Comprehensive Assignment - Lesson Three

As stated in a Blog earlier today, I will be doing a unit in Spring Term with my MYP English A tenth graders on the novel The Unknown Soldier, by Vaino Linna which takes place during the Finnish Continuation War, 1941-1944. Prior to Spring Festival, the class was divided into platoons of three students with each platoon having responsibility to teach the rest of the class one chapter of the book which they are all required read cover to cover during the holiday.

The DP Math Instructor has agreed to act as Artillery Instructor and give a session on shell trajectory. The MYP Biology Instructor will act at Medical Officer for the army company to which platoon belongs and give a session on camp hygiene and first aid in battle. And the MYP History Instructor will act as Political Officer presenting the reasons for the war and why it so important for Finland to get the Russians out of Finland. The students will attend class during the four week unit as if they were actually in the Finnish army. They should salute the various officers and continually display military bearing. 

But here is the 'rub'. When this event happened Finland was not a unified country. The men in the Finnish army come from everywhere, city and country, and knew little about their fellow Finns. Like my class, they were all raw recruits. Can they be taught discipline, be made into cohesive units? This is one of the themes of the novel.

The Recruiting Brochure I have uploaded is appealing because it is simple. This novel is a communal novel - a structural literary feature - where the group of men making up the various platoons, not individual characters, are at the heart of the novel. Individual characters are created and developed by Linna but always takes place within the context of a group of men. The group, not the individual is forgrounded.

This brochure shows this: A platoon in the Finnish army marches in order showing the potential for cohesiveness because the group of men is visually foregrounded. Finns like things simple, so the brochure only inculcates the Finnish Flag, and very simple text. The brochure is intended to help the members of the class get into the mindset of the soldiers at the time and its simplicity and unity should prove effective.

Note: When I thought about doing this last night (It is early morning here in Beijing.) I didn't have a clue how to start because I have never done this before. I did though locate some photos that could be useful but that was it. When I woke up this morning I realized the Microsoft Publisher has templates and I could use one of them. Bing, bat a boom: this brochure!

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