More development of the workshop – discovery packs

I’m now working on a further section of materials for my workshop. These are discovery packs. There is one for each of the main characters:

• Renate
• Hani
• Clara
• Käthe
• Gisela
• The school girls

 I’m also bringing in a gender balance so I’m including:

·         Hans Edler (Renate’s father)

·         Christoph (the young man who helped at the house on Schellberg Street)

·         Karl Schubert (the man who ran the school in the house on Schellberg Street)

·         Ernst Lehrs  (Käthe’s brother)

·         Thomas (Gisela’s neighbour)

·         All about the Hitler Youth

These are all taking quite a long time to create. I’m providing six sheets of A4 for each character. Each sheet contains a mixture of materials:

·         Facsimiles of real documents

·         Useful links

·         Public domain pictures or ones to which I own the copyright

·         Extracts form the novels

Groups of up to six students should work on one character. There are probably twice as many characters as needed here. Each sheet hints at information and should prompt further questioning in the students. I’m suggesting in an hour’s lesson they spend forty minutes or so on this, aiming for each group to spend up to five minutes presenting to the rest of the class any extra information they’ve found out using the packs. They could of course also lead to a much larger piece of work.          

I also intend to create some creative writing prompts to go with each activity.