At this time of year we more or less know what groups we’ll teach next year. I’ll still teach my two business classes as well as a group of 10th graders (the first year of high school in France) and one group of 12th graders.
While I am supervising exams I am also trying to plan a few units for that group. Their textbook is a bit old-fashioned so I need to read other books, visit websites and collect ideas for next year.
Here is what I have come up with so far:
– One unit on recent black history through articles, memoirs and an NPR recording. I have chosen to focus on the following issues. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, The Little Rock Nine, the painting The problem we all live with by Norman Rockwell and Rosa Parks. Maybe we’ll read an extract fom The Help.
– A few stories taken from True Tales of American Life. The selection is divided into various sections – animals, objects, families, slapstick, strangers, war, love, death, dreams and meditation. The idea is to get the student to read a couple of stories from the object section and then to get them to write their own about an object that is dear to them.
– An episode from The Wire, season four, an article about the series and one blog post by Rabbi Fink
I’d also like to work on the Jews who emigrated to the USA after WW2 through personal stories and/or fiction. Can anyone recommend books I could read and where I could find excerpts to share with my students?
Hannah's Nook 
The Pages In Between: A Holocaust Legacy of Two Families, One Home by Erin Einhorn had sections about moving to the U.S./growing up in the U.S. after the Holocaust.
You (and possibly your students) will know more American history than many Americans.
I have just ordered the book you mentioned via betterworldbooks. Thank you for the recommendation.
I can’t say it was my favorite book, but you might like it. It certainly is an interested story, but not as well told as Gertrude’s Oath, for example. I think the main character in that story ends up in the U.S., but that isn’t the focus.
Are you purposely only focusing in the US an not other English speaking countries?
Not particularly even if in the past the focus was on the US.
Envoyé de mon iPhone
People don’t realize how much time a good teacher invests in planning. There’s no real vacation.
I couldn’t agree more!
I’d love to take this class!
You are more than welcome!
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I like your Black History choices. I would also recommend The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, not for political purposes, but because it is a timely memoir, and one that deals with Black struggles.
My recommendations for Jewish American Emigration and Jewish immigrant history are:
Non-Fiction and/or Memoirs
The Downtown Jews: Portraits of an Immigrant Generation, by Ronald Sanders I can’t say enough about this book
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-downtown-jews-ronald-sanders/1017163734
Enemies of the People: My Family’s Journey to America, by Kati Marton (she also wrote The Great Escape). Enemies of the People is extremely inspiring and will stay with the reader, long after they have finished the memoir.
http://www.amazon.com/Enemies-People-Familys-Journey-America/dp/141658613X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1309729333&sr=1-1
I highly recommend The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World, by Kati Marton, also. Quite the compelling and intriguing historical and true story.
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Escape-Hitler-Changed-World/dp/074326116X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b
I also recommend We Were Europeans, by Werner Loval. The family history takes the family through Europe, and emigration to America, and then Werner Loval’s emigration to Israel.
http://www.amazon.com/Europeans-Personal-History-Turbulent-Century/dp/9652295221/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1309729878&sr=1-1
As an additional reference, I highly recommend We Remember With Reverence and Love: American Jews and the myth of Silence after the Holocaust 1945-1962, by Hasia R. Diner. The historical reference of immigrants and successive generations, and the misinterpretations of the Jewish community as a whole, is explored in depth.
http://www.amazon.com/Remember-Reverence-Love-Holocaust-Goldsteingoren/dp/0814721222/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1309729616&sr=1-1
Ficton
I highly recommend Displaced Persons by Ghita Schwarz. This deals primarily with those who emigrated to Israel, and not America.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=displaced+persons&x=0&y=0
The Downtown Jews: Portraits of an Immigrant Generation, by Ronald Sanders I can’t say enough about this book
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-downtown-jews-ronald-sanders/1017163734
Enemies of the People: My Family’s Journey to America, by Kati Marton (she also wrote The Great Escape). Enemies of the People is extremely inspiring and will stay with the reader, long after they have finished the memoir.
http://www.amazon.com/Enemies-People-Familys-Journey-America/dp/141658613X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1309729333&sr=1-1
I highly recommend The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World, by Kati Marton, also. Quite the compelling and intriguing historical and true story.
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Escape-Hitler-Changed-World/dp/074326116X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b
As an additional reference, I highly recommend We Remember With Reverence and Love: American Jews and the myth of Silence after the Holocaust 1945-1962, by Hasia R. Diner. The historical reference of immigrants and successive generations, and the misinterpretations of the Jewish community as a whole, is explored in depth.
http://www.amazon.com/Remember-Reverence-Love-Holocaust-Goldsteingoren/dp/0814721222/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1309729616&sr=1-1
Ficton
I highly recommend Displaced Persons by Ghita Schwarz. This deals primarily with those who emigrated to Israel, and not America.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=displaced+persons&x=0&y=0