7 minute read
Inquiry 1: Why is learning about discrimination and the Holocaust important?
C3 Framework Indicator
D4.6.3-5. Draw on disciplinary concepts to explain the challenges people have faced and opportunities they have created, in addressing local, regional, and global problems at various times and places.
Staging the Compelling Question Students will explore how discrimination against Jewish people in Germany led to the Holocaust through a series of activities.
Supporting Question 1 Supporting Question 2 Supporting Question 3
What is discrimination? How can discrimination affect a community? How did discrimination lead to the Holocaust?
Formative Performance Task Formative Performance Task Formative Performance Task
Students will explore the meaning of discrimination through examining pictures of segregation in the U.S. South in the 1950s, as well as pictures of antisemitism in Germany leading up to and throughout the Holocaust. Students will read and discuss the allegory Terrible Things by Eve Bunting. Students will watch and discuss the HBO short documentary The Number on My Great-Grandpa’s Arm.
Featured Sources Featured Sources Featured Sources
Source A: Antisemitism - Photograph
Source B: Segregation in the South, 1956 Source A: “Terrible Things by Eve Bunting” Source A: “The Number on GreatGrandpa’s Arm”
Summative Performance Task Argument: Each student will create a written response to the final question from their group discussion.
At the end of the documentary, the boy said we need to learn about what happened in the past to make sure it never happens again.
Why is it important to learn about the Holocaust?”
Extension: In Germany, learning about the Holocaust is called Remembrance Culture. Research some of the monuments and memorials Germany has created to help teach about the Holocaust.
Taking Informed Action
Understand: Research the origins of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Assess: Examine the impact this remembrance day has on the global community.
Act: Write a letter to your principal explaining why we should observe Holocaust Remembrance Day as a school community.
COMPELLING QUESTION
Why is learning about discrimination and the Holocaust important?
Target Grade Level: 3rd, 4th, & 5th Grade Target Course: Social Studies
INQUIRY OVERVIEW
In this lesson, students will explore how discrimination against Jewish people in Germany led to the Holocaust through a series of activities.
TEACHER BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Every January 27th is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This day was created the by the United Nations (UN) in 2005 to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, including six million Jews and millions of others that perished at the hand of the Nazi regime in Germany. This lesson can be used at any point in the year but was specifically designed to be used in response to International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The lesson also uses resources from the Social Justice Standards from Learning for Justice.
Source:
• Learning for Justice Social Justice. (n.d.). Social Justice Standards. https://www.learningforjustice.org/ frameworks/social-justice-standards
SUGGESTED TIME FRAME
1-2 45 minute lessons
CONCEPT LIST
• Diverse/diversity • Discrimination • Holocaust
INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES
• Antisemitism - Photograph. (n.d.). Holocaust Encyclopedia by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. https:// encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/gallery/antisemitism-photographs • Bunting, Eve. (1989). Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society. • Dulcy Olson. (April 5, 2020). Terrible Things by Eve Bunting. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VqzKGGdQiM. (8:29 minutes – read aloud) • Learning for Justice Social Justice. (n.d.). Social Justice Standards. https://www.learningforjustice.org/frameworks/socialjustice-standards • Museum of Jewish Heritage. (December 16, 2020). The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm. Family Hanukkah Program. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGTRzot3cAE. (from minute 3:30 – 20:40) • Parks, Gordon. (n.d.). Segregation in the South, 1956. Gordon Parks Foundation. https://www.gordonparksfoundation.org/ gordon-parks/photography-archive/segregation-in-the-south-1956?view=slider#9 • Schatz, A. (Director). (2018). The Number on My Great Grandpa’s Arm [Film]. Home Box Office. https://www.hbo.com/movies/ the-number-on-great-grandpa-s-arm. (Full Film Original)
INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY, HOOK, OR DISCUSSION
The teacher will ask students to list out as many characteristics about themselves as they can think of that creates their identity. The teacher will create an example in front of the class, showing students the different kinds of characteristics they can use: nationality, gender, sex, religion, hobbies, foods they eat, holidays they celebrate, and so forth.
Students will have time to build their own “profiles” and share them with their classmates.
SUPPORTING QUESTION 1
What is discrimination?
➤ Formative Performance Task 1 The teacher will write the word “discrimination” on the board and ask students if they’ve ever heard this word before, to assess prior knowledge. The teacher will define discrimination as “treating people differently, in a negative way, because of some part of their identity, such as their race, religion, culture, or gender.” The teacher will ask students to brainstorm times in history that they’ve studied when people were treated unfairly because of some part of their identity (example: segregation in the United States: The teacher will show photos of segregation in the United States, which students will already be familiar with). Next, the teacher will show some photos showing discrimination against Jewish people in Germany leading up to the Holocaust (example: photos showing Jewish people wearing stars on their clothing, photos of storefronts indicating Jewish owners).
➤ Featured Sources 1 (MLA citations) • Antisemitism - Photograph. Holocaust Encyclopedia by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/gallery/antisemitism-photographs • Parks, Gordon. (n.d.). Segregation in the South, 1956. Gordon Parks Foundation. https://www.gordonparksfoundation.org/gordon-parks/photography-archive/segregation-in-the-south1956?view=slider#9
SUPPORTING QUESTION 2
How can discrimination affect a community?
➤ Formative Performance Task 2 The class will read the book Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust, by Eve Bunting, in small groups. This book focuses on the disappearance of forest creatures over time, and the other creatures’ lack of action, to illustrate how something like the Holocaust could happen.
After reading, students will discuss in their groups the following questions:
• What happened in this story? What happened to each of the creatures, little by little? • Why were the terrible things taking each of the creatures? How does that connect to our new vocabulary word: discrimination? • How did the other forest creatures react when the first creatures were taken by the terrible things? • What could the other forest creatures have done differently when they saw the terrible things taking different creatures away? How would it have changed the story? • Why do you think the other creatures didn’t do anything to stop the terrible things?
➤ Featured Sources 2 (MLA citations) • Bunting, Eve. Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989. • Dulcy Olson. (April 5, 2020). Terrible Things by Eve Bunting. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VqzKGGdQiM. (8:29 minutes – read aloud)
SUPPORTING QUESTION 3
How did discrimination lead to the Holocaust?
➤ Formative Performance Task 3 Students will watch the short HBO documentary The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm.
After watching, students will discuss the following questions in small groups:
• What happened to the boy’s great grandpa? Why was he sent to a concentration camp? • How does this story connect to the story we read in groups earlier today? • How does our new vocabulary word discrimination apply to this story? • At the end of the documentary, the boy said we need to learn about what happened in the past to make sure it never happens again. Do you agree? Why or why not?
➤ Featured Sources 3 (MLA citations) • Museum of Jewish Heritage. (December 16, 2020). The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm. Family Hanukkah
Program. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGTRzot3cAE. (from minute 3:30 – 20:40) • Schatz, A. (Director). (2018). The Number on My Great Grandpa’s Arm [Film]. Home Box Office. https://www.hbo.com/movies/the-number-on-great-grandpa-s-arm. (Full Film Original)
SUMMATIVE PERFORMANCE TASK—ARGUMENT OPTION (ESSAY OR PRESENTATION):
Each student will create a written response to the final question from their group discussion.
At the end of the documentary, the boy said we need to learn about what happened in the past to make sure it never happens again.
Why is it important to learn about the Holocaust?”
Extension Option (Choice of Creative Format instead of Argument)
In Germany, learning about the Holocaust is called Remembrance Culture. Research some of the monuments and memorials Germany has created to help teach about the Holocaust.
Taking Informed Action
Understand: Research the origins of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Assess: Examine the impact this remembrance day has on the global community.
Act: Write a letter to your principal explaining why we should observe Holocaust Remembrance Day as a school community.
MODIFICATIONS FOR DIFFERENTIATION
Teachers can create visual vocabulary cards for each term for students to refer to throughout the lesson.
Students can also create a videoed speech instead of a letter for the taking informed action portion.
Jane Marie Hutcheson (TOP 2, 2022) is the Head of Lower School and in addition teaches elementary English and Social Studies at the German School Brooklyn in New York.
