Making Learning Meaningful

Author(s):  
Janet Allen ◽  
Christine Landaker

When encouraging readers of history, we have several broad goals for our students as readers and as learners. We want them to leave their reading with some knowledge of content and to be able to discriminate among ideas for significance, bias, point of view, and perspective. We would like them to think about what they learned and how they learned it, acknowledging the value of talk and others’ opinions and ideas when they are forming their own opinions. We would also hope the study we’ve done would prompt them to ask new questions that lead them to further reading and study. At this stage in their lives, these readers have assumed the reader role of “Text Critic” as they analyze, synthesize, apply, and extend their learning into independent learning and historical expertise. Many of us have enjoyed students who see themselves as historical experts. On Christine’s first day as a social studies teacher, before the bell had rung to allow students to enter class, she encountered her first expert in her new students, Stephen:… “So, you’re going to be my U.S. History teacher. What do you know about Patton?” “Do you mean George Patton from World War II?” “Yes. If you’re going to expect me to learn from you, you better know your World War II stuff. And, you’re going to have to have seen the movie. Have you seen it?” “Well, no. But if you have it . . . “I have it right here with me. Watch it tonight and we can talk about it tomorrow.”… Christine had found her first expert—and her first ally. This is the kind of student we hope we foster as we are planning curriculum and instruction throughout the year. In Ways That Work: Putting Social Studies Standards into Practice, Tarry Lindquist expects these outcomes and plans for them at the beginning of the unit. “Whenever I plan a unit, I first brainstorm ways my students can acquire knowledge, manipulate data, practice skills, and apply their understanding through group activities” (1997, 101). As a result of the time Christine and her students spend working on questioning, thoughtful and careful reading, exposure to multiple texts, and sharing ideas with others, the satisfaction of those goals is evident in her classroom.

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-195
Author(s):  
Konstantin A. Pakhalyuk

From a political point of view, the key purpose of any reference to the past is not so much to substantiate concrete wording as to form collective identities and/or provide moral justification for certain political decisions. Therefore, one cannot but agree with Marlene Laruelle that discussions, largely virtual, about World War II and the role of the USSR in it, which flare up from time to time in the European press, are closely related to the search for an answer to a more pressing question: Can modern Russia be considered part (albeit special) of some common European space? Her article, filled with propositions and observations some would gladly subscribe to, still gives food for thought due to its focus on academic debate with those who consider Russia fascist or seek analogies between Putin’s Russia and Hitler’s Germany.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 26-39
Author(s):  
Boichuk Boichuk

The research dedicated to the analysis of the evolution of historical policy in Poland after the World War II. The crucial part of the article is the role of Germany in this process. On the current stage of mutual Polish-German relations, where a remarkable point of political ties is historical conflict over the aftermath of the World War II. The evolution process of the historical process in Poland is complicated and complexed. Furthermore, the evolution of the historical narrative goes in a shadow of the ideological struggle between two blocks, which had been established after the war. It is need to point the international aspect of historical policy establishing in Poland had one point of view. On the other hand, internarial factors played the crucial role, which were attached at that time for Polish society.The aim of the research is an analysis of the process of historical policy establishing in the Polish People’s Republic and research of main elements in this process. The context of the last events in Polish-German relations is heightening the role of conflict in the sphere of political history over the aftermath of the World War II. It arises the necessity to analyze more deeply the process of historical policy establishing in Poland.It had been established that the historical policy in the Polish People`s Republic was used as the instrument of internal policy and propaganda. The historical policy played two main functions is the integration and the stabilization. The function of integration is used to unite Polish society on the background of the stereotype “Germans – enemy” and for confirmation of new western territories (Ziem odzyskanych). At the same time, the historical policy led to the approval of a new sociopolitical order in Poland at that time. It is noted that historical policy in Poland has few approaches dedicated to periodization and mostly it depends on the area of research. Social researchers divide historical policy after the World War II into two periods. In contrast to social science, representatives of Political Science divide into three periods.


2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Henrietta Bannerman

John Cranko's dramatic and theatrically powerful Antigone (1959) disappeared from the ballet repertory in 1966 and this essay calls for a reappraisal and restaging of the work for 21st century audiences. Created in a post-World War II environment, and in the wake of appearances in London by the Martha Graham Company and Jerome Robbins’ Ballets USA, I point to American influences in Cranko's choreography. However, the discussion of the Greek-themed Antigone involves detailed consideration of the relationship between the ballet and the ancient dramas which inspired it, especially as the programme notes accompanying performances emphasised its Sophoclean source but failed to recognise that Cranko mainly based his ballet on an early play by Jean Racine. As Antigone derives from tragic drama, the essay investigates catharsis, one of the many principles that Aristotle delineated in the Poetics. This well-known effect is produced by Greek tragedies but the critics of the era complained about its lack in Cranko's ballet – views which I challenge. There is also an investigation of the role of Antigone, both in the play and in the ballet, and since Cranko created the role for Svetlana Beriosova, I reflect on memories of Beriosova's interpretation supported by more recent viewings of Edmée Wood's 1959 film.


2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 26-29
Author(s):  
mayer kirshenblatt ◽  
barbara kirshenblatt-gimblett

Mayer Kirshenblatt remembers in words and paintings the daily diet of Jews in Poland before the Holocaust. Born in 1916 in Opatóów (Apt in Yiddish), a small Polish city, this self-taught artist describes and paints how women bought chickens from the peasants and brought them to the shoykhet (ritual slaughterer), where they plucked the feathers; the custom of shlogn kapores (transferring one's sins to a chicken) before Yom Kippur; and the role of herring and root vegetables in the diet, especially during the winter. Mayer describes how his family planted and harvested potatoes on leased land, stored them in a root cellar, and the variety of dishes prepared from this important staple, as well as how to make a kratsborsht or scratch borsht from the milt (semen sack) of a herring. In the course of a forty-year conversation with his daughter, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, who also interviewed Mayer's mother, a picture emerges of the daily, weekly, seasonal, and holiday cuisine of Jews who lived in southeastern Poland before World War II.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-41
Author(s):  
Maftuna Sanoqulova ◽  

This article consists of the politics which connected with oil in Saudi Arabia after the World war II , the relations of economical cooperations on this matter and the place of oil in the history of world economics


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (10-3) ◽  
pp. 70-81
Author(s):  
David Ramiro Troitino ◽  
Tanel Kerikmae ◽  
Olga Shumilo

This article highlights the role of Charles de Gaulle in the history of united post-war Europe, his approaches to the internal and foreign French policies, also vetoing the membership of the United Kingdom in the European Community. The authors describe the emergence of De Gaulle as a politician, his uneasy relationship with Roosevelt and Churchill during World War II, also the roots of developing a “nationalistic” approach to regional policy after the end of the war. The article also considers the emergence of the Common Agricultural Policy (hereinafter - CAP), one of Charles de Gaulle’s biggest achievements in foreign policy, and the reasons for the Fouchet Plan defeat.


2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Wagner ◽  
Winifred V. Davies

This paper explores the link between explicit Luxembourgish language policy and the actual practices as well as expressed attitudes of a group of speakers of Luxembourgish, with the aim of studying the role of World War II in the advancement of Luxembourgish as Luxembourg’s national language. The first two sections introduce the theoretical approach of the paper and provide an overview of the history and present situation of Luxembourg and Luxembourgish. The following two sections present the findings of a sociolinguistic study of language choice, language values and identities, and linguistic (in)security among a group of Luxembourgish letter-writers, as well as recent interview data provided by the sole surviving correspondent. The final section brings together these results and the claims made regarding the role of World War II in the changing status of Luxembourgish and points out the complexity of this discussion.


2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 290-310
Author(s):  
Borut Klabjan

This article is part of the special section titled From the Iron Curtain to the Schengen Area, guest edited by Wolfgang Mueller and Libora Oates-Indruchová. This article discusses local cultures of remembrance of Yugoslav partisans fallen during World War II in Trieste, now part of Italy, and investigates the role of memory activists in managing vernacular memory over time. The author analyses the interplay between memory and the production of space, something which has been neglected in other studies of memory formation. On the basis of local newspaper articles, archival material, and oral interviews, the essay examines the ideological imprint on the local cultural landscape, contributing to a more complex understanding of memory engagement. The focus is on grassroots initiatives rather than state-sponsored heritage projects. This article argues that memory initiatives are not solely the outcome of national narratives and top–down ideological impositions. It shows that official narratives have to negotiate with vernacular forms of memory engagement in the production of a local mnemonic landscape.


1977 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Earl J. Hamilton

Wars in early modern times, although frequent, generated little price inflation because of their limited demands on real resources. The invention of paper currency and the resort to deficit financing to pay for wars changed that situation. In recent centuries wars have been the principal causes of inflation, although since World War II programs of social welfare unmatched by offsetting taxation have also fueled inflationary flames.


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