Kiera Grace

Kiera Grace English 1101 Professor Ingram November 18th, 2013

High School Genre When I was in high school, the most engaged I ever got with a project was my senior year in my Remember the Holocaust class. At this point in time, the genre that I was most interested in was wars. So this class was my favorite to go to, and the only one I cared about and tried in. That week in class we were learning about ghettos. At the start of the Holocaust, Jews were isolated from the rest of the German population, by being placed in these Ghettos. My teacher asked us to make some sort of presentation about the ghetto our specific group was learning about. Each group were to present the project at the end of the week, and everyone else in the class was to take notes on it. So, by the end of the week, everyone would have all the notes they needed about each ghetto, for the test. My group was currently learning about Warsaw, the most popular, biggest, and in some cases, the only remembered ghetto. The popular Holocaust movie, The Pianist, took place in Warsaw. I knew our project was going to be the best because there was so much to write about. And because my group had me, the only kid actually happy to be in that class, which was evident in everyone elses moans and groans coming in.

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Our group decided to make a giant triple board poster, and make it look like it was a ghost newspaper that ghettos often had to spread information around. We felt this was a creative way to present the information, by doing it in a way that was true to how information got out to the masses in that time. My group had a certain individual in mind when writing the newspaper. He was the originator of the Warsaw Ghetto Freedom Fighters, and a teenager himself. Mordechai Anielewicz. We wrote the paper from his perspective, being that he knew everything that was going on inside the ghetto. And that we could maybe put ourselves in his shoes, with the similarities in age. Our classmates were supposed to read it as if they were the rest of the ghetto, trying to find out meeting times, how to assist in the rebellion, Etc. The paper gave some explicit messages like were to meet up to receive food, and how much they would be receiving. Also information like curfew was mentioned. There were mostly implicit messages though, just incase a Nazi was to get their hands on it, they disguised everything. Meeting places for the rebellion, the underground school system for children, and Jewish leaders in the community could not be mentioned directly. So instead they gave subtle hints as to how to get the information. For those who have not lost hope, join us in the fight for survival. We have men set up on almost every corner. If you wish to be apart of the solution, try your luck at a little conversation." These papers also gave messages as to how to involve children in the rebellion. Children, in Warsaw, were the most prized possessions, being that they were the only ones small enough to fit under the walls to get outside medicine, food, and weapons. The papers would say things like, For

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those who are looking for their children to start working, never be afraid to ask around. Children are the future after all. For those who read it like the Jewish citizen, the newspaper was not only meant to inform, but also meant to spark a sense of pride, hope, and rebellion in the community. Though all of us are experiencing hardships that no human should, we must remember that when there is a will there is a way. We still have each other, and we will overcome. For the student, it was meant for them to think what it would be like to be inside the ghetto, having to hide from the eyes of the Nazis as they struggle to survive. There was so much information that was intended to inform the citizen, and educate the student. The most important part of the project was getting all the information we needed to across for the Jewish citizen without overwhelming the student. The point of the project, as instructed by the teacher, was to give the student all the important information they would need for their notes, so they would know enough about it for the test and so they wouldnt have to spend the time reading about all the ghettos themselves. It was really easy to get the information they needed down, there wasnt that much of it. The hard part was deciding what to cut out and what to include, when it came to the perspective of the citizen. There was so much interesting information, and we wanted to include it all, but we couldnt because the student would try to memorize it all, when they only needed some basic points. We decided to scrap a lot of interesting material that we originally wanted to include in

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order to make room for the more important points that would be needed to get a good grade on the test. This is a very informative genre about what it was like to rebel and create an uprising, but also everyday life in a Ghetto. It exists in many different forms of news. Getting people informed and up to date. Unfortunately, with this being a ghost newspaper, there were limitations. They could not give too much information away just incase an informant got a hold of it. If they provided too much information, everything would get found out, and all hope of an uprising would diminish. Also, for the student, if you give too little information, they would be ill prepared for the test. If you gave too much information, they would get overwhelmed by all the material, and if you didnt make it interesting they wouldnt listen. It was advantageous for the freedom fighters in the way that it was in paper form. It was transportable, and easily disposable if needed. For the students, it was given to them in a format they were familiar with. Overall, our group created the rules made for this genre. There were no examples of ghost newspapers given to us. We had to make assumptions as to what one would look like, and were only limited by our knowledge on the subject, and our imaginations. I think our poster was very successful in fulfilling the purpose of the assignment. We provided all the information needed, and added some good to know facts. We did it in a creative way that caught the audiences attention, and gave them a little bit of perspective along with it. If the actual audience was different than our intended audience I dont think it would change the success rate. I showed the

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project to multiple people, and they all said that they felt like they were in the ghetto, and that the information was really interesting and engaging. It also gave them a perspective they never experienced before, along with some knew knowledge about the subject. College Genre For my education midterm, I was asked by my teacher to create a lesson plan for the class that we visit, every Friday, at Albemarle Rd. Elementary School. I decided to create a lesson plan about my favorite subject to go over with my Kindergarteners. Math. Math is my favorite to go over with them because the kids really have to think about the question, and you can tell when the students are really trying, and they get overly excited when they know they did something right. It is fun to see their minds at work, like when you tell them that their answer was wrong, you see them rethink it in their mind and they always smile when they realize what they did wrong. I wrote this text for the purpose of not only getting a good grade on my midterm, but since I would actually be using it in my future class, the purpose of keeping myself on track of what I wanted to go over. My teacher told us to write up a lesson plan that reflected John Deweys pedagogical beliefs. John Dewey wrote the pedagogic creed explaining what he thought education was and how it was best taught, and so on. He basically believed that education should be taught in a meaningful way, be easily understood, and be equal for everyone. All the while, letting the childs individuality shine through. I decided that for the math lesson, the

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kids would be looking at a number and draw whatever object they wanted to, however many times they thought they needed to, to equal the number they were given. So if they picked the number five for example, they would draw five flowers. Or, my favorite kid, Zackary, would probably draw five snakes. The lesson plan was broken up in a box format. I was to write the Activity on the left Focus and Review, the description of the activity in the middle Describe to the kids what they would be doing that day and review the activity from the previous day, and the time allotted in the right box 5 minutes. The intended audience is myself for later reading, and my Education teacher to see if I had all the necessary information for the midterm. The explicit messages in this lesson plan are to teach counting to my Kindergarten class through a series of class exercises. The plan also shows specific accommodations I might need to make for specific kids, and it lists the materials needed. The implicit, and important messages are that the kids will have a full understanding about counting, and that I am to be trying to keep exercise to a set time limit. Also, for myself, learning how to better organize, and for my teacher, seeing what Ive experienced, and learned from the school. This genre is a Lesson Plan, more specifically, a Kindergarten Lesson Plan. It exists in all schools, or at least should in my opinion. There are limitations in this genre. You cant have the lesson go over a set time, and you cant have it just open and not set times at all. And most importantly, you cant plan certain things that all kids are not able to participate in. The advantages of this genre are that it is very

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organized, and easily edited. The teacher, however limited they may be, sets the rules of this genre. Since the Lesson Plan is mainly for their own use, they can format it and do what they want, essentially. I think my example text is successful in fulfilling the purpose. It is organized, and easy to understand. It would be hard to stray from the lesson plan, and it fulfills all the requirements set by my teacher for a good midterm grade. If my audience was different than my intended audience, it would probably change the success rate, because anyone but myself and my teacher reading it, would probably just look over it and it not mean anything to them. Anyone but a teacher probably wouldnt care about it. Conclusion Though each of my texts is vastly different, they each have a major thing in common. Me. They both require an extreme amount of interest from myself. I had to care about the information and how it was being presented in both cases otherwise they would not have come out so clearly and creatively. The differences being that my Holocaust Project were to be presented for a class, and to give them information. My Lesson plan was for myself, to guide me through my class. Both are for my teachers to evaluate what my grade should be. When doing either types of these projects you should put yourself into the genre and really consider how it relates to you. You need to form an opinion and go into depth in each little thing. Take the time to get a full understanding of what you are writing about. And let your opinions and beliefs go on paper. I believe that there

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is no wrong answer as long as you have evidence backing it up and if you express it in an easily understood way. In each genre, I decide the rules, because I picked pretty open genres that require my own input and ideas on each. I was given no example text. There were however unspoken rules that I had to follow, as I mentioned in the College Genre Analysis, You cant have the lesson go over a set time, and you cant have it just open and not set times at all. And most importantly, you cant plan certain things that all kids are not able to participate in. College has a much more open feel. Though I was given a sort of rubric explaining the basic outline of what I was doing, I was on my own. No instructions were given clear enough and nothing from my book was going to help assist me. It was to be formed from the experience and knowledge I had from the class. So if I wasnt paying attention, then too bad. I was given less, and more was expected of me. For my Lesson plan, I could have picked anything from gym to English, so long as I had something. For my Holocaust project I had a set genre, and certain things I had to address. If you take the time to find something actually pertinent, interesting, or meaningful to you it isnt that hard to go into depth about it. So I learned that if I have to, Ill spend a lot of time trying to interest myself and put myself into the genre, then I will. Or Ill do the Ingram method and fake it till I make it.