Our year-long focus in Honors English I is the Danger of Literature. Throughout the year, we will explore how writers use stories to expose oppressive systems and challenge social realities.
Our literature unit, "Dangerous Stories, Dangerous Identities," asks students to explore how literature can pose a danger to those in power, and the inherent power of giving voice to people that have been historically marginalized and disenfranchised.
Freshmen students in Honors English I will read "Train," by Danny Cohen, relaying the lived experiences of unheard and marginalized groups during WWII and the Holocaust.
Last year, a select group of students in my classes chose to read "Train," and expressed how much they enjoyed it. We were also very fortunate to have the author, Mr. Cohen, a professor at Northwestern University in nearby Evanston, Illinois, come to our school and speak to the freshman students about his novel, and his inspiration behind writing it. We are in need of 2 class sets of this novel.
Mr. Cohen's novel, along with Chimamanda Adichie's "The Danger of a Single Story" speech, help frame the unit around the following Essential Questions:
• What is the danger of a single story?
• How can single stories influence you to accept injustice?
• To what extent are we all witnesses of difficult history and messengers to humanity?
• Who is an insider? Who is an outsider? Who decides this and why?
In addition, this unit will also incorporate supplemental teaching materials from Facing History and Ourselves (FHAO). Specifically, we will read selections from "Salvaged Pages," a collection of diary entries written by young people who lived in Europe during the Holocaust. Some of the writers were refugees, others were hiding or passing as non-Jews, some were imprisoned in ghettos, and, tragically, nearly all perished before liberation.
About my class
Our year-long focus in Honors English I is the Danger of Literature. Throughout the year, we will explore how writers use stories to expose oppressive systems and challenge social realities.
Our literature unit, "Dangerous Stories, Dangerous Identities," asks students to explore how literature can pose a danger to those in power, and the inherent power of giving voice to people that have been historically marginalized and disenfranchised.
Freshmen students in Honors English I will read "Train," by Danny Cohen, relaying the lived experiences of unheard and marginalized groups during WWII and the Holocaust.
Last year, a select group of students in my classes chose to read "Train," and expressed how much they enjoyed it. We were also very fortunate to have the author, Mr. Cohen, a professor at Northwestern University in nearby Evanston, Illinois, come to our school and speak to the freshman students about his novel, and his inspiration behind writing it. We are in need of 2 class sets of this novel.
Mr. Cohen's novel, along with Chimamanda Adichie's "The Danger of a Single Story" speech, help frame the unit around the following Essential Questions:
• What is the danger of a single story?
• How can single stories influence you to accept injustice?
• To what extent are we all witnesses of difficult history and messengers to humanity?
• Who is an insider? Who is an outsider? Who decides this and why?
In addition, this unit will also incorporate supplemental teaching materials from Facing History and Ourselves (FHAO). Specifically, we will read selections from "Salvaged Pages," a collection of diary entries written by young people who lived in Europe during the Holocaust. Some of the writers were refugees, others were hiding or passing as non-Jews, some were imprisoned in ghettos, and, tragically, nearly all perished before liberation.
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