A Short Unit on Peace & Empathy
“ He showed signs of his greatness all the time. Under more normal circumstances he would have been a personality to reckon with. He had a contribution to make, and he wasn’t given the chance to.”
The Jewish Giant
A Short Unit on Peace & Empathy: After reading All Quiet (and the other 3 novels as well - The History of Love, Candide, and The Things They Carried) we pause - so to speak - for a midyear encounter with shorter works. The order given below is not necessarily the order we did these - that depended on the timing of Winter Break.
The first of these is Silent Night - The Christmas Truce: a nonfiction book about the heartbreaking but miraculous truce on the frontlines of World War 1, in 1914. From that book we read two extended excerpts. The students work in groups one day - and we have a discussion/listening session the second. This is usually right before Winter Break and the timing couldn't be better.
Next, is "Truth" - a poem by American poet, Randall Jarrell about a young boy in London during the blitz and his grappling with the lies that he's been told (Ah- yes - we are back to our overreaching theme for the year of "Truth").
To continue our theme of empathy we do a lesson on "The Jewish Giant" - an incredible radio story from NPR about real life "giant" Eddie Carmel and his not to be taken tragically all to short life.
We continue in that vein with one of the most important (and emotional) discussions that we have all year - on bullying. We begin by reading aloud a short article by Richard Lindberg on the bullying he and his friend faced in elementary school - and the scars it left, that won't go away. From there, we open the discussion up to a conversation about bullying. For twenty years, the students were the most honest and heartfelt they would be all year - and I believe we walked out of the class the better for it.
Finally, the day before Winter Break - our last class of the calendar year - I invite former students to come back and I bring all of my World Literature Classes together and we read Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory". Originally read to alleviate the heavines of Capote's In Cold Blood - students asked me when I would be doing the reading the next year - and it quickly became a tradition.
This group work is based on a chapter of Stanley Weintraub's incredible book - "Silent Night: The Remarkable Christmas Truce of 1914". A perfect follow-up to All Quiet on the Western Front, this book shows the possibilities for peace that a so sadly missing from Remarque's novel. I assign two chapter2 to my students - a part of the intro and a "The Dead". We then spend two days talking about it. The first day, this lesson is Group Work. There is a quiz on the chapter, "The Dead" and the group work references that chapter as well as All Quiet on the Western Front.
Today we reflect on The Christmas Truce of 1914. We begin by watching a short (28 mins) animated film on the Truce, which in turn was based on a children's book: "War Game". While the students are watching - they relate it to t ideas we've just covered - and looked at from the beginning of the year. We then listen to a beautiful NPR story on The Christmas Truce, a folk song written about the truce from the perspective of a participant, and finally - we form two trenches and serenade each side - in English and German, with the song "Silent Night".
When I first started teaching - the second or third year (I guess it could have been the first), I decided to teach Truman Capote's nonfiction novel - In Cold Blood. We were reading it in the fall - and our unit ended just before Winter Break. Well, I felt that Capote's novel was way too bleak a way to end our time right before the holidays. So, I thought about it - and having just heard his long short story "A Christmas Memory" read on PBS - I decided it would be the perfect (and connected!) way to say goodbye to the old year. I think it went well - and in June - some of my students who were graduating asked me if they could come the following year - to hear me read the story for the next class. And so, a tradition was born.
It's a radio documentary that first appeared on NPR - put out by Sound Portraits, and it is one of the most moving things that I've ever heard. The documentary tells the story of Eddie Carmel - a man who was born with a condition that rendered him one of the tallest people to ever live. He gain a special level of celebrity when he was photographed by Diane Arbus - and his picture (with his "midget appearing" parents in Life Magazine and across the country. But the documentary focuses on who he was.
The lesson starts by having students read aloud - taking turns (see my page on reading aloud in class) the article "A Survivor Looks back and asks 'why'" by Richard Lindberg. The students are instructed - while the reading is happening - to write down any comments or questions they have - being as specific as possible. Their thoughts on the article - their thoughts on bullying. When we finish reading the article - the teacher facilitates a discussion. The students - often shy at first - become more and more forthcoming.
A deceptively simple lesson. There is a single poem - "The Truth", written by American poet Randall Jarrell about a small boy who survives a horrific bombing during the London Blitz of World War 2. In this lesson, the students will first work by themselves trying to figure out what the poem is about. Then they will have the same amount of time to work with a partner - throw ideas around - see what each of them came up with. Finally - we will go over it as a class.