Hello Parents!
We are heading into a new unit and will begin to read the novel Night by Elie Wiesel. What is wonderful about this book is it was written by a concentration camp survivor and is his personal story. I have found that students really enjoy reading this book. It allows students to understand the history of the Holocaust with incredible and engaging writing from Wiesel. Wiesel has an amazing talent for vivid descriptions that are captivating and through this, students will learn about many different literary devices such as personification, metaphors, similes, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, and more.
Rather than jumping right into the book, we will begin this unit learning more about the Holocaust, so the students will understand some of the people, places, and events that Wiesel discusses while they are reading his memoir. This will begin with small group projects where the students will teach the rest of the class some important Holocaust history. Each group will choose a topic, research the topic on our school library databases, create multimedia presentations, present this information to the class live and create a written version of their information that will summarize the information they shared in the presentations. The written version will include a Works Cited page as well as three potential quiz questions and answers that could be answered by the information from the presentations.
This year, I have decided to make some changes to the learning activity by adding a new technology application to the project. Rather than the students simply typing up the written version requirements on word processing software, we will use an application called LiveBinders.
With LiveBinders the students can create digital, online binders. All the students in the class will have access to the information the students will present to the class and be able to use that information to review and remember key information during our reading of Wiesel’s novel. Students will learn how to use this technology application which will teach them organization skills. This application allows students to make changes in real time, collaborate with group members, share their work, and it is stored online, so they will learn more about cloud computing. LiveBinders allows for students to add documents, images, videos, PDF’s, links, websites within tabs and sub-tabs. Students can be much more creative with LiveBinders versus a word processed document. They can work on them at school or at home and the application is available for other devices as well. I hope the new use of LiveBinders will inspire them to make some amazing binders!
As always, I will provide the students with all of the necessary materials when we introduce the new learning unit. This will include a detailed rubric, so you and the students know exactly what steps need to completed and achieved in order for the students to successfully achieve the goals of the activity.
At the start of the learning unit, as I am going over the assignment, we will discuss the use of LiveBinders. The students will be introduced to LiveBinders on our first visit to the library to begin our research. They will have an opportunity to “play” with the application after learning how it works through a simple web activity I created. They will create an example binder to reference as they create their Holocaust binders.
I urge you to visit the LiveBinders website to learn more about the application: LiveBinders . The binders can be private, shared with a link, and not made public unless you choose. Since the students are over the age of 13, they can create an account without parental permission. However, I would like to get all of your permission before we use the application. I will be sending out an e-permission slip in the next day or so, that I hope you will read and send back to me after looking more at their website.
The service is free to use and you may find some uses for yourself, at home or at work. Your children can use it at home to organize so many things. They can organize for classes, use it for research projects, a portfolio of their work, and even, I know a little early for ninth graders, use it for preparing for college research and applications.
Take a look around their website, and if you have any further questions about the application or the project, do not hesitate to contact me!
Looking forward to getting into Night by Elie Wiesel with your kids!
Thanks,
Taryn Reagan
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