in a real and intriguing manner.

Wiesel, E. (1958). Night. West 18th Street, New York: Les
Editions de Minuit.

Alternate work: The Diary of Anne Frank.  Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, 1967. Print.

 

Gallery Walk-

The text is a gallery walk in which pictures of people living through the Holocaust are pictured. The pictures describe the events happening before the camps, during the camps and the aftermath. The excerpts underneath the pictures shed a little more light on what is happening and can offer students a starting point in examining the social constructs within them.

Palulis, L. (2013, January 24). Holocaust Gallery Walk Photos. Retrieved March 19, 2017, from http://prezi.com/wd6nirjzho_m/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

In partners, the students will examine the pictures and read the excerpts and write small descriptions in which they identify the social constructs within the pictures and how they might agree or disagree with the excerpts. After they have agreed or disagreed with the pictures, they will then ask their partners what social ideas were present. Upon that completion students will share with at least two other people to compare their ideas. Students will then write a letter as one of the people in a picture where they identify one social aspect and in what way it would be used. Students may also write in the form of the social aspect.   Once they have gathered these ideas, they will create their own representation of the social aspects using their own lives. Therefore they must examine their own social aspects and that of the people around them. The students then must take pictures of these aspects and examine who and what they mean in the social atmosphere.

Quantitative measures in this example can be shown in using multimedia sources to create meaningful works. Another measure can be found writing a letter as one of the people in the picture. The measure within this is that students are gathering information and building a repertoire of information on social issues and the devastation historically. The qualitative measures that are being used stem from the students own relationships and their social identifications. I believe that the measures given are relatable and engaging to the student. As the assignment is engaging, they are permitted to step outside of their comfort zone to examine the lives of historical models to that of their own lives.

The purpose of using this text is to promote critical examination of a historical event in terms of social mannerisms to relate to their own personal lives. The students prepare these materials in order to motivate interest within the topic. As they move through, they are more able to understand the social aspects and how they are in relation to themselves. The complexity of the task matches the accessibility in allowing them to monitor aspects in their previous knowledge.

Alternative option: “Time Zone X: World War II – GameUp – BrainPOP.” Time Zone X: World War II – GameUp – BrainPOP., http://www.brainpop.com/games/timezonexworldwarii/. Accessed 20 Mar. 2017.

The world around us-

This text tells about the cultural aspects that the Jewish people held. While this is an introductory piece, it seems to offer quite a few details that are centered around community and what they were involved in respectively.

For this activity, the student will read the article by themselves and take notes. While they are taking notes, they should also be looking for similarities and differences that the Jewish people have with the students. Once students are done reading the article, the student must pair up with a neighbor and discuss one social activity that was similar and different to them based on the article. Once they have compared their information, students should generate some 21st century cultural aspects. These cultural aspects will be analyzed in terms of social literacy, each group will use one of them in an active skit or another visual representation.

The complexity of this text is in line with many of the students reading levels and therefore, the student can relate to the Jewish people but also relate what they are learning with what they are personally experiencing. The qualitative measures that are forming a relationship with the students in my class as well as allowing them to learn about me, as I will have already made a sample. Quantitative measures that this entails is the ability to examine and reflect on the students reading as well as on their lives.

For the most part, the text complexity is within what would be the lesson centered around the Holocaust. The students would be learning about what the Jewish people did in their cultural backgrounds while using their own social literacies to further the assignment.

Alternative: YadVashem. “Glimpses of Jewish Life before the Holocaust.” YouTube, YouTube, 10 Apr. 2016, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7WLk-KVYM4. Accessed 20 Mar. 2017.