I’m Ryan Leatherman, a

‘senior-ish’ Student at the

University of Missouri-St.

Louis. I am currently

studying to attain a

bachelor’s in Secondary

Education- English.

Ever since I was a kid, I loved

to read. After discovering my

talent and ability to help

fellows understand material

(i.e. teaching), I decided to

go to school in order to

spread not only a love of

reading but important skills

to tomorrow’s professionals.

I’ve worked as a cadet

teacher when I was in high

school, tutored at Jennings

High school and taught

multiple units as a student

teacher at Hazelwood West.

I intend to bring my zeal for

the language into the

classroom to complement a

rapport with students that

supports learning.

“Education is Light: The Lack of

it, Darkness.”- A Russian

Proverb

Views of the Holocaust

English 3

Ryan Leatherman

Spring 2013

Rationale: We teach our secondary level children both the triumphs and tragedies of human

history. I believe that the horrors of the past can only be prevented from occurring again if

students not only learn the history of what happened but also come to realize what exactly they

have to do to stop such tragedies from happening again. By teaching novels from two different

vantage points during the horrors of the Holocaust, and assessing the students on how well they

can step outside of their own world in a narrative, I hope to stress the vitality of human empathy

while concurrently designing lessons which fit the common core standards like a glove.

Essential Questions:

-In what ways, and for what reasons, do atrocities like these happen?

-What can we do to prevent something like this from happening in our world?

Summary: This unit will begin with students choosing between two novels: either “Night” by

Elie Wiesel or “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak. The disparity in book length will be

addressed, but after assigning students into two teams, they will begin reading each novel outside

of class. For the remainder of the unit, lessons on world war two and holocaust history will be

interspersed with each book ‘team’ meeting together, working on activities in cooperation and

then individual students reporting out to the other team what occurred in their book and the

significance thereof.

Objectives:

The students will read either “Night” or “The Book Thief”, thereby comprehending the plot and

narrative aspect.

The students will analyze the style of both “Night” and “Book Thief” and determine the literary

aspects of each.

The students will work collaboratively with a team to construct an understanding of their team’s

novel.

Throughout the unit, students will analyze how different novel forms differ from each other, and

will see how a novel’s format influences its content.

The students will teach a lesson in a small group to their other team, synthesizing their team’s

findings into a coherent mini-lesson.

After reading these work, students will percieve the very real brutality involved in the Holocaust,

and respect how these atrocities are not that far removed from our world today.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.5 Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure

specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a

comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its

aesthetic impact.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or

events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

Length: This unit will last about three weeks.

Materials:

At least 15 copies of both “Night” and “Book Thief”.

World War two primary documents

Various documentaries used for World War Two background knowledge (can be easily

accessed on YouTube)

Core Concepts:

Community: the Teams will be necessarily required to build a rapport to work together on

the mini-lessons.

Process: In the writing of their short story, a cycle of revision will be a process.

Occupation: the students teaching each other will have to be teachers in their own right.

Construction: with their story, students will be making a product which demonstrates

understanding.

Connection: the entire unit will hinge on a connection to history, primarily the Holocaust.

Conversation: the teams and the teacher must work together to ensure what they are

teaching is acceptable.

Learning Strategies:

I’m planning on including at the very least: RAFT, KWL, an anonymous survey and

discussion (papers thrown in the middle of classroom method), a Facebook profile assignment,

nonstop write predictions, a story map, and any more that I learn or think of.

Summative Assessment:

The students will create a short story narrated by a character or viewpoint separate from

either “Night” or “Book Thief’s”, demonstrating an ability to construct a plausible viewpoint

outside of their own.

Teacher Calendar:

Date: Activity:

Day 1

Monday

*REQUEST MAC CART*

-Preassess student knowledge.

-debate and discuss survey items using ‘pile’ method.

-assign book teams.

-If necessary, give background on WW2.

-students independent Search on WW2 terms. Use Laptops for Precis.

Day 2

Wednesday

*Precis Due* *Request Mac Cart*

-Students given time to revise précis.

-Jigsaw between teams and students, having each student teach each other

their term.

-Go over ‘bildungsroman’ concept, and the nature of the postmodern and

memoir genre

Day 3

Friday

-Split into teams

-both teams required to make a ‘fakebook’ for the main characters in their

books for the 1st half of class, and are given discussion q’s to non-stop

write about.

-teams teach each other what happened in their reading.

-teams come together, discuss Nazi persecution w/ a presentation and clips

from documentaries.

Day 4

Tuesday

-Teams split up, asked to make a prediction guide for their novels.

-Teams teach each other what happened in their novel.

-‘narrative voices’- give students examples of narration, have them

determine differences.

-introduce short story assignment.

Day 5

Thursday

-teams create a story map for their book, presenting a finalized version to

the other team.

-teams write an in-class RAFT from a different character than the narrator

in their novel, asked to share it with their team.

-have the students make a rough story map for their own short story.

-Split the class into groups, going to different stations built around

different literary elements they could use in their story.

Student Calendar:

Date: Activity:

Day 1

Monday

*Nothing Due*

-Human Rights Survey

-Book Assignments

-World War 2 basics

Day 2

Wednesday

*Precis Due*

-Teach each other about your précis (so yes, make sure you get some work

done)

-Genre and the novel

Day 3

Friday

*Reading assignment 1 due*

-Teamwork: Fakebook

-Lesson: Nazism and persecution

Day 4

Tuesday

*Reading Assignment 2 due*

-Teamwork: Prediction Guide

-Lesson: Narrative Voices

Day 5

Thursday

*Reading Assignment 3 due*

-Teamwork: Story Map

-Teamwork: RAFT

Assign: Short Story assignment

Views of the Holocaust

English 3

Ryan Leatherman

Spring 2013

Purpose: In order to engender focused and effective discussion, the students should be pre-

assessed for prior knowledge.

Learning Objective: ‘I will assess and express where I stand on human rights issues’

Materials needed:

-Survey

-MacBook Cart

Phase one: Establishing Set

- Students will be given a survey, and will individually answer the questions on the survey.

Per instructions, the surveys will be anonymous.

- After completing the survey, the students will circle up the desks, crumple up their

surveys and throw them into the middle of the room.

Phase Two: Forming the Discussion

- Students will choose a survey from the pile and will be asked to respond to one of the

survey answers they disagreed with. Each will write a paragraph as to why they disagree.

- Students will then throw the surveys back into the middle of the circle.

- Before the students grab a new survey, they will report out to the class what they

disagreed with.

Phase Three: Holding the Discussion

- The Students will then pick a new essay and repeat the procedure with a statement which

they agreed with.

- After they write another paragraph, they will report to the class and start another

discussion.

Phase Four: Basic Overview

- This discussion will take place for the majority of class, for 60 of the 90 minute period. In

the second part of class, I will begin with a short prezi on the basics of World War Two if

need be.

- If not, and the students seem to have at least some background knowledge on the topic, I

will then introduce the two novels: “Night” and “Book Thief”

- Students will be given a choice between the two novels. The teacher will explain the

basic premise of both, though not ‘sugar-coating’ the fact that “Book Thief” is a more

challenging read.

- Students will then separate into two groups, one for each book.

- Each group will be then tasked to get a MacBook from the cart, turn in their non-stop

writes from the survey and pick up the iSearch handout.

- Students within their group will choose one topic listed on the handout which has to do

with World War Two history (Dachau, Kristallnacht, Axis, Rations) and will be tasked

with writing a précis on the topic.

- Students will use the laptops to look up information (including Wikipedia) but will be

unable to directly quote. Their modified précis will have to represent a condensed

understanding.

- If the Students do not finish their précis in class, they will be required to turn it in by the

next class period.

Views of the Holocaust

English 3

Ryan Leatherman

Spring 2013

Purpose: Students will augment their background knowledge on the Holocaust and analyze

literary genres.

Objective: “I will research the historical and literary background of my team’s novel.”

Materials Needed:

Mac Cart

Copies of the novels

Projector/laptop

Phase One: Establishing Set

As the students file in, they will turn in the rough draft of their précis and grab a laptop.

The students will be given another ten to fifteen minutes to continue researching their

précis. This will ensure that no student, even if absent, is without a topic of their own.

Phase Two: Jigsaw Activity

The students will then reprint their précis (if printing is available) or will take their

laptops and line up at the front of the class. Students will then be paired up according to

completion of their work, behaviors, etc.

At this point, the students will be warned that disruptive behavior or noncompliance will

result in a quiz at the end of the activity. This deterrent will hedge my bets against unruly

behavior.

Students will have one minute each to read their précis to their partner, expounding when

necessary.

At the end of each two-minute time frame, students will jigsaw with another student.

This process will repeat until all students are accounted for.

This activity forces students to present to each other a piece they have crafted, thereby

learning through construction.

Phase three: Author background

Using a projector, the remaining class time will be spent on a quick lecture on both

Markus Zusak and Elie Wiesel and the style of their novels.

The author’s background and credentials will be expounded upon, as well as the basic

tenets and aspects of the memoir and postmodern novel form.

I cannot be full of empty threats. If the students run wild during the jigsaw and it falls on

its face, the third phase will have to be replaced with a quiz. Not fun, but my credibility

and authenticity cannot be compromised.

Homework: The first reading from their novel.

Views of the Holocaust

English 3

Ryan Leatherman

Spring 2013

Purpose: The students will conceptualize the world of their team’s novel and begin to familiarize

themselves with the novel’s characters.

Learning Objective: I will understand the world my novel takes place in.

Materials Needed:

Fakebook handouts

Packet of narrative excerpts

Projector/Teacher’s laptop

Phase One: Recap

The students will split up into their teams, spending the first ten minutes composing a

team presentation which explains the events in their first chunk of the book.

Students with the first four names on the roster in each team will then present to the other

team their group’s summary. This isn’t just meant to be plot recap, but include the feeling

it gives, what is foreign or unique to their book, and also what they personally thought

about the reading.

Phase Two: Fakebook activity

Both teams will again split up, and they will each individually select who they think the

(X) most important characters from each novel are. They will then be split into groups

within their groups, and will collaboratively design a fake facebook profile of an assigned

character.

On this handout, the students will have to choose a picture, a status update, interests and

likes, family members, etc.

This activity will take about twenty minutes.

Students will then re-group and share out their fakebooks, getting their group’s approval.

These handouts will be turned back in as the day’s participation points.

Phase Three: Narrative Voices

Students will be given out a packet of narrative excerpts. This will include 8-10 different

snippets of narration which are somehow different or unique. Two of these will be from

Book Thief and Night, others from disparate authors: T.C. Boyle, Sherman Alexie, Zora

Neale Hurston, William Faulkner, etc.

The teacher and students will go through each chunk, stopping at the end to discuss the

aspects of narration.

During this discussion, the following questions should be posed to the students, with

open-ended answers: who is talking? Why are they talking this way? Do I trust this

person? Is this a person? Where or what is this person talking about?

This discussion should go through until the end of class, and probably through until the

next day realistically.

Views of the Holocaust

English 3

Ryan Leatherman

Spring 2013

Purpose: The Students will arrange their concepts of narrative voice and plot to synthesize a

framework for their own short story with a view of the Holocaust.

Learning Objective: I will conceptualize the aspects of plot and narrative voice in my novels and

my own short story.

Materials Needed:

Narrative voices packet

Story Map Handout

Copies of their Novels

Phase One: unfinished business

The narrative analysis assignment will need to be completed. This in-class hybrid lecture

will require students to read different passages out loud and categorize the narrative

voice.

After all of the passages are read, the class will then split up into teams and select a

passage from their nightly reading and write a paragraph together explaining the narrative

style.

The Teams will read their paragraph out to the other team and explain their narrative

style, emphasizing why the author of their text chose to write in their style.

Phase Two: Predictions

The students will reconvene with their groups and will be given ten minutes to

individually predict what will happen in the rest of their novel.

After this is written, the group will discuss their predictions and take a tally of the

predictions which are most commonly held.

Each team will read their most likely predictions to the other team.

Phase Three: Assigning the Assessment

The teacher will hand out a handout describing the summative assessment for this unit: an

original short story of the student’s own design which reflects a distinct viewpoint of the

holocaust.

The students will read the handout along with the teacher, and the originality of the

assignment- along with the open-endedness- will be stressed. The additional one-page

paper with a rationale will be emphasized as the most important for grading.

Students will then be given about ten minutes in class to brainstorm a few ideas for their

story. They will then pair up and trade ideas. In this brainstorming, they will be tasked to

utilize what they’ve seen in terms of narrative and plotting.

Not There Yet (1-10) Not Bad! (11-20) You Got It! (21-25)

Point of View The narrative

voice is

neither strong

nor unique.

Asks the

question: why

is this

character

telling this

story?

Any character could

have told this story.

The Narrative

voice of the

story fits the

time period

and has a few

distinct

aspects.

Without the

voice of the

piece, the

story would be

vastly

different.

The story has

a strong and

unique

narrative

voice.

The narrative

voice in the

story

profoundly

effects how

the story is

told.

Storytelling Process The story is

somewhat

incomplete-

somewhere in

the story

process there

is a breakdown

in plot.

The story is

paced poorly,

causing the

story to lag

repeatedly.

The story fits

well into the

conventions of

storytelling,

with a

beginning,

middle, end,

and rising and

falling action.

The story isn’t

a page turner,

but tells a

genuine and

compelling

tale.

The story fits

the

conventions of

storytelling-

beginning,

middle and

end- but also

adds a

personal twist

to the process.

The story is

paced and

plotted well- I

couldn’t put it

down!

Rationale Essay Though the

essay touches

on the styles

chosen in the

story, the

essay fails to

adequately

explain why

The essay

reveals an

adequate

rationale for

the stylistic

choices in the

story.

The creative

In no uncertain

terms, the

reasons for

both the

narration and

the form of the

story are

explained

these stylistic

decisions were

made.

The essay fails

to explain the

creative

process

involved in the

story.

process is

explained to

have worked

toward a

unique “view

of the

holocaust”

thoroughly.

The creative

process of

story writing is

revealed with

clearness of

purpose and

intention.

Grammar Rubric Low (1-5) Medium (6-10) High (11-15)

Spelling Too many spelling

errors, especially in

our age of automatic

spell check.

There are a handful of

spelling errors.

There are only a

couple of spelling

errors, if any.

Flow Consistent structural

errors make the paper

a chore to read.

Awkward sentence

structure, at times

assisted by structural

errors, makes the

paper choppy.

Language in the piece

flows uninterrupted

by errors.

Diction Word choice could

use some work.

Vocabulary is far too

basic.

The vocabulary in the

piece is appropriate to

grade level.

High-level vocabulary

takes the language to

the next level.

Point of view: ___________/25 points

Storytelling Process: ______________/25 points

Rationale essay: ___________/25 points

Grammar: _________/15 points

o Total: _______________________/90 points

Personal notes:

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

_____________________

Ryan Leatherman

4/9/2013

Person at the door essay

When I tell people that I grew up in Kirkwood, I understand that the town I grew up in

can shape their idea of how I was raised. The images associated with Kirkwood seem indicative

of a suburban paradise. They see crisp and expensive North Face jackets warming the daughters

of trophy wives, rousing cheers under expensive Friday night football lights, rows upon rows of

gleaming Mac computers sitting in computer labs, parking lots full of cars far beyond the price

range of a teenager. While this is all certainly there in Kirkwood, this was not what I grew up in.

My mother was a preschool teacher, and my father worked on a golf course. I was the oldest of

four children, half of them, me included, unplanned. Consequently, we were never comfortably

well off. That’s not to say we were poor- I haven’t missed many meals. But while my friends

were going to Disneyworld or sporting the latest fad, I felt left out.

The fact that we never had too much, but rather always just enough, led my mother to

constantly push me forward. I was never allowed to eat or relax after I came home from school

until my homework was done. If I had less than an A, my teachers were sure to receive indignant

phone calls. I responded as any child would. Until I knew there was any other way, I went along

with it. I was sheltered and smothered, but the A’s on my report card said all was well. When I

finally realized that not everyone was pushed so hard, I took a different tack altogether. I slacked

and started hanging around the wrong crowd. I was a brat, and the worst kind- one who thought

his behavior was justified. My grades never plummeted, but they fell enough for my parents to

react. I wasn’t allowed to go out past 9 at night. I couldn’t talk to any of my friends. I wasn’t

given money. It wasn’t a good time in my life.

Part of what pulled me back to reality was a series of excellent teachers. Mr. Oldermann,

Mrs. Menchhofer, Mrs. Barker, they all pulled me into their curriculum and took me under their

wing. Oldermann related with my family issues, and gave me a cadet teaching position so I could

get caught up on coursework. Mrs. Menchhofer was the strictest teacher I’ve ever had, and she

pushed me in a different way than my mother did. She expected sheer excellence, but that

excellence wasn’t an A or a B. In fact, I failed more of her essays than I passed. But when I did

get that passing grade, or even a B, that elation didn’t leave my face for days. Many students

hated Mench, as we affectionately called her. I see why they did. She didn’t take any crap, and

she didn’t sugarcoat failure. But she gave me an inch, and I went a mile for her. Then Mrs.

Barker showed me that literature wasn’t boring crap old dead white guys wrote. She showed how

interesting and engaging those dead white guys were. She brought in historical context and

taught us recent novels that had a clear bearing on where we were as students.

I’ve always been a smart kid. Potential, potential, potential. A double-edged sword, that is. It’s

only recently that I’ve realized how damn lucky I am. I’m a white man, born into a suburban

white family in the suburban Midwest. In terms of demographics, I pulled the winning lottery

ticket the day I was born. I’ve tried to own my existence and my potential for a long time, but I

can’t. I chalk it up to something resembling God, and done my best to glean what I’m actually

called toward. I used to tutor students and the joy I got from the experience has never left me. I

feel like helping people is in my blood. I couldn’t design a shifty ad as a marketing guru or

defend a rapist as a lawyer…it never sat well, no matter how many positives there were (funny

how they all seem to be money…). I feel like my mission is to leave this Earth a better place than

when I showed up into it, someway, somehow.

After dallying about in college, I went down the career path to become a teacher. I hate to

say that many of the classes I’ve had in Education were amongst the most dull and rote

experiences of my life. My experience has given me the firm conviction that most elementary Ed

majors are simply biding time until motherhood. I’ve also come to the realization that professors

who teach secondary Ed classes should have probably spent some time as a teacher in their life.

Regardless of my quibbles, I learned a lot about the language, and my college education has

given me the greatest gift of all: keen insight into the way things are. People, Art, institutions,

they all have something going on underneath. An English major has given me the language to

voice what I see. I peer into the depths and dredge out some waterlogged chunk of understanding

from whatever I see.

I’m challenged to make the English language engaging and worthwhile in my classroom.

We live in a world inundated with poor role models and an ever-decaying language, but we often

forget that we have been dealing with these issues for hundreds of years. The alarmist in me

wants to decry the state of our youth, but veteran teachers keep telling me that ‘kids will be kids’.

I didn’t really understand this until I got into the classroom. There have always been focused and

driven young men and women; just how there have always been washouts. Various forms of

entertainment constantly appear and seem to threatened the intellectual stability of our society,

yet school and the language carries on, not better or worse but different. The English class in the

movie ‘Dead Poet’s Society’ is a sepia-stained portrait of a bygone era. The classes I will stand

in front of won’t be a whitewashed troupe of snarky romantics. They will be multiethnic, varying

in Socio-economic status and sexual preference. I cannot sit on my Ivory tower, prattling on

about Wordsworth in a tweed suit.

For better or for worse, I’ll be in dress pants and a polo shirt, doing my damnedest to

make the works of the last fifty-plus years relevant. Each day I will struggle with students who

are more comfortable with emoticons than grammar. I will have students at all levels of

competency, and I need to teach to them all, which is why I have to build relationships and stay

human. The teachers who affected me the most were human: they let students know if they were

having a bad day, they told stories from their own lives, they were vulnerable. Building a

rapport allows me to make mistakes. Not to say these mistakes will happen often or on purpose,

but when the students know me and I know them, they seem far more forgiving than if I was

some literary genius/drill instructor preaching to them.

The language changes, and I am of the thought that the Western Canon changes with it.

We can never dispense with masters like Chaucer or Shakespeare, but the last thing these literary

giants need is a boring high school teacher ruining their art. I firmly believe that we teach far too

many books my men who have been dead for centuries. For today’s fast paced youth, we need to

compensate with newer works. We can cover common core standards with short stories and

postmodern works just as well as we can with the old guard. Though I won’t personally toss out

our forefathers, my classroom will focus on the works more relevant and indicative of the world

my students will live in.

Finally, the class must remain informal and teeter upon the edge of chaos…in a good

way. In the few days of classes which I have run, I toe the line between chatter which keeps the

class loose and keeps heads off of desks and the kind of chatter which forces a teacher to raise

his voice. As I’ve grown I’ve become a stickler for pragmatism, and my internship has been

nothing if not a lesson in pragmatism. Some may call me a turncoat from the establishment, but I

think that we are headed in a better direction as a public school system. I hope that my teaching

style provides a forum for kids to grow in understanding AND content knowledge. Though my

kids may come strangers and never leave as friends, my teaching style can help them develop a

sense of belonging with their peers and the world around them. ]