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Historical Fiction

Bibliography 

Sepetys, R. (2017). Salt to the sea. Philomel Books. ISBN 978-0142423622 

Plot Summary 

In the winter of 1945 four refugees come together in an unexpected way and each has a story to tell. Each of the four narrators of the story is from a different homeland with a haunting story to tell. They flee toward the coast with thousands of others to avoid the Soviets in hopes of gaining passage on the Wilhelm Gustloff. Passage on the ship promises freedom. Passage on the ship promises safety. Not all promises can be kept.  

Critical Analysis 

I listened to Salt to the Sea as an audiobook and I am glad that I did.  

Salt to the Sea is about four quite different people; three of whom are trying to save themselves from the Soviet army. Joana is a Lithuanian nurse who has been thrust from her country, Emilia is an orphaned Polish girl who has been rescued by Florian, a wounded Prussian artist. These three all meet and end up traveling together to the coast where they end up on the Wilhelm Gustloff. Alfred, a German soldier and the fourth character that we hear from, is preparing the ship for departure. I can imagine Alfred as one of Hitler’s youth being trained at a young age to believe in all of Hitler’s propaganda.  

The story takes place in a very few days, but Sepetys gives us deep insight into each of the characters. Hearing their stories via audiobook brought them to life. Sepetys does not drag the story by retelling parts from each character’s point of view but builds on each of their stories so that it moves along quickly.  

The four all board the ship, Wilhelm Gustloff, and think that they are headed to safety. A Russian torpedo strikes the ship, and many are killed or die in the freezing water. So as not to spoil the ending for you-yes, some of our characters die and some survive. You will want to read Sepetys’ book to know what happens.  

Sepetys has taken parts of history and given us a riveting story about the hardships of war and how traumatic this can be for everyone.  

Sepetys includes many themes in Salt to the Sea including race and ethnicity, family, secrecy, and trauma.   

Review Excerpts 

“The inevitability of the ending (including the loss of several characters) doesn’t change its poignancy, and the short chapters and slowly revealed back stories for each character guarantee the pages keep turning. Heartbreaking, historical, and a little bit hopeful.” —Kirkus Reviews 
 

“This book includes all the reasons why teens read: for knowledge, for romance, for amazing and irritating characters.  This novel will break readers’ hearts and then put them back together a little more whole.” —VOYA 
 
“Sepetys’s…scene-setting is impeccable; the penetrating cold of the journey is palpable, and she excels at conveying the scope of the losses while giving them a human face….[T]his elegiac tale succeeds with impressive research, affecting characters, and keen, often unsettling insights into humans’ counterposed tendencies toward evil and nobility. Readers will be left to discuss which impulse triumphs here.” —The Horn Book 

* “This haunting gem of a novel begs to be remembered, and in turn, it tries to remember the thousands of real people its fictional characters represent. What it asks of us is that their memories, and their stories, not be abandoned to the sea.” Booklist, starred review 

Connections 

Watch an amazing video of Ruta Sepetys talking about her book.  

Many more books by Ruta Sepetys at her website

YouTube channel with lots of Ruta Sepetys videos.  

Salt to the Sea is written in 1st person point of view from 4 different characters.  How would it sound if it were written by only one of the characters in the story?  

Bibliography 

Zusak, M. (2007). The book thief. Knopf Books for Young Readers. ISBN 978-0375842207 

Plot Summary 

Death tells us about his part in World War II in a small part of Germany. He is busier than he ever thought he might be in 1939.  

Liesl Meminger is the other narrator of the story. She is very young when she goes to live with Hans and Rosa, who become her foster parents. Liesl loves books and ends up stealing them when she can which is not often in Nazi Germany. Hans teaches her how to read. Liesl also shares her stories with Max, a Jew who comes to live/hide in their basement for a while. She also becomes friends with a young German boy, Rudy, and much of the story is about their friendship.  

Devastation comes to Liesl when bombs are dropped on Molching and many die.  

Critical Analysis 

Zusak creates a beautiful story of what it must have been like for ordinary people during the height of the war. Liesl must go live with a foster family for protection. She is haunted by witnessing the death of her younger brother on the way to her new home. She is taken in by a truly kind and gentle man named Hans and his foul-mouthed wife, Rosa. Rosa puts on a brave front, but deep down she is scared, possibly more scared than those around her. Liesl narrates the story of her life in her new home and through her eyes we meet Rudy. Rudy becomes her best friend and confidante.  

Occasionally, we hear from Death and get a glimpse into his perceptions of war and his work. He reveals to us that he is “haunted by humans” and that he, too “has a heart.” Death is personified with human feelings which is something that few of us believe to be true of death.  

Liesl’s love of books and words is so strong that she is willing to risk her life to steal them.  

Review Excerpts 

“Elegant, philosophical and moving…Beautiful and important.” 
– Kirkus Reviews, Starred 

 
“This hefty volume is an achievement…a challenging book in both length 
and subject…” 
– Publisher’s Weekly, Starred 
 
“One of the most highly anticipated young-adult books in years.” 
– The Wall Street Journal 
 
“Exquisitely written and memorably populated, Zusak’s poignant tribute to words, survival, and their curiously inevitable entwinement is a tour de force to be not just read but inhabited.” 
– The Horn Book Magazine, Starred 
 
“An extraordinary narrative.” 
– School Library Journal, Starred 

Connections 

List of books by Markus Zusak can be found here.  

The Book Thief is filled with figurative language. Students could keep a journal of these as they read.  

Discuss point of view and personification.  

Read about the different levels of loyalty or lack thereof to Hitler. Students may want to look at Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow. ISBN 978-1338309843 

Bibliography 

Hesse, M. (2018). The war outside. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0316316712 

Plot Summary 

In 1944 Europe and the Pacific are engulfed in war. The effects of the war come much closer when Margot and Haruko are taken from their homes in Iowa and Colorado to live in an internment camp in Texas. Margot’s parents are German and Haruko’s parents are Japanese.  

Haruko and Margot meet at the high school that is contained in the “family internment camp” in Crystal City. The girls do not have anything in common-or so they think. They realize that they need each other’s friendship to survive day to day life in the camp.  

 
Critical Analysis 

In The War Outside we learn about the friendship of two teenage girls who were taken from their homes in America during World War II because of their ethnicity. Margot is from a German family and Haruko is of Japanese descent; however, they are both American. Even though the girls are from different backgrounds they are experiencing some of the same things. Margot is concerned when her father is slowly pledging his allegiance to the Nazi party while Haruko is confused about what her father did that forced her family to end up in such a place. The girls learn to share secrets with each other that could put them into jeopardy. This is a story of perseverance, friendship, and betrayal.  

Review Excerpts 

“Monica Hesse takes a setting we think we understand and shifts it in an important way…a tightly plotted exploration of the consequences of fear.”―The New York Times Book Review 
 
* “Superb… A satisfying and bittersweet novel, perfect for those who enjoyed Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief.”―SLJ, starred review 
 
* “An extraordinary novel of injustice and xenophobia based on real history.”―Booklist, starred review 
 
* “A moving book that successfully describes an unjust aspect of U.S. History”―Publishers Weekly, starred review 

Connections 

Learn more about Monica Hesse.  

Books that address Japanese internment in America during WWII.  

Create a map of Japanese/German internment camps during WWII.  

Find out more about these internment camps at the History Channel.  

Presentation by Dr. Lila Rakoczy on Preserving WWII Internment History in Texas. 

Cartoons and Comics

What’s this all about?

I have to admit that when I saw this assignment was about cartoons and comics I was not overly excited. I don’t necessarily read them often, never have. Why are we having a complete assignment about this? Then I looked into the three sites given to us and I was hooked after visiting the first one! Cartoons and comics can be used in so many classrooms, with students in many grade levels, and in multiple content areas. Just today at lunch I mentioned what I was working on and three teachers wanted to know more and asked for links. These teachers are from different content areas as well: art, religion, and science. They all plan to use them for instruction and I’ll be here for support.

The three sites that I visited are:

FotojetPixtonMakeBeliefsComix

Make Beliefs Comix

Pumpkin Potion

This site is amazing! I have never been one to read comics, but many other family members at my house have such fun with them. I think I’m turning to the dark side after visiting Make Beliefs Comix. This site makes making comics so extremely easy and it has so much to offer. One of the first things that you see when you enter their site is a tutorial video and it is interspersed throughout the website so you are always reminded that if you need help, it is available. Don’t know where to start? Make Beliefs Comix can help. They offer starters, story ideas, helpful hints when you don’t know what to say, comic strips already illustrated and you write the story, and so much more. Every teacher will want to visit Make Beliefs Comix and I can’t wait to use this with my junior high boys and girls. Because this site does have SO much to offer it is my opinion that it would be overwhelming to younger students and I would probably use it with junior high and high school. The owner of this site allows students and educators to use everything on his site for free as long as they are not sold for profit. Teachers may use all of the tools for free and even print for distribution to students but may not sell them.

Fotojet

Showtime!

Fotojet is fun and more appropriate for 4th/5th. With Fotojet there are 10 free templates. You can upload a photo from your files, add lots of really cute clipart, and change the background. These are all easily accessible on the side of the screen and the art or pictures are automatically added when the use clicks on them. They can be scaled to different sizes and moved around the frame. With Fotojet you can try it out for a 7 day free trial, billed monthly, or billed annually for $40.

Pixton

My favorite thing about Pixton is the super clean and non cluttered look it has when you first log in. You are given a panel to work on and can add more as you go along. The main tabs at the top are background, characters, focus, and words. Once these are chosen you then have options to change the characters face and “actions” which changes their body posture. The amount of clothing, emotions, and actions that your character can be in is overwhelming, but very simple to change. It is super simple to add speech bubbles. Simply click on “words” and you get a text box to type in what you want your character to say. The bubble is automatically added to your panel and you have capabilities of moving it around a bit. The characters can also be moved on the panel as well as resized.

One nice thing about Pixton is that you can rate your comic. You rate yourself on background/focus, characters/expression, captions/dialogue, spelling/grammar, theme, and sharing. Once you have rated each of these categories the rubric tells you how your comic is rated and gives you capability to print the rubric.

As I was working on my comic, my 13 year old asked me about what I was doing. After I explained a few steps she said she wanted to create one. She had it figured out in a matter of minutes. I will be using this with the junior high boys on Friday morning. Last Friday was “Device Free Friday,” but this Friday I will ask everyone to take out their Chrome books for some creative fun.

YouTube, Animoto, and QR Codes

YouTube 

YouTube has opened a whole new world for me. I have heard some of the junior high boys talking about their YouTube channel and in the back of my mind I’m thinking, “Why are they wasting their time?” How wrong I am about this! They are creating things using so many aspects of technology and then sharing them with others. I asked two of my junior high boys to do a short presentation of their stop motion animation videos that they create and then upload to YouTube. They were astonished that a grownup would be impressed with what they had done.  

I am going to take advantage of what YouTube has to offer and I will start by looking at 3 different schools who have been using YouTube for a while.  

The Unquiet Library has a video showing the librarian taking a book cart loaded with a few books to the lunchroom! How awesome is that? If kids are not coming to the library, take the library to them. I will be trying this out next week. The Unquiet Library YouTube channel also offers so many “how to” videos. How to:  

  • Export bibliographic data 
  • Work with powerpoint 
  • Embed a voice video 
  • Join a wiki project and create a page 
  • And so much more. 

These “how to” videos are helpful to students. However, I am curious to know how the students find out about the videos. 

Pikesville High School Library also has many videos for students who need information. One of the ones that I really think is helpful to students is the teachers talking about their classes. I watched the AP World History class teacher discuss the expectations of his class and what they would be learning.  

This high school has many student produced videos of presentations.  

BBMSMEDIA-I assume this is a middle school although I could never find anywhere what BBMS stands for. This YouTube channel features lots of videos teaching students how to use NoodleTools. These are helpful for students doing research. One video I enjoyed the most was a student produced video for other students called Picture Puzzler. The student took close ups of common things around the school and students could take a guess at what the object was. Easy and fun to do.  

I also wonder why they have so many videos about overdue books! The cutest one was “Luke Skywalker has overdue books.”  

Animoto 

I procrastinated this part of the assignment and avoided it like it was the plague! I am not sure why I was so apprehensive about it because once I got started, I enjoyed it. Animoto makes it so easy to use their app. I chose my book, wrote down what I wanted to say (in a few words-not easy), and then chose images to go with my summary.  

I was not sure how the application worked, but so many of them these days are geared for the user who has limited knowledge of applications. After my photos were dumped in, I chose music. I did use the free version of Animoto and had I opted to pay for a subscription there was a song that I would have preferred, but the one I chose worked well in the end. The photos and text were added, music laid over, and it was done. I know that I would like to learn more about changing backgrounds and how to fade images in and out. That will take some time and I could probably ask my high school students about it. 

Between Shades of Gray is an amazing story by an even more amazing author. Please check out my first ever Animoto book trailer and then sit down for an emotional afternoon of reading.  

QR Codes 

QR codes are assuredly going to find themselves in use in the St. Joseph library. We already have a QR code for basic information about the library on our announcements slides that are shown to junior and senior high school students every day. Here is what the library slide looks like.  

The junior high boys of our school meet in the library each morning before school starts to hang out until the bell rings. They immediately take out phones or Chromebooks and play racing games. I am only at the secondary library on Thursday and Friday mornings, but to see them playing games incessantly each morning is frustrating to me. This past Friday we had a “device free Friday” and played card games, visited, did logic puzzles, and lots of other “device free” things. They were not too happy with me. I am thinking that if I use the advice and idea from the blog Learning in Hand I could create some QR Cubes with fun activities for the boys to do. That way they use their technology for something good rather than constant video games.  

I plan for many of our students to video record presentations given throughout the year and then create a QR code of the presentation to have available so that parents can see the presentation if they were not able to be there in person. You can see many creative ways Julie at The Techie Teacher uses QR codes with her class. 

After creating my book trailer with Animoto I created a QR code at QR Code Generator. So easy and so much fun. This site will be revisited many times.  

Infographics

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” F.R. Barnard 

Infographics fulfill our need to get information into our brains quickly. They can give us qualitative as well as quantitative information and they have somewhat of a storytelling vibe to them.  

One of the first known pieces of information given to us in what we now call infographics came in the form of a statistical illustration called a coxcomb chart. This chart was created by none other than Florence Nightingale to show the number of unnecessary deaths during the Crimean War. An illustration is below. It is called a coxcomb because its jagged edges seem to appear like a cock’s comb.  

As we move quickly to the 20th century Peter Sullivan started providing infographics to the Sunday Times so that he could “explain major events in news stories and provide more clarity for the readers” (2018). After the launch of the Internet in 1991 the floodgates were opened and what Nightingale and Sullivan did was an inspiration to others to create ways of putting forth information that readers could take in quickly and easily.  

Here is an infographic that explains the history of infographics.  

Now we are really going to skip forward to today when we have so many applications that are available to any user for free. We see infographics every single day and just do not realize it. Make a conscious effort to notice the infographics next time you are out for a few hours.  

I looked at three applications that anyone with a computer and decent Internet access can use.  

  • Infogram.com 
  • Piktochart.com 
  • Easel.ly 

These applications have so many similarities that it is easiest to put them all together here:  

  • Templates from which to choose 
  • You can create new infographics if you choose 
  • Lots of charts, maps, graphics 
  • Lots of themed charts-no holiday themes on Easel.ly that I could see. Infogram.com has more than others.  
  • Can add video clips to infographic.  
  • Shareable to multiple platforms 

The cost of the applications varies. Infogram was the most expensive at $20/month. The other two were very comparable in price at $36 to $40/year.  

After I had researched and learned about applications to help you make infographics it was time for me to create one. I must admit it was daunting and I procrastinated as much as I could. I found that gathering the information was the hardest for me. I think that collecting data for the purposes of my own library might be a better motivator for me. This is my first attempt at an infogram and I look forward to experimenting a little more with the many features that infogram has to offer.  

In researching infographics I found this article that details how to teach students to create infographics. Diana Laufenberg taught an environmental history unit that incorporated collaboration, research and investigation, as well as learning about and creating infographics to inform others about their research.  

(2018, May 21). The history of infographics [Infographics]. Copypress. https://www.copypress.com/kb/infographics/the-history-of-infographics-infographic/#:~:text=British%20graphic%20designer%20Peter%20Sullivan,in%20infographics%20for%20their%20audiences

Eastaway, R. (2020,May 18). The hidden maths of the coxcomb chart. Rob Eastaway. https://robeastaway.com/blog/florence-nightingale#:~:text=The%20diagram%20that%20she%27s%20most,April%201854%20to%20March%201855

Nightingale, F. (c. 1858). ‘Coxcomb’ Diagram [Display No. 55]. Florence Nightingale Museum, London, England.  

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