Confronting the Dark Side of Humanity with Young Adult Fiction

Confronting the Dark Side of Humanity with Young Adult Fiction:

Rhetorical Reading Session Plan:

Sarah J. Donovan, PhD  Genocide education story Winston Campus Junior High, Palatine, IL  Responsible reading of genocide literature with teens: rhetoric DePaul University, Chicago, IL  Visual Thinking Strategy: Close reading and writing experience [email protected]  Examples: read aloud www.ethicalela.com  Practice: small groups (options individual, book group)  Discussion: book suggestions, experiences reading genocide Writing Experience: literature, ways of supporting teen readers, ethical considerations

Practice Rhetorical Reading: Questions to Promote Responsible and Critical Reading

Process  Preparing to read: do a “close” reading of the book’s frame; note the cover, summary, chapters, maps, images, author’s note; attend to ethos, pathos, logos  Read about the author: book jacket and/or Goodreads or Google search; attend to ethos  Read. Notice what you notice. Mark with sticky notes for discussion and/or teacher conference.  Attend to the book’s ethical (ethos), emotional (pathos), and rational (logos) appeals as you read. What do you notice? What makes you say so?

Attending questions for self, small group, and whole class discussions:  Attend to the ethos of the text: Who is the author and how did he/she prepare for this story? Who did he/she choose as the narrator why? Is the narrator reliable? Whose experiences are privileged and hidden? What do you notice about the author’s craft – prose/verse, shifts in points of view, sequence of events, character interaction, shifts in setting, sensory language, symbols, language? Are the graphic details necessary and ethical for a teen audience – are children or victims overly exploited, is their suffering treated with dignity? Is it a child or teen narrator, and if so, is she/he treated as clever, brave, naïve, helpless? How does the author use supporting characters –for guidance, to teach, for support, to show conflict? What seems cliché or stereotypical? Is there something unexpected or fresh here?  Attend to the pathos of the text: What feelings are you experiencing? How is the author moving you to feel anger, pity, joy – narrator’s voice, dialogue, imagery, sensory language, mood? How is the author trying to satisfy you as a reader – action, images, description, violence, cliffhangers, suspense, secrets? What feels familiar and unfamiliar, comfortable and uncomfortable? How will you process the pain, anger, or confusion you experience- journal, discussion, questioning, conferring?  Attend to the logos of the text: How is the author blending fact and fiction (rational appeal)? What are you learning about the subject? What issues or groups of people are intersecting—how did they come into contact? Why? What words or language does the author use that seem especially important to what is going on in the story? Does a character or event feel like a teaching device? Is the book overly didactic- preachy? What further inquiry will you do (research, books from other perspectives, other beginnings and endings) to fill in the gaps?

Some Examples: Ethos: The author is Native and infuses his experience with discrimination and the need to hiding native roots; narrator is 11 and is observant, questioning, naive Pathos: I am moved by the first person, 11 year old Sonny as he tells the story of a year when he discovered a family secret, which made me do additional research. Logos: The story is in the 1950s after the 1931 Vermont law to sterilize Native peoples by tricking them; research: international push for eugenics (Sweden, Canada, later Nazi Germany) -- the idea that traits such as poor health and bad character could be bred out of the race preventing inferior genetic material from being passed on. Ethos: Multiple narrators of family members and an eagle, which serves as a protector of children; the author’s grandparents were survivors of the Armenian genocide Pathos: confused, a little detached because of the verse style; torn, pulled by the different experiences and emotions of parents, children, eagle Logos: Many ethnic groups living together yet only some are targeted; long journey to safety shown in maps; research: during and after WWI (1915), Indigenous and Christian ethnic groups including Assyrians, Ottomon Greeks, Turks (Muslim), Arab; now Armenian diasporas world wide; ongoing denial, Pope visiting, Kardashians are Armenian; Obama refusing to use the word “genocide” because Turkey is a key partner against ISIS, realities of diplomacy

Ethos: Writer interviewed Arn-Chorn Pond, a child soldier; child narrator with dialect, observational tone Pathos: I am truggling to follow the dialect, connecting with the childhood stories of play in the beginning; later, disgusted by the graphic details. Are they necessary for teen readers? Logos: Learning about child soldiers; music saved the narrator; research -- 1975-79, during Vietnam War, U.S. against Vietnam, so was Cambodia; Stalinism, agrarian economy as revenue for Cambodia; US aware of genocide, but President Ford, reluctant to get involved in Southeast Asia; 1978, Carter declared human rights violations but interventions; humanitarian efforts in Thai refugee camps, adoption of refugee children Suggested Books

Genocide Literature in Middle and Secondary Classrooms: Rhetoric, Witnessing, and Social Action in a Time of Standards and Accountability

Coming September 2016

Middle Passage Native Peoples of North America Armenians

Ukraine Cambodia Guatemala

Former Yugoslavia Iraq Rwanda Sudan

Additional Genocide Titles for Your Classroom Library Bosnia Herzegovina Cambodia  Filipović, Zlata. Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo .  Ho, Minfong. The Clay Marble . New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York: Viking, 1994. 1991.  Novic , Sara. Girl at War: A Novel.. Random House 2015.  Ho, Minfong. The Stone Goddess . New York: Orchard Books,  Galloway, Steven. The Cellist of Sarajevo . New York: 2003. Riverhead Books, 2008.  McCormick, Patricia. Never Fall Down. New York: Balzer and  Mead, Alice. Girl of Kosovo . New York: Farrar Straus Brey, 2012. Giroux, 2001.  Ratner, Vaddey. In the Shadow of the Banyan . New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012.  Smith, Icy, and Sopaul Nhem. Half Spoon of Rice: A Survival Story of the Cambodian Genocide Manhattan Beach, CA: East West Discovery Press, 2010. Armenian Genocide Iraqi Kurds  Bagdasarian, Adam. Forgotten Fire . New York: Laurel-  Ellis, Deborah. Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees. Leaf, 2002. Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2008.  Bohjalian, Chris. The Sandcastle Girls: A Novel , 2012.  Laird, Elizabeth. Kiss the Dust. New York: Dutton Children’s  Skrypuch, Marsha F. Nobody’s Child . Toronto: Boardwalk Books, 1992. Books, 2003.  Walrath, Dana. Like Water on Stone . New York: Delacorte Press, 2014. Guatemala Middle Passage  Brown, Skila. Caminar . Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press,  Draper, Sharon M. Copper Sun. New York: Athenaeum Books for 2014. Young Readers, 2006.  Cameron, Ann. Colibri . New York: Farrar, Straus and  Fox, Paula, and Eros Keith. The Slave Dancer: A Novel . Giroux, 2003. Scarsdale, NY: Bradbury Press,1973.  Mikaelsen, Ben. Red Midnight . New York: HarperCollins  Hendry, Frances M. Chains. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Publishers, 2002. 2004.  Mikaelsen, Ben. Tree Girl . New York: HarperTempest, 2004.  Pellegrino, Marjorie W. Journey of Dreams. London: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 2009.

Rwanda and Burundi Native Peoples of North American  Combres, E lisabeth, Shelley Tanaka, and Michael  Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown,and Co., 2007. Solomon. Broken Memory: A Novel of Rwanda. Toronto: Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, 2009.  Bruchac, Joseph. Hidden Roots . New York: Scholastic, 2004.  Cornwell, Nicki, and Karin Littlewood. Christophe’s Story.  Edwardson, Debby D., Alex Ferrari, and Melanie Kroupa. My London: Frances Lincoln Children’s, 2011. Name Is Not Easy . New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2011.  Jansen, Hanna. Over a Thousand Hills I Walk with You.  Gansworth, Eric L. If I Ever Get Out of Here: A Novel with Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda Books, 2006. Paintings . New York: Arthur A.Levine Books, 2013.  Stassen, Jean-Philippe. Deogratias, a Tale of Rwanda.  Tingle, Tim. How I Became a Ghost: A Choctaw Trail of Tears New York: First Second, 2006. Story. Oklahoma City, OK: The RoadRunner Press, 2013. Ukraine Sudan  Mak, Ol’ha. Stones Under the Scythe . Bloomington, IN:  Bassoff, Leah, and Laura DeLuca . Lost Girl Found. Toronto: iUniverse Inc., 2011. Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, 2014.  Skrypuch, Marsha F., and Michael Martchenko. Enough.  Farish, Terry. The Good Braider: A Novel . Las Vegas, NV: Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2000. Amazon Children’s Pub, 2012.  Watts, Irene N. Touched by Fire . Toronto: Tundra Books,  Mead, Alice. Year of No Rain. New York: Farrar, Straus and 2013. . Giroux, 2003.  Park, Linda S. A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story . Boston: Clarion Books, 2010.  Pinkney, Andrea D., and Shane Evans. The Red Pencil . New York: Little, Brown and Company,2014.