My unit will be taught in a ninth grade “Early World History” class at Wilbur Cross High School. The unit is designed to match our current class schedule. Classes run forty-five minutes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday we teach a block period of ninety minutes.
The course is designed for students who are below or on-level readers who may or may not be on their way to college. The primary focus of the class is on history and geography skills, with organizational and developmental emphasis. Historical content is used as a means to develop the necessary learning and study skills that will propel the ninth grade student through the remainder of their high school years.
The class does not rely exclusively on a textbook, but focuses more on primary and other secondary sources. This unit will utilize the arts to teach the human experience. Specifically: poetry, literature, and film. The powerful language of an author or a masterful image from a film can stick with a student for a lifetime, unlike many facts in a textbook. Multiple sources and diversification helps the teacher maintain effectiveness in a block schedule. As a school that uses block-scheduling, Cross naturally encourages its teachers to diversify their approach, as would any school that operates on such a schedule.
The nature of our “Geography Through Film and Literature” seminar fits the needs of a block-scheduled teacher. The seminar will impact my class by expanding my knowledge of the use of film as a learning tool, but more importantly it will give me the tools to help the students to analyze a film from the point of view of history and geography.
