Teachers guide and exhibition on Jewish resistance

The Museum of Jewish Heritage has an interesting website with a very good resource for teachers.  From 2007-2008 they sponsored an exhibit called "Jewish Defiance in the Holocaust."  While the exhibit has long since closed, the website is still open and a teacher's guide is still available.

Asking students to think about what resistance entails when teaching about the Holocaust is an important topic.  While people might think of armed rebellion as the only form of true resistance, resistance goes much deeper than that. 

Smuggling bread, teaching in secret, or rescuing a Torah scroll were all examples of resistance too.  This teacher's guide provides background information, developed lessons, and lots of primary sources.

I find one of the most interesting parts of the guide to be a lesson on ethical wills.  We might think of a will as a way of dividing up our personal belongings after we pass away, but an ethical will is about putting your values and beliefs on paper.  It challenges students to think about what is really important in life and how even attempting to pass along your values is a form of resistance. 

 

Incorporating Holocaust concepts/content at the beginning of the school year

The beginning of the school year represents the “how to” phase for many teachers at both the middle school and high school level.  We are busy teaching students about the ways we want them to complete certain tasks that they will be doing throughout the year.  This creates an opportunity for us to use Holocaust concepts/content in a place and manner different from the traditional “Holocaust unit” that many people teach in the spring.  The following is a list of possible ways to bring in Holocaust material as you work on the “how to’s” of your classroom:

• Use Holocaust terms when teaching your students the steps/processes you want them to use with vocabulary they will encounter in your content area. 
•  Use a Holocaust excerpt to teach students how to mark the text for a Socratic Seminar.
• Use Holocaust excerpts when teaching your students the differences between non-fiction and fiction or diary vs. memoir. 
•  Use a Holocaust excerpt and history textbook reading on the Holocaust to show the differences in a primary source vs. a secondary source.
• Use Holocaust readings/videos to focus on a specific Common Core skill – example of possible skills listed here.

o    CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.7 Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a person’s life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account.

o    CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.8 Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.

HUGE book and teaching resource sale

Visit the MCHE office to peruse our book and teaching resource sale.

The Midwest Center for Holocaust Education is located at 5801 West 115th Street, Suite 106 in Overland Park, Kansas. The office is open from 8:30 am - 5:00 pm Monday-Friday.