DOCUMENT RESUME ED 427 325 CS 216 585 AUTHOR Danks, Carol, Ed.; Rabinsky, Leatrice B., Ed. TITLE Teaching for a Tolerant World, Grades 9-12. Essays and Resources. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, IL. ISBN ISBN-0-8141-4296-6 PUB DATE 1999-00-00 NOTE 409p.; A product of the NCTE Committee on Teaching about Genocide and Intolerance. AVAILABLE FROM National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096; Tel: 800-369-6283 (Toll Free); Fax: 217-328-3870; Web site: http://www.ncte.org (Stock No. 42966-0015: $19.95 members, $26.95 nonmembers). PUB TYPE Books (010) Guides - Non-Classroom (055)-- Reference Materials Bibliographies (131) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC17 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS American Indians; Annotated Bibliographies; Asian Americans; Blacks; Dialog Journals; *English Instruction; High Schools; Hispanic Americans; Homosexuality; Poetry; Resource Materials; *Social Discrimination; Teaching Methods IDENTIFIERS African Americans; Genocide; *Holocaust; Homosexual Literature; *Tolerance .ABSTRACT The essays and resources in this book are designed to help high school English teachers adapt their own classroom lessons for teaching about genocide and intolerance. Beginning with guidelines developed by the National Council of teachers of English's Committee on Teaching about Genocide and Intolerance, the 16 essays present approaches to teaching various works as literature. Essays include: (1) "Struggling with the Meaning of Tolerance" (Caroline E. Heller and Joseph A. Hawkins Jr.); (2) "After Freedom: Jim Crow in Life and Literature" (Milton Kleg and Celia Bard); (3) "Noticing 'The Color Purple': Personalizing the Invisible" (Mari M. McLean and Christine M. Gibson); (4) "The Foreigner at Home: Faces of Asian Diaspora in Tan and Nunez" (Toming Jun Liu); (5) "Teaching Chinua Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart'" (Carol Danks); (6) "The Salem Witch Trials: History Repeats Itself" (Bonnie R. Albertson); (7) "Teaching Conflict-Resolution Strategies through Multiethnic Literature" (Belinda Yun-Ying Louie and Douglas H. Louie); (8) "Young People Respond to the Elderly" (Leatrice B. Rabinsky); (9) "Peer Dialogue Journals: An Approach to Teaching Tolerance" (Kate Kessler); (10) "Defining Genocide: Words Do Matter" (Samuel Totten); (11) "Teaching the 'Holodomor' (Ukraine Famine): Issues of Language, Literary Pedagogy, and Learning" (Judith P. Robertson);(12) "Teaching about Women in Twentieth-Century Genocides" (Marjorie Bingham);(13) "Academic and Pedagogical Issues in Teaching the Holocaust" (Sandra Stotsky); (14) "Teaching the Holocaust in the English Classroom: Hearing the Voices, Touching the History" (Grace M. Caporino);(15) "Incorporating Poetry into a Study of the Holocaust" (Samuel Totten); and (16) "It's Not Just What You Teach, But Who You Teach" (Sallie M. Fine). In addition to general resources for teaching about genocide and intolerance, the book presents annotations of African American, Asian American, Chicano/Chicana, Native American, Gay and Lesbian, and Holocaust resources. (RS) To request a review copy, contact Lori Bianchini 800-369-6283, ext. 3644; [email protected] Teaching for a Tolerant World, Grades 9-12: Essays and Resources Edited by Carol Danks & Leatrice B. Rabinsky and the NCTE Committee on Teaching about Genoeide and Intolerance Teaching for a Tolerant World, Grades 9-12: Essays and Resources is the first of three resources to come from the Committee on Teaching about Genocide and Intolerance of the National Council of Teachers of English. Created in 1993, the committee was charged with developing and publishing teaching materials on the literature of genocide and intolerance; including compilations of resources and suggestions for how to teach'the subjects. In addition, they considered a variety of issues relating to intolerance and genocide, such as racism, sexism, ageism, ethnocentrism, -and homophobia. The high school volume that they produced is co-edited by Carol Danks, chair of NCTE's Committee on Teaching about GenOcide and Intolerance, and Leatrice B. Rabinsky, a retired high school teacher and board member of the Ohio Council on Holocaust Eduction. The elementary volume, Teaching for a Tolerant World, Grades K-6: Essays and Resources, is due out in time for NCTE's 1999 Annual Convention in Denver, and the middle school volume, Teaching-for a Tolerant World, Grades 6-8: Essays.and Resources, is slated to be out in early 2000. All three volumes begin with "General Guidelines for Teaching aboutintolerance and Genocide." A resorirce section specific to each book suggests videos, Web 'sites, books, Organizations, etc., to aid teachers who wish to focus on a specific group or historical event. The hiOr school volume lists materials to teach tolerance in general as well as issues of-tolerance related to African Americans, Asian Americans, Chicanos/Chicanas,Native , ,Americans, Gays and Lesbians, arid the Holocaust. The boOk's sixteen essays take up a wide variety of compelling issues. In 'Struggling with the Meaning of Tolerance," Caroline Heller and Joseph Hawkins Jr draw on theorists to make the point that many teachers choose to avoid conflict by ignoring literature that touches on issues of genocide and intolerance. But Heller and Hawkins National Council ot Teachers of English A Professional Assoeiation of Educator's in English Studies, Literacy,. and Language Arts -11 11 W. Kenj(on Road Urbana, Illinois 61801-.1096 Phone: 217-328-3870 °' Fax: 217-328-9977 www.ncte.ois' o'[email protected] Teaching for a Tolerant World - 2 maintain that discussing this literature can iMprove classroom relations: "when taught well, with ample teacher education and preparationonlY more positive human relations emerge." Milton Kleg and Celia Bard offer some specific instructional suggestions in their chapter, "After Freedom: Jim Crow in Life and Literature." These include looking for stigMas, change making, and putting .authors on trial. In another assignment, "students search for common threads among experiences of characters in different nOels. For instance, could the actions of the 'Ex-Colored Man' and Emma Lou Morgan (The Blacker the Berry) be connected by the thread of self-hate? Once these threads are identified, the stUdents link their findings to the world of Jim Crow." In "Academic and Pedagogical Issues in Teaching the Holocaust," Sandra Stotsky questions the presentation of the Hblocaust in literature clasSes, leading us to consider tough questions: "Is Anti-Semitisni sufficiently stressed as a cause of the Holocaust?" "Are, appropriate (historical, structural, and phenoinenological) distinctions made?" "Is the Holocaust trivialized by inappropriate comparisons?" "Does the study of the Holocaust lead to,a study of contemporary Anti-Semitisrn?" "Are students given the'relevant historical information they need?" and "What should students read besides accounts of the death of Jews?" 'Carol Danks teaches high school English and journalism in Kent, obio She ic a bnard member of the ()hie Council on Holocaust Education and co-edited the state's Holocaust curriculum entitled The Holocaust: Prejudice Unleashed. She created and helped iinplement a ninth-grade unit on literature of the Holocaust which is part of the high school's curriculum. Active in Holocaust education for many years, she has published articles in both English and social studies journals. She has been recognized inWho's:WhoofAmerican Women andWho's Whoin American Education and was a Mandel Fellow for 1997-98 with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Leatrice B. Rabinsky has been in the forefront of teaching, researching, and lecturing about the Holocaust for three decades. She recently retired after thirty-one years of teaching English in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights school syStem. She has organized and led seven Journeys of Conscience for students and survivors to the sites of the Holocaust in Europe and to Israel. A board member of the Ohio Council on Holocaust Education, she is also co-author of the state's Holocaust curriculum. She has co-authored Journey of Conscience: Young People ResPond to the Holocaust. She waS a Mandel Fellow for 1996-97 with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and is recognized inWho's WhoAmong American.Teachers. Teaching for a Tolerant World, Grades 9-12: Essays and Resources. Carol Danks & Leatrice B. RabinskY, editors, and the NCTE Committee on Teaching about Genocide and _Intolerance. 399 pages, soft cover. ISBN: 0-8141-4296- 6. Price: $26.95, non-NCTE members; $19.95, NCTE members. Audience: junior high and high school teachers, librarians, and teacher educators. Available from NCTE, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096, 877-369- 6283; ordersncte.org; stock no. 42966-0015. 3/99 L J 6- ATEg IT U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION GRADES 9-12 DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS CENTER (ERIC) BEEN GRANTED BY This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. and Renucto Points of view or opinions stated in this TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES document do not necessarily represent INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) official OERI position or policy. ((cl iXii bt°12 krEllT9irt and tfr52 hIcn C© Ittee %sang a o out Gamend@ meiOnci@cmg2 2 L BEST COPY AVAILABLE Teaching for a Tolerant World, Grades 9-12 3 NCTE Editorial Board: Jacqueline Bryant, Kermit