Another successful year

In reflecting on the past year, I feel that using the Echoes and Reflections curriculum with my 8^th grade literature students was very successful.  This program is divided into ten lessons.  Each lesson provides a historical context for the topic as well as survivor testimony and primary source material, including photographs, diary entries, poems and historical documents.   It is an excellent resource for material to use in your class.  You certainly do not have to teach all of the units by incorporating the survivor testimony would be a great way to bring the individual aspect of Holocaust study to you students.

My students finished the lessons on studying the Holocaust and antisemitism.  They also studied the history of Nazi Germany leading to the unit on the Final Solution.  This program offers them an opportunity to analyze photographs and propaganda material.  I conclude each unit with a test over the material and an ending project.  

In addition to Echoes and Reflections, my students also read a variety of Holocaust literature.  Within their literature circle groups, they read The Diary of Anne Frank, A Coming Evil, the Boy Who Dared, Behind the Bedroom Wall, Torn Thread, Play to the Angels, Someone Named Eva, Yellow Star, I Have Lived a Thousand Years and All But My Life.

As a class they read Surviving Hitler by Andrea Warren.  This memoir chronicles the experiences of local Holocaust survivor, JackMandelbaum during his adolescent years in World War II Europe.  There is an excellent teaching guide for this memoir on the MCHE web site.

I used Jennifer Jenkin’s lesson on a wall of remembrance quilt with my students as a culminating activity.  This offered them an opportunity to reflect on the material they studied and choose something that personally affected them.  The other students in the school and many parents asked questions about the quilt squares and this lead to discussions about the importance of the study of the Holocaust.

NOTE: The Midwest Center for Holocaust Education will be offering a training, conducted by an educator from Yad Vashem, over the Echoes and Reflections curriculum on July 25, 2012. All participants receive a complimentary copy of the curriculum! Enroll now!

Wall of Remembrance Quilt

One of my (and I think my students’) favorite culminating activities when we learn about the Holocaust is our Holocaust Remembrance Quilt. This is a collage of the kids’ artwork reflecting on what they have learned. Unavoidably, this is a tough, heavy and depressing topic for 8th graders. It’s nice to have something at the end that allows them to get their feelings out and be positive, if they want to. I give them all a handout with the directions, and a 4”x4” square drawn on it. In the square they simply have to draw, and write, if they wish, something that symbolizes the Holocaust to them. I give them the following guidelines:

• Choose something that stuck with you during your study of the Holocaust.
• It can be a design which commemorates an event or person.
• It can be a hopeful design, looking toward the future.
• It does not have to be sad. However, it should be reverent. It should in no way mock or make light of the Holocaust.
• Please put some thought into it and make it personal to you.
• You may draw or use a collage technique. However, it should not simply be a printout of a picture from the internet or clip art.
• You will not be graded on how well you draw. Instead, you will be graded on the thoughtfulness and insight you put into the square.
• This will be a culmination of the unit, so it should reflect your learning in the 3 weeks of study.
• It may be in color or black and white, whatever you feel appropriate.
• It may contain words as well as pictures, or be just a picture.
  

After they turn them in, I cut them all out. It’s important that they are as close to the exact same size as possible. Then I figure out how big to make the quilt. If I need more squares, I will put some of my favorite Holocaust quotes in. I also include a square with the year on it.

To assemble, I try to space them out so there is a good mix of color and black and white. I tape them on the back with Scotch tape to form the horizontal sections. Then I tape the horizontal sections together to form the quilt. I have found that it’s best to back it with construction paper. It holds up much better! Finally, I have it laminated and hang it in my room.

The kids find this very satisfying – to put what they learn and feel into a picture. The pictures run the gambit from amazingly detailed to simple. As with anything, there are kids who don’t do a stellar job, but when put together, they all look nice. I have all of the previous year’s hanging in my room, so the kids see the project all year and look forward to it. They also feel a sense of pride and legacy knowing I will keep theirs up for years to come as well.