Writing to Witness, Writing to Testify - Grade 11
Writing to Witness, Writing to Testify is an invitation to students and teachers to consider a small, yet representative and diverse set of texts that do a particular kind of work. The literature studied in this text—excerpts from John Edgar Wideman’s Brothers and Keepers and Robert Coles’ Doing Documentary Work; poems from Charles Reznikoff’s Testimony; Gish Jen’s story “Whose Irish?”; and, as an optional unit extension, Elie Wiesel’s harrowing Night—has in common the aim to do something fundamentally essential and difficult: to witness or testify, to create what Coles describes as “reports of what was encountered for the eyes and ears of others.”
Table of Contents
Text Audio
Writing Tasks
Title: S-3: Brothers and Keepers: Assignment #1
Session 3
Title: S-6: Brothers and Keepers: Assignment #2
Session 6
Title: S-10: Doing Documentary Work: Assignment #1
Session 10
Title: S-13: Doing Documentary Work: Assignment #2
Session 13
Title: S-24: “Who’s Irish?”: Assignment #1
Session 24
Title: S-26: “Who’s Irish?”: Assignment #2
Session 26
Title: S-35: Reading and Writing About Wiesel’s Night
Session 35
Charts for Discussion
Title: S-1-2: Brothers and Keepers: Sketching the Sequence
Session 1-2
Title:S-3: Small-Group Work: Problems and Solutions
Session 3
Title: S-4: During Text-Based Discussions….
Session 4
Title: S-19: Short Assignments for My Documentary Project
Session 19
Title: S-A: Six Things to Do Before the Interview
Session A
Title: S-B: Six Things to Do At the Interview
Session B
Title: S-C: Things to Do After the Interview
Session C
Title: S-C: Ways to Incorporate Interviews into a Report
Session C
Forms and Graphic Organizers
Title: S-1-2: Tracking Brothers and Keepers
Session 1-2
Title:S-4: Criteria For a Good Discussion
Session 4
Title: S-32-34: Tracking Wiesel’s Night
Session 32-34