Teaching a Common Core Reading Standards through Holocaust Reading

Reading Standards for Literature Grades 9-10

Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in the work from outside the United States.

Text to use:  Flares of Memory:  Stories of Childhood during the Holocaust, Edited by Anita Brostoff with Sheila Chamovitz.

Passage:  An Unforgettable Passover Seder by Ernest Light

April 8^th, 1944: Passover.

The table was set with our special dishes, wine, herbs, and matzos.  Elijah’s cup, filled with wine, rested at the end of the table where I was.  Our family around the table consisted of my father, mother, sister, her two-year-old daughter, and my three brothers.

It was just about seven weeks since the Germans had occupied Hungary.  You could see on everyone’s face concern about the future.  But reading the prayers in the Hagadah, we temporarily forgot the present.

Suddenly our neighbor’s daughter burst into the house.  Almost hysterical, she screamed, “Hide me, hide me!  I just ran away from a German soldier.  He tried to grab me!”

Without thinking about the consequences, we pushed her into the next room, where she hid herself.  Everyone sat calmly and continued reading the Hagadah.  My father led the prayer.

Following Passover tradition, we had not locked the doors, so that the Prophet Elijah could come in and join us at the Seder.  This is how it was that a German soldier could just walk in, a gun over his shoulder.

Since I sat at the end of the table, he stood closest to me.  I could feel his breathing behind my back.  We continued to read as if we didn’t notice him.  He stood there for a while – I don’t know whether it was two minutes or ten minutes.  Then he turned around and left.

For the last fifty years, I’ve been wondering what made that soldier leave without inquiring about the girl, or threatening that we had to tell him where she was.  I’ve come up with several possibilities:

-          He thought that people who were hiding someone could not sit so calmly, conducting services.

-          The German military command warned the soldiers not to commit any unnecessary violence, not to alarm the local population.

-          He just might have been a human being.

. . .

I’ll never know the truth.

Questions to discuss with your students:

1. What event is being described in this passage?  What are the clues (words) that showed you what event is being described? 
2. Whose point of view is being presented in this passage?  How can you tell? 
3. What do you think is the purpose of this passage? 
4.  What emotions are displayed in this writing? 
5.  What is the central theme of this passage? 
6.  What questions do you still have after reading this passage?

Things to keep in mind for your lesson:

There are many short readings that you can use in your classroom to help address the Common Core Reading Standards.  This particular reading could be used as a part of a larger Holocaust unit or could be used in isolation.  You might consider changing the discussion questions depending on how you plan to use the article.  Putting students into small groups to discuss the questions in advance could give the class a richer discussion.

Utilizing Literature Circles

As a history teacher, I’m always concerned about how to most effectively guide students through a book.  Years ago, when I assigned All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein, students “completed” reading guides that followed the book.  It became increasingly clear that students were treating this assignment as busy work- filling in random comments and copying reading guides.  This trivialized Gerda’s story so I was eager to try something new.  Several years ago, English Language Arts colleagues modeled a literature circle with MCHE's Isak Federman Holocaust Teaching Cadre.  This completely changed the way I approached All But My Life.  Students are naturally interested in Gerda’s story and her writing is easily understandable and engaging for high school students.  Their interest, coupled with the reading quizzes I gave, kept the students reading and allowed the students to have meaningful conversations during class time.

To further acquaint yourself with literature circles, Facing Historyprovides some excellent tips for literature circles, especially covering the sensitive subject of genocide.  They also include valuable assessment and extension activities. 

The literature circles allowed my honors sophomores to develop a deeper understanding of the complex history and an appreciation for Gerda’s compelling story.  My literature circle discussion questions were adapted from the teaching materials provided by the Gerda and Kurt Klein Foundation.  I taught this book to honors World History students for roughly ten years and highly recommend it for teenagers (15+) and adults. 

Share your ideas with me!

I teach in a school with the IB diploma program.  When students take IB History they have to write what is called an Internal Assessment (IA).  The IA is basically a research paper based on an essential question.  Most teachers encourage students to research a question based in the 20^th century, because a majority of the curriculum is focused on that time period.  What I find is that many students want to write about the Holocaust.  Because I work at the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, most of the History teachers send the students interested in studying the Holocaust to me for guidance.  I really enjoy working with these students, but find that most of the time they just want to describe life/death/medical experiments in the camps, which does not really address an essential question.  I’ve suggested topics like examining the different experiences of men and women in the camps.  I’ve also encouraged kids to think about the use of science in justifying policies, like German eugenics programs.   I wasn’t sure if anyone had any other great ideas I could suggest for students.  I want to make sure I don’t give students a topic they are not intellectually able to handle—in other words I sometimes fear they will come to an “inappropriate” conclusion because the complexity of the topic is too difficult for them to really understand.  Any thoughts or suggestions would be great!   

Classroom Resources for Sale!

The MCHE Remembrance and Hope Chest book sale begins on Monday, October 15th!

In response to feedback from teachers, MCHE is deconstructing and updating our Remembrance and Hope Resource Chests. During this process, we are making the contents of five chests available for sale at reduced prices. Visit our office to add to your Holocaust library.

October 15-December 14, 2012
8:30-5:00

Scope and Sequence over multiple grades

For the first time I am teaching two courses in which I will teach about the Holocaust. You're probably thinking how great this must be. I'm thinking how complicated this could be. The complication arises from the fact that the 10^th grade Advanced Studies World History class is a feeder class for IB History. So in 12^th grade I will probably have many of these same students. For years I have taught the Holocaust to just the 12^th grade IB History students. For this group I avoid teaching a general history of the Holocaust. Instead I tend to focus on a few specific topics as well as let their questions dictate some of the lesson planning. My assumption has been that these students have been taught the general history of the Holocaust in earlier grades.

With my 10^th grade Advanced Studies World History students I have the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time (maybe a whole 2 weeks!) teaching the Holocaust. This means that I will most likely touch on some of the same topics as the 12^th grade IB History students cover. I'm struggling with how to approach these topics. The dilemma is how to teach these topics in 10^th grade then vary the lessons enough in 12^th grade so as not to turn them off to the study of the Holocaust. For the first step I will be surveying my 10^th graders about what they know (or think they know) and what they have been taught about the Holocaust. Hopefully that will give me the direction that I need to plan the lessons.

Providing context for Anne Frank

I was careening through a Barnes and Noble store recently on a mission for something else when the image of Anne Frank on the cover of a book almost caused me to give myself a case of whiplash. I executed an abrupt U-turn and went back to the display table to take a look. The book that attracted my attention and made its way into my shopping bag that day was Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography. Sid Jacobson is the author of the text and Ernie Colón created the graphics. This 149 page book reads like a graphic novel and appeals to middle and high school students – especially those who are reluctant readers.

The biography is divided into ten chapters that tell the familiar story of Anne, her family, and the other residents of the Secret Annex. However, there are many details in the book that I did not know. For example the first chapter tells the history of Otto Frank’s and Edith Holländer’s families; I learned that Otto Frank worked at Macy’s department store in New York City for a couple of years before WWI. The ninth chapter tells how the residents of the Secret Annex were arrested and what happened to them following their arrests. I learned that Otto tried to convince Peter Van Pels to hide with him in the infirmary at Auschwitz; however, Peter decided to evacuate the camp as the Russians drew close in January 1945. The tenth chapter tells about Otto’s life after the war, the publication of Anne’s diary, and the creation of The Anne Frank House.

Throughout the book, the creators have provided background information to help the reader understand Anne’s story in the larger context of WWII and the Holocaust. The second chapter is devoted to explaining the rise of Nazi party in Germany. Maps are provided in several places. There are pages titled “Snapshot” that illuminate in text and graphics concepts such as Germany in World War I, the Nuremberg Laws, Concentration Camps, the Wannsee Conference, and the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. There are smaller frames tucked throughout the book that give background information about other important events such as Germany’s acquisition of territory without war between 1935 and 1938, Kristallnacht, Operation Barbarossa and the Einsatzgruppen, and the evacuation of the Danish Jews. The last pages of the book feature a chronology and a list of print and web resources for further reading.

This book would be an excellent addition to school libraries and to the personal libraries of educators who teach about Anne Frank.

Reference:
Jacobson, Sid and Ernie Colón. Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography. New York: Hill and Wang, 2010.

Creating a Wordle lesson plan

One of the things that I have started doing with my students is having them create a Wordle visual based on a certain topic and then responding to an essay question with the Wordle. I think it is a good way to incorporate a little technology, visual learning, and writing all in one. I have included the directions I give to the students and a very general sample of a Holocaust wordle.

Holocaust Wordle Assignment
For this assignment you will be researching a topic related to the Holocaust. You will be using the Holocaust websites from the MCHE website. Once you have completed the research you need to create a list of the 15 most important ideas/actions associated with your topic. You will then use it to create a Wordle visual that demonstrates these ideas.

The link to Wordle:
http://www.wordle.net/

How to make a Wordle:
Click on ‘Create your own’
Paste your list in where it says ‘paste in a bunch of text’ and paste or type in your list
Click ‘Go’

You may need to adjust your list several times to get your Wordle to look the way you want it to. Once you have completed your first Wordle you will follow the directions below for how to copy/paste it into Microsoft Word.

How to copy/paste the Wordles into Microsoft Word:
Once you have your final draft of your Wordle you need to click ‘Print screen’
Then open a Word document and paste it into Word
Double click on the image and then right click on the picture
Click on ‘Show picture toolbar’ and select the crop button
Crop out all of the excess stuff from your image

Note:
If you want a certain word to be more prominent than another word to represent its importance, then you should type it in more times. The more times the word appears, the larger it is in the Wordle visual. Also – if you want a set of words to be listed together (for example: many victim groups) then you should list them without a space when you type them in so that they will appear together in the Wordle (for example: manyvictimgroups).

I have included a sample below of a general Holocaust wordle so you will understand the assignment.

Sample Wordle:

Next Step: After creating each Wordle and pasting it into a Microsoft Word document, you will then write an explanation of your topic. The explanation should be a minimum of 10 sentences and based on your research.

Essay Contest theme announced

The Midwest Center for Holocaust Education is pleased to announce its seventeenth annual White Rose Student Essay Contest, open to 8th through 12th grade students in the 18 county Greater Kansas City area.

1942: Destruction of the Polish Ghettos

After the establishment of the death camp system in 1941, the full-scale destruction of the Polish ghettos commenced in 1942. By summer and early fall, massive deportations were under way and the Operation Reinhard camps (Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka), which were designated for the murder of those communities, were operating at full capacity.

Part A: Research the history of one Polish ghetto from the list below and explore the first-person testimony of at least one Jewish person who experienced or witnessed the deportation from that ghetto during 1942. Describe the conditions in the ghetto, the circumstances that deportation created for the Jewish community in that ghetto, and how the person you researched personally experienced the history you have described. Part B: How does learning about the Holocaust through the personal testimony of an individual make this history more meaningful to you? You must base your research on one of the following ghettos: Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Lvov, Miedzyrzec, Prezemysl, Radom, Tarnów, Tomaszow Mazowiecki, Zamosc

Full details including teaching resources, entry forms and criteria are available on the MCHE website at www.mchekc.org/whiterosestudentessaycontest.

Front loading vocabulary

Over five years ago, my high school brought in a reading specialist, Bill McBride, who talked to us about how to help students engage in reading across the content areas. While I teach communication arts/ language arts/ English, I am by no means a reading teacher, especially at the high school level, so this workshop was very helpful. Among the advice he gave us was to always “front load” the vocabulary we would be working with in a particular unit. He was kind enough to give us all a worksheet that we could take and implement in our classrooms for this purpose. I call this worksheet the “Predicting ABC’s” and have taken it and adapted it to use to introduce Holocaust vocabulary at the beginning of the Holocaust memoir unit I teach to freshmen.

I have the students think of as many terms as they can that they know about the Holocaust and write them on the chart alphabetically, and then we share out their responses. Then, I always have some that I tell them that I want them to know for the unit and test, and these are listed on the back of the worksheet. Some I already provide the definition for and others I make them take down as notes. This has been a great tool to help students know the terms that we will use during the unit, and the worksheet can be adapted for any unit in any content area.