Parks+Conference+Review+One

Conference Review One: "Social Justice"
The "Reading and Writing in a Decade of Standards" conference on Social Justice began with a small group activity that required each group to give a dramatic reading performance of a poem from //I Never Saw Another Butterfly//. The dramatic reading were used to segue into a discussion on anti-Semitic propaganda used in Germany before and during the Holocaust. The presenters also talked about having students relate current media influence to the German propaganda. In terms of teaching the Holocaust, the presenters advocate that the learning must be student driven and that students should do research before the learning in the classroom takes place. As an example, one of the presenters talked about how she had her students create Holocaust journals, in which they would assume a persona of someone in the Holocaust.

As a history and English double major, I found this conference to be extremely beneficial and informative. I could definitely see myself using what I learned from the conference in both a language arts and history classroom - especially the Holocaust journals. I believe that one of the ways students learn history best is through role playing activities. Role playing requires a student to see an event from a different perspective, and allows them to personally invest in their learning. In addition, journals have been proven to be an effective way in both getting students to react and think critically about what they are learning. Overall, I would highly recommend this conference if it were to be offered again, as it was very inspiring and applicable.