Teaching the lessons of the Holocaust through allegory

Being a middle school teacher, I have learned that there is a very fine line between how much my kids are ready for with the Holocaust, and what they are not ready to emotionally handle.  Sometimes, that even varies year-to-year.  I have found that there are ways I can teach the lessons of the Holocaust without actually going into depth about the brutality.  Also, one of our language arts objectives is to teach allegory.  I have found that using allegory when teaching the Holocaust is a great way to teach the lessons of this tragic event without having to use such heavy material all the time.

One way I do this is by showing the movie Chicken Run.  It is an animated “claymation” movie.  Unexamined, this movie is a light-hearted film made with kids and adults in mind about a group of overworked, underfed chickens trying to escape their miserable lives.  An American rooster who claims to be able to fly comes in to help them.  Once his lies are discovered, however, the chickens learn that they must rely on themselves to get out of their situation.  I originally saw the movie in the theater, thinking nothing of the Holocaust while watching it.  Once I was told that it could be an allegory for the Holocaust (although that was not the intent of the filmmakers), it was amazing to see how something childish and cute could also teach some of the same heavy lessons.  Every year I show it to my students and have them write a short essay about how the movie could be considered allegorical, comparing characters, events and themes.  Here are some of the connections we have come up with, although they come up with new things every year:

• There is an aerial shot of the chicken coops surrounded by barbed wire that looks very much like the barracks in a concentration camp. 
•  Within the chicken coops, the bunks are arranged much like the bunks in the barracks.
• Chickens are only kept around as long as they can lay eggs; once they are no longer “useful”, they are slaughtered.
•  The owners of the farm, The Tweedy’s, could be compared to Hitler and his men.
•  They patrol the farm at night with their dogs. 
• Any chicken caught trying to escape is punished.
•  The American rooster who comes in could be compared to America, coming in to help, but ending up not actually helping the chickens/Jews.
•  The Tweedy’s buy a chicken pie machine, which could be compared to the gas chambers and ovens in the death camps.
• The chickens learn that you have to help yourselves and work as a team.
•  There is a rooster named Fowler who flew with the Royal Air Force.  He tries to be in charge and uses his military service to prove points, but is really ineffective.  This could represent England and the other allies who fought in WWI, but can’t really help the Jews in WWII.

These are just scratching the surface of what the kids come up with.  Every year I read something that I have never thought of before.  This could be used with a variety of ages, choosing how much you go in depth about the Holocaust, while still teaching some of the important lessons and themes through the movie.  This is one of my favorite lessons of the year – we all enjoy the movie, and the kids who have seen it before are always amazed how different the movie is when they think about is as an allegory.

Meeting Common Core Standards with Echoes and Reflections

With much gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair, education is once again trying a new initiative – Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  CCSS hopes to make clear what our students are expected to learn as well as “The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy.” (http://www.corestandards.org/) 

It’s not the mission of CCSS that is making teachers moan, rather it’s the idea that we’ve all been down this road before and this is just the next, newest, brilliant idea.  As a library media specialist and Holocaust educator, I see the CCSS differently.  CCSS reading standards talk about creating a “staircase” of complexity in what students are able to read K-12 so they are ready for college and career reading.  CCSS presents an amazing opportunity to use primary sources from the Holocaust to provide students with the complex text to become better readers whether it’s diary entries, letters, poetry, or documents.  

In the Echoes and Reflections: A Multimedia Curriculum on the Holocaust and its companion IWitness, you can find a multitude of primary resources and ideas.  Search for topics from over 9,000 search terms.  Even better, there are 1,000 survivor testimonies and thought-provoking lessons to go along with all of these resources.  CCSS for reading gives teachers permission to use complex text to make students better readers.  “Echoes and Reflections” and “IWitness” provide that complex text as well as multiple perspectives through ample primary sources.  Both make the Holocaust more relevant to our students and ultimately to their success.  

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The Midwest Center for Holocaust Education has been designated as an Echoes and Reflections training center. Echoes and Reflections is a testimony-based curriculum for educators of grades 7-12. Arranged into ten chapters covering the scope and sequence of the Holocaust, the curriculum is scalable and relies heavily on exploration and analysis of primary sources. A local training will be held on July 25, 2012 with an educator from Yad Vashem.

Teaching Anne Frank and the Holocaust while preparing for assessments

In this day and age of testing, it can be very hard to teach the subjects we are passionate about. This is particularly true teaching middle school in Kansas, where students are given the reading assessment in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. However, it is important for us as educators to still teach those topics that we feel are essential for students going forth in their education. The Holocaust is one subject I feel this way about.

Most middle school students read The Diary of Anne Frank. In many districts, the story (diary, excerpts or the play) is in the language arts textbook. It is possible to teach the key points of the Holocaust while using Anne Frank's story.

Before reading the story, take a class period to explain the major details of the Holocaust. It is hard for students to understand why the Franks are going into hiding when they don't know what was happening in Europe. It is possible to give an overview in one class period and students will start the story with excellent prior knowledge.

In order to tie the subject in with state tested standards, you can teach your unit on persuasive techniques before teaching Anne Frank, and then discuss Nazi propaganda during the unit.

While reading the story, be sure to use context clues to discuss vocabulary and ask questions which require the students to use inference, again tying the story with state standards.

Anne Frank can be an excellent tool for character study and the elements of character which are tested on the reading assessment. Motivations, character changes, environment changing the characters and character drives are all done very well in this story.

If reading the actual diary, it can be a great chance to discuss author's viewpoint and position. As with all stories, plot structure can be analyzed in this story as well.

Personally, I have found it hard to come to terms with the fact that high stakes tests are going to have to take precedence in our classes. However, I have also come to the realization that I can still teach the things I love while also tying those things to assessment goals. They do not have to be taught independent of each other.

Relating the Holocaust to Other Genocides: A Seminar Series for Educators

CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION FORM

Conference Room C
Jewish Community Campus
5801 W. 115th Street
Overland Park, Kansas
 
These sessions examine Holocaust history as it relates to other modern genocides. Participants will explore the history of the Holocaust and its connections to genocides in Armenia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. Analysis of primary source documents, discussions of the stages of genocide and hands on practice with these resources will equip teachers with tools to engage their students in discussions of the relevance of Holocaust history as well as discussions of genocide prevention and awareness. Sessions will feature hands-on work with lesson plans appropriate for 7-12 th grade classrooms with an emphasis on cross-curricular approaches. All sessions will be led by members of the Isak Federman Holocaust Teaching Cadre with oversight by MCHE's Jessica Rockhold.

Schedule of Sessions:
All sessions meet from 4:30-7:30. Educators may sign up for individual sessions or the entire series.

January 12, 2011 - Defining Genocide / Case Study: The Armenian Genocide

These lessons will analyze the definition of genocide and the eight stages of genocide as well as explore resources for teaching the Armenian genocide and its relationship to the Holocaust

 February 9, 2011– Genocide and the Power of the Written Word: Diaries, Memoirs and Propaganda

These lessons will feature resources and methods that draw connections among genocide experiences, using primary sources including diaries and survivor memoirs and a detailed unit exploring propaganda in the Holocaust and Rwanda.

 March 2, 2011—Choosing to Act: Resisters, Bystanders, Perpetrators

These lessons will explore the responses of various groups to the Holocaust and other genocides, specifically decisions made by bystanders as well as a document-based question on resistance.

 April 13, 2011—Memory and Memorialization: Visual Representations of Genocide Experiences

These lessons will explore art from the Holocaust and other genocides as well as memorialization of these events.

A registration fee of $15 per session covers a light meal and materials. Registration must be received at least 1 week prior to the session for individual sessions or by January 1, 2011 for the entire series. Optional graduate credit (1 hour) through Baker University will be available for an additional $50 fee (payable to Baker).

Justifying Holocaust lessons in US History class

Here is my situation. I am very passionate about Holocaust education and believe that all students need to study it in order to understand the complexity of human behavior and its consequences in history and today. But here is the catch. I teach U.S. History. And no where in our state standards for U.S. History does it mention teaching the Holocaust.

Understandably, the focus is on the US and its role in World War II, but this leaves a teacher like me in a bit of a pinch. I really feel the Holocaust is an important subject for students to engage in but technically I shouldn’t cover it in any detail because it will not be tested on our end of course exam. So what is a teacher to do? The last thing I want to do is a quick one-hour overview of the Holocaust because, to me, the significance of Holocaust education is helping students understand the complexity of it and in simplifying it and turning it into a neatly packaged presentation my students don’t engage in the material they just “learn it” for a unit test.

So for the last few years I’ve been trying hard to find ways to integrate Holocaust education into a class that does not have it as a standard, and to integrate it in ways that make students engage in the material but at the same time do not become so time-consuming that I get too far behind the “instructional alignment guide" (basically that is our calendar for what we should be teaching and when.) Well the best solution I’ve found are some great lesson plans/resources that connect American history with 20^th century German history and Holocaust education.

The first resource that I’ve found that is very useful in connecting things happening in America with those in Germany is Race and Membership in US History: The Eugenics Movement. It is a book published by Facing History and Ourselves and it deals with the US eugenics movement and its connection to Germany. The book has excellent readings that will engage students in the bigger issue of what constitutes “progress.” This book actually ties in nicely as well with the Deadly Medicine exhibit created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I had the luxury of taking my students last year to the actual exhibit because it traveled through our city, but there is an on-line version that has great resources! It also examines both the U.S. eugenics movement and its importance in 20^th century Germany as well.

Anther resource can both be found on the MCHE website. It is a lesson plan that compares and contrasts Jim Crow laws with early Nazi laws including the Nuremberg Laws. My students find this lesson especially engaging as it is really looking at the bigger issue of law. For example, as a class we will discuss the purposes of law and then examine these laws in context of those purposes.

The other lesson I use was created by USHMM. It examines the plight of Jewish refugees attempting to flee Germany and enter the United States on the St. Louis. This lesson is great because it helps address one of those frequently asked questions by students which is, “Why didn’t the Jews just leave?” This lesson is also great because it addresses the United States and its response to immigration during the Great Depression.

So there you have it---if you are like me and stuck in a bit of a bind in terms of how to teach the Holocaust in a class where it is not emphasized as a state standard---try these lessons and let me know how they work!

Using Nazi and Genocide Propaganda to Teach Persuasive Fallacies

With the help of my awesome library media specialist, Abby Cornelius, I created a PowerPoint Presentation to demonstrate to students how the Nazi regime used different persuasive fallacies to promote their ideas between 1933 and 1945. The librarian was able to find a visual example of each type of persuasion and fallacy that English teachers are supposed to teach to students before they take the Kansas State Reading Assessment (standard and benchmark listed below).

Students were able to see each persuasive technique used in a visual after we had studied both the Holocaust and I after had introduced the different types of persuasive appeals. The PowerPoint presentation was a great visual to enhance how these persuasive methods have been used in history, not just in advertising and editorials, as we had also spent time discussing prior to the Holocaust unit.

I used this at the end of my Holocaust memoir unit and after introducing persuasion throughout Holt Elements of Language, Third Course, text book, but you could easily use it while reading the Holocaust unit and while discussing persuasion. I begin the persuasive unit with ReadWriteThink’s persuasive tools that may be found on their website. The web site says that the lesson was created for elementary students, but I think the resources also work for high school (I use them with freshmen). They have an assignment titled “Persuasion Is All Around You,” a PowerPoint presentation, and worksheets that I utilize and then have students read editorials that I find in the local newspaper as well as look at advertising that uses the different types of persuasion.

Students have demonstrated a good grasp of the types of persuasion at the end of the unit and have expressed a positive attitude about the unit.

State Assessment Benchmark/Indicator

Standard/Benchmark/Indicator

R.HS.1.4.14

▲identifies the author's position in a persuasive text, describes techniques the author uses to support that position (e.g., bandwagon approach, glittering generalities, testimonials, citing authority, statistics, other techniques that appeal to reason or emotion), and evaluates the effectiveness of these techniques and the credibility of the

information provided.