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Greg Birner
 &
Laura Wilson
Turn of the Century
Literature--1930s American
Westfield Academy and Central School
Historical topics with greatest depth of expertise: Turn of
Century Literature – 1930’s (American).
1. General Overview of the Proposed Project:
Students will be engaged in a co-curricular project. The English
Department will take care of the traditional reading comprehension,
vocabulary, study of literary elements, and other English
curriculum oriented work using the short story, “Maggie, Girl of the
Streets” by Stephen Crane. The Social Studies Department will
create projects for the English class that will enhance the
students’ knowledge in the gilded age time period of American
History. These projects will be completed and presented in the
English Classroom.
2. Clear Purpose and Objective:
Enhance student’s knowledge of the gilded age in American History
through the use of a short story read in English class. This should
help to improve scores on both the U.S. History and English 11
Regents Exams.
3. Stakeholders: grade level, who will benefit, who will
participate in this project.
For the most part, students in the 11th grade will be
given the opportunity to expand their ability to analyze,
comprehend, evaluate, and apply knowledge of the gilded age as they
work on a short story in English Class. Both the English and Social
studies departments will gain increased student performance on
standardized tests administered in New York State.
4. U.S. History Content Area
The Gilded Age of American History
5 Outline content
Students will be focused on the causes of rapid
industrialization
a.
Mass immigration – Ghettos
and Gangs in NYC
b.
Increased consumption of
alcohol
c.
Increased crime (Prostitution
is noted in the book)
d.
Lack of education for
children
e.
Increased slum conditions
(Tenement Housing)
f.
Increased Poverty
g.
Low Wages
6. Software to be used, internet materials, contacts, etc.
Webs that work – web page service provider Westfield Academy
and Central School; internet access.
7. Level of Student Involvement
During and after the reading of Crane’s short story, students
were required to post entries to three blog questions and one
optional, extra credit posting (see attached). These postings were
discussed in class
8. Evaluation process (include students when possible)
Students received grades in English class for the reader’s
response blogs based on thoroughness of responses and how well they
responded to the posting.
9. Timeline: how you envision the project being carried out
between start up and conclusion
This project will be completed in conjunction with U.S.
History and English 11. When the U.S. History class has reached the
gilded age portion of their curriculum, the English class will read
Crane’s short story. The Unit lasts six school days and is
completed before both classes move on to the era of the 20’s and
30’s.
10. Comments or Questions:
Mrs. Wilson and I are very excited about the possibility of
creating more cross-over projects. At its heart, these projects do
increase student’s knowledge in U.S. History.
Laura Wilson, English 11
Westfield Academy and Central School
Reflection on “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets”
Cross-curricular unit with Gregory Birner, US history
Coming into the classroom with expansive English knowledge and
limited history knowledge, I am always hesitant to teach out of my
comfort zone. Working with Greg has been a learning experience for
me, and I really have expanded my knowledge of US history by simply
having my own students research the historical time period that Greg
is teaching in US history and choosing literature that exemplifies
that era.
We
recently implemented a cross-curricular unit based on Stephen
Crane’s novella “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets.” The students were
responsible for reading the story, answering questions on the
reading, defining vocabulary terms from the novella and from the
time period, researching the time period, presenting their research,
and submitting readers’ responses in blog format. I have always done
traditional research, but some of this was web based, and I had
certainly never blogged before.
With all of these tasks thrown at them, the students rose to the
occasion. They had to present on certain chapters of Jacob Riis’
book How the Other Half Lives that only added to the reading;
however, they did just fine. Using the social studies research and
terminology enabled them to look at the novella with more insight.
Thus, they were able to respond to the blog questions by referencing
not only “Maggie” but the historical time period as well. Once they
did this, the remaining blog questions were exclusively history
based. They were able to move beyond the text and make significant
connections to the time period, which only enriched the story. They
enjoyed the blog entries, and responded with thought. I was pleased.
By
having the students respond to the time period and the novella in a
blog format, I was able to see their understanding of more than just
the text. They truly were making connections. I also did not have to
use a lot of class time because they posted on their own time. This
was also beneficial because this was a very short unit and spending
more time discussing the questions posted on the blog would have
required an additional day. I certainly plan to work with Greg on
other cross-curricular projects in the future and incorporating the
technology that will enhance student understanding.
Reflection piece on cross curricular
project “Maggie: Girl of the Streets” Birner
This project truly enhanced students
knowledge of U.S. History. Laura an myself were able to combine
English and Social Studies together to enhance students
knowledge of American history as well as learning how English
Literature lends itself to the telling of history. Below is a
vocabulary list of U.S. History terms that the English students
had to master in order to be successful with the book and their
projects:
Social Studies Vocabulary Terms to know
for help with English 11 Project on :
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
Ghetto:
Tenement Housing:
Prohibition / 18th Amendment:
unequal distribution of wealth:
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire:
Child Labor:
Jane Addams and Hull House:
Cultural Pluralism:
New vs Old Immigrants:
Vaudeville:
Teamsters (late 1800’s):
Muckrakers
Geography: 5 Points District / Bowery
District / (New York City Mid to Lower Manhattan:
This
was just the beginning. As the students completed these terms, they
were also introduced to Jacob Riis’ “How the Other Half Lives”.
This muckraking book was compared to “Maggie” and it was discussed
in my class if “Maggie” was a muckraking piece. The concepts that
were generated by these discussions were very satisfying to both
teachers and certainly helped students achieve higher knowledge of
the U.S. History topics.
The
culmination / evaluation of the co-curricular class is two-fold.
One, the students participated in a blog. This is where I would
like to make some changes next year. At the end of the project I
decided to add a blog question that was historical in nature: “What
Progressive laws were proposed and or created to help solve many of
the problems portrayed in “Maggie”. Students received bonus points
in U.S. History (rather than being graded in U.S. History class).
This idea was added to late, and the English class (along with the
blog) moved on. This adds to another problem that will always
exist, but as Laura and I work together, we are getting better at
timing. The second part of the assessment dealt with students
creating a project in English class that is related to historical
research. Some examples include drawing political “muck raking”
cartoons that display problems that Maggie’s character faced, take
Jacob Riis’ book “How the Other Half Lives” and describe 5
similarities between Riis’ book and “Maggie’s” life. These projects
were great. I even had students referencing the books in my U.S.
History class. I was very impressed with what the students were
able to do. Between the blog and the U.S. History projects done in
English class, students certainly demonstrated an increased
knowledge in U.S. |