ANNE FRANK INQUIRY PROJECT
Here you will find a copy of my inquiry project from ECI 435. For this project we were to conduct an in-depth inquiry on a meaningful topic of interest that relates to English Language Arts and/or Social Studies in some way. For my project, I chose to research the experience that Anne Frank endured during her two years in hiding, and I compared and contrasted those experiences to those of Elie Wiesel, who spent two years in a concentration camp. The analysis of the two accounts allowed me to really dig deeper into the Holocaust experiences of two of the most famous Holocaust heroes.
After compiling our research and writing our paper we then created "the rest of the story." This was when we reorganized our findings in such a way that showed a piece of irony. As discussed in class, irony can be dramatic, but it can also be very subtle—either one can be very effective depending on how you spin your narrative. As part of our process, we discussed irony and reviewed some of the media literacy work from our ECI 306 course we took the previous year. In addition to writing a research-based essay, we brought Harvey’s radio-based format into the 21st century by creating a digital video that we will post online so they can be shared with students.
I selected this paper to serve as the artifact that demonstrates my depth of content knowledge in history. Writing a historical history paper uses cross curriculum integration with English Language Arts, while showing my ability to generate an original investigation and answer a well-stated question. Completion of the assignment enabled me to acquire the knowledge and skills to directly reference primary source materials to support inferences and claims made in the paper. It also taught me the importance of scaffolding while using the SCIM-C method.
As a dual certified English Language Arts and Social Studies teacher, it is important to incorporate inquiry-based learning in the classroom. It doesn't always have to take the form of a formal research paper, it can be something as simple as a few questions to follow up with a primary source or informational text. Through the process of inquiry-learning students become the investigators and they are actively taking part in the material that they are learning.
After compiling our research and writing our paper we then created "the rest of the story." This was when we reorganized our findings in such a way that showed a piece of irony. As discussed in class, irony can be dramatic, but it can also be very subtle—either one can be very effective depending on how you spin your narrative. As part of our process, we discussed irony and reviewed some of the media literacy work from our ECI 306 course we took the previous year. In addition to writing a research-based essay, we brought Harvey’s radio-based format into the 21st century by creating a digital video that we will post online so they can be shared with students.
I selected this paper to serve as the artifact that demonstrates my depth of content knowledge in history. Writing a historical history paper uses cross curriculum integration with English Language Arts, while showing my ability to generate an original investigation and answer a well-stated question. Completion of the assignment enabled me to acquire the knowledge and skills to directly reference primary source materials to support inferences and claims made in the paper. It also taught me the importance of scaffolding while using the SCIM-C method.
As a dual certified English Language Arts and Social Studies teacher, it is important to incorporate inquiry-based learning in the classroom. It doesn't always have to take the form of a formal research paper, it can be something as simple as a few questions to follow up with a primary source or informational text. Through the process of inquiry-learning students become the investigators and they are actively taking part in the material that they are learning.