Jamie Rettke Social Studies Lesson Plan, Thematic Unit, Activity, Worksheet, or Civics, American History, or Government Teaching Idea

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II. THEME- How does the Holocaust exemplify discrimination, abuse of power, and oppression?

Rationale-The theme allows the students and teacher to become and stay focused on a topic of study. This also gears a collection of activities to stay focused on one idea in order to show relationships between major concepts, and not just teach disconnected facts.

Rationale- The purpose of listing the key concepts in a spiral curriculum, which is advocated, are to find and teach the main ideas in each unit that will be revisited in greater depths as the years pass. Students will then have prior experience with these concepts and be able to see how the six major disciplines of Social Studies are connected.

Group (Sociology), Power (Political Science), Behavior (Sociology), Conflict (History), Location (Geography)

Rationale- These statements show the relationships between the key concepts chosen for the unit and for the student to see the significance of relationships is to realize the cause and effect behind historical events.

1. Because Germany was in economic distress and its people were desperate for change, Adolf Hitler won the confidence of the public with his charisma and lofty promises for change. (Conflict, Power, and Location)

2. Because of Adolf Hitler's influence and position, the Nazi Political Party attained complete dominance through systematic brainwashing and propaganda. (Power and Behavior)

3. Because of the Nazi Political Party's supremist beliefs, they justified committing widespread genocide. (Power and group)

4. Because of the Nazi's secretive nature of the Holocaust, it was years and many lives before Germany was conquered in WWII and the victims of the Holocaust were rescued. (Group and Conflict)

Rationale- The sub-ideas are the specific facts surrounding the generalization statements and these ideas must be addressed and learned in order to meet the generalizations for the unit and specific lesson objectives.

- In 1933, Hitler was appointed to lead the party and it became an immediate dictatorship

- Hitler soon persuaded his committee to declare a state of emergency in the country which ended all freedom

- Young men eagerly became soldiers for money, a feeling of belonging, and prestige- this was a means for survival

- The police coerced people into submission, and Ghettos and Concentration Camps were established

- The Aryan Race was superior and inferior people (classified by race, handicap, age, sexual preference, and the gypsies- basically anything that deviated from their standards) needed to be exterminated

- Jewish, other races differing from blue eyes and blond hair, the handicap, the elderly, homosexuals, and the gypsies

- Boycotting Jewish businesses, publicly displaying hateful propaganda (posters, flyers .), making videos on the mentally and physically challenged to make them look dangerous

- These "inferior" people were herded into Ghettos and were sent to labor or death Concentration Camps according to their ability to work or weak uselessness

- There was resistance within Germany (an attempt to assassinate Hitler, the White Rose, uprising within the Ghettos, and revolts in the Concentration Camps)

- Adolf Hitler killed himself, Germany lost WWII, and the Jews were liberated from the Concentration Camps by soldiers

Rationale- The purpose for the initiating activity is to activate the student's prior knowledge and motivate and excite the student for the upcoming unit.

Objective- For the students to explore the desperate conditions of Germany leading to the election and rise of power of Adolf Hitler.

With a letter sent home prior to our study of the Holocaust to make parents aware of the upcoming activities within the unit, the students will begin by discussing their own perceptions of a country in depression and think of causes that might have led to that depression. (activating prior knowledge) Then the actual conditions of Germany after WWI will vividly be brought into the classroom so the students are fully aware of what it was like then. There will then be a mock election where volunteers will give election speeches, but one candidate in particular (Adolf Hitler) is seen as the only solution to the problem that plagues their country and provides a hope for change. The students will unanimously vote Hitler into office, just as the citizens of Germany did so long ago. The next day, the students will be exposed to change in the harshest way as possible (no recess, no talking, unfair rules that don't apply to everybody.). Students will then reflect in their journals as to what they had hoped for in electing this "Hitler" in comparison to the reality they are now facing.

By actually simulating the events leading up to the election of Adolf Hitler, and then his abrupt enforcement of unfair laws, this will become a more meaningful event to students, rather than just reading a grocery list of facts out of the textbook. This extremely unfair treatment towards them will further motivate the students to want to learn more about the period in history when this actually occurred. (Interpersonal, Intrapersonal)

Rationale- Developmental activities expand the student's knowledge of the concepts and address the sub-idea facts that were set for the unit while also meeting specific lesson objectives in meaningful ways.

ACTIVITY (2) (1 day)

Objective: For the students to discover what propaganda is, its harmful effects, and to work together to create "anti-propaganda".

Students will first examine past examples of Nazi's hateful propaganda through newspaper articles, leaflets, and posters. In order to develop more positive views of diversity, the students will then make a campaign to rid the world of discriminatory behavior and actually promote multiculturalism through anti-prejudice posters, speeches, radio announcements, or television broadcasts. (Spatial, Linguistic, and Bodily-Kinesthetic)

Objective- For the students to be made aware of the cause and effects of prejudice behavior and be exposed to the different perspectives surrounding this discriminatory behavior.

On the first day of this activity, students with blue eyes in the classroom will be seen as superior people while brown-eyed students will be considered inferior. The superior will have reasonable advantages such as going to recess first, getting their first choice for books, or free time activities, and be called on first by the teacher. The inferior then will be "second-best" for the day by both the teachers and superior students, within reason.

To prevent harmful or long-lasting effects on the students, on the second day of this activity the brown-eyed students will be superior and the blue eyed students will now be inferior. This will give all students the opportunity to feel how it is to be the "discriminator" and the 'discriminatee", and also prevents students from being too cruel to one another as they will be in that role the next day. Students must then respond to how they felt in each of the roles. (Because the students may creatively respond in any form, this activity includes the Linguistic, Musical, and Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligences.)

Objective- For the students to gain a first hand experience of the Holocaust.

A speaker, preferably around the age of our students at the time of the Holocaust, will come into the classroom to talk about the real events and feelings of the Holocaust. Students will also be allowed to ask questions to the visitor so they know what it was really like during this awful time in history, not what the students read in textbooks which is dry and untrue. Students will then have a concept of the true fear and terror surrounding the time and also answers questions which can't be answered in other media forms, but only from someone who truly lived it. (Interpersonal)

Objective- For the students to experience and gain insight into the Holocaust through the many stories and perspectives in Children's Literature.

Students will have a very diverse choice of literature to read from this era that exemplifies discrimination, oppression, or the triumph of the human spirit, and rescue missions (for example: The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank, The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, Upstairs Room by Joanna Reiss, Hiding to Survive: Rescued from the Holocaust by Maxine Rosenburg, Lisa'sWar, Kris's War, and collections of poetry or informational books) to choose and read. Students will then need to share their book by making a creative presentation to the class including a visual aid, making it so every student is exposed to several books from the time of the Holocaust. (Linguistic, Spatial, and Bodily-Kinesthetic)

Objective- For the students to experience the Holocaust in yet another way and for them to specifically see the conclusion to this historical time.

Over a period of two days, students will watch the edited television version of the movie Schindler's List in order to visually see the events leading up to, during, and specifically the conclusion to the Holocaust. Students will be exposed to the events of the Holocaust, focusing on the rescue attempts and the conclusion to this tragedy in history. Students will later respond to their feelings about the movie in written form. (Interpersonal, Spatial, and Linguistic)

Rationale- These concluding and assessment activities provide the students an opportunity to demonstrate their mastery of the generalizations, hopefully in an authentic way.

Objective- To allow the students an authentic way to demonstrate what they have learned about the Holocaust, and for the teacher to be able to assess the student's learning on this unit.

Since the whole concept of history is to learn from our past and its mistakes in order to prevent from making those same mistakes in future generations, the students will make their very own form of history by creating their very own Holocaust Time Capsule. The students may include, in any form, what they have learned from this unit. This may include factual events to the idea that discrimination is wrong. This allows the student an authentic expression to their knowledge about this subject, and also allows the teacher to evaluate the student's learning. (Most activities do have their own measurements for achievement, but this allows for a nice conclusion to the unit without the students just taking a test, and instead showing their performance while also doing something important.) (Logical-Mathematical, Linguistic, Musical, Spatial, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal)

Objective- For the students to realize that the Holocaust is just one example of oppression and discrimination and to relate this phenomena to current events.

To relate to the students that the Holocaust is just one example of hateful discrimination and oppression, the students will look for modern day news articles, pictures, or evidence of propaganda of modern day cases of prejudice, discrimination, oppression, and abuse of power. This will relate these concepts to current events and also have the students applying their knowledge of what these concepts are to modern day examples. The evaluation for this activity will be at least two of these modern day examples which legitimately reflect these concepts. (Logical-Mathematical, Linguistic, and Spatial)

XI. RESOURCES

Books

Bachrach, Susan D. Tell Them We Remember: The Story of the Holocaust. Little, Brown, & Company. 1994.

Rothlein, Liz and Kelly Walter. Thematic Unit: Holocaust. Teacher Created Materials. 1997.

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Rationale- These statements show the relationships between the key concepts chosen for the unit and for the student to see the significance of relationships is to realize the cause and effect behind historical events.

Rationale- The purpose for the initiating activity is to activate the student's prior knowledge and motivate and excite the student for the upcoming unit.

ACTIVITY (2) (1 day)

XI. RESOURCES

Books

Bachrach, Susan D. Tell Them We Remember: The Story of the Holocaust. Little, Brown, & Company. 1994.

Web Resources

Novels

HOLOCAUST UNIT