CGagliardo

Christina Gagliardo EDC 448 Diverse Text Set 10/22/09 **The Holocaust**


 * Context for using the text set:** This text set is designed for a 12th grade World History class. The current unit is on the Holocaust and the following texts and online resources will be used in various lessons to enhance students’ comprehension of the subject. This mixture of diverse texts will be used individually, in small groups or in a class discussion, depending on the length, difficulty or context of the text. Also, the students in my class are reading at grade level with a few exceptions at each end of the spectrum.

Cayton, A., Israels Perry, E., Reed, L., & Winkler, A.M. (2003). //Pathways to present:// //modern american history.// Needham, MA: Pearson Education.
 * A. Print Resources:**
 * Text #1:** Holocaust Textbook Chapter from //Modern American History//


 * __Text Summary__: This chapter from the textbook is a good informational resource for students learning about the Holocaust. This text divides up each major theme into its own section. The themes include events leading up to the Holocaust, what happened during it, and all the way up to camp liberations and the Nuremburg Trials.
 * __Rationale__: In order for students to understand the other primary or secondary sources, they will need a background knowledge base of the subject to comprehend the major themes of the Holocaust.
 * __Use of text__: This text will be the basis of the reading students will do. I plan to read a section from this text and be able to relate it to my other primary and secondary sources. It will also be a useful text before moving into more critical thinking primary source documents.
 * __Attachment__: See attachment #1.

Wiesel, E. (1960). //Night.// New York: MacGibbon & Kee.
 * Text #2:** //Night// by Elie Wiesel

Duffy, M. (2009). //Treaty of versailles: articles 231-247 and annexes.// Retrieved October 20, 2009 from World War I Website at [] __ versailles231-247.htm. __
 * __Text Summary:__ This book is Elie Wiesel’s testimony about his experiences in the Holocaust. Although Wiesel is not precisely speaking, the narrator and protagonist of the story, Eliezer, represents Wiesel. He talks about his life in a ghetto all the way up to his experience in Auschwitz, the most deadly of the death camps.
 * __Rationale:__ This text is a great way to put the students into the shoes of someone who has lived through the Holocaust. They will be able to go through the thoughts and experiences that Wiesel had as a teenage concentration camp prisoner. Rather than reading facts about the death camps, students can experience what it was like.
 * __Use of text:__ This text will be read by the students throughout the unit and used as an ending assessment at the end of the unit. They will produce an essay on the comparisons/differences they found between their background knowledge of the Holocaust to what they read in the book. They will be able to draw the information they learned about the Holocaust and connect it to what they learned from the book. This will also be an opportunity to express the emotions they felt during the unit.
 * __Attachment:__ Text too large for attachment.
 * Text #3:** Treaty of Versailles

Bachrach, S., & Luckert, S. (2009). //State of deception: the power of nazi propaganda.// New York: Nortan & Company.
 * __Text Summary:__ This treaty was one of the peace treaties that ended World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. However, the treaty required Germany to accept the sole responsibility of causing the war, to disarm, give away some of their territory and to pay war debts to certain countries.
 * __Rationale:__ This is a key primary source to the study of the Holocaust because it fueled resentment in German citizens to their government and helped Hitler gain popularity with his promises of change.
 * __Use of text:__ After reading the first part of the textbook, students will break into groups and be given either Article 231, 232, or 233 to read. They will answer questions about why this treaty might anger and economically hurt Germany and how this could potentially lead to people looking for a new type of government or a new leader to follow.
 * __Attachment:__ See attachment #2.
 * Text #4:** Weimar Republic Personal Accounts from //Nazi Propaganda//

Wansee Conference and the Final Solution. (n.d.) In //Holocaust encyclopedia online.// Retrieved October 19, 2009 from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Website at [] __=10005477.__
 * __Text Summary:__ These excerpts illustrate what it was like to live in Germany during the Weimar Republic when Hitler was coming to power. One excerpt is about a person in Berlin during one of Hitler’s rallies. The streets were covered in Nazi posters and slogans and huge crowds were cheering Hitler on. The second excerpt is about a first-hand account of a person witnessing Nazis pull someone off the street and murder them while the police stand by and watch.
 * __Rationale:__ These primary sources are great because it is important to show what Germany was like when Hitler first came to power. It helps to explain how a country can let someone like Hitler come to power and give him the authority to kill millions of innocent people in the process.
 * __Use of text:__ These texts will go along with the pictures I have from the Weimar Republic era. Students will read these excerpts in small groups and will be given a picture to look at. I will ask the students to connect what they read in their textbook to what they are looking at in groups and come up with reasons why someone living in the Weimar Republic might listen to the ideas of Hitler and follow him.
 * __Attachment:__ See attachment #3.
 * Text #5:** “Wannsee Conference and the ‘Final Solution’” by U.S. Holocaust Museum


 * __Text Summary:__ This article gives a lot of information about the Wannsee Conference and their discussion of how to coordinate and carry out the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.”
 * __Rationale:__ This text provides more detailed information about the Wannsee Conference than the textbook provides. This conference is important to the study of the Holocaust because it is where they decide how to carry out the “Final Solution” which is a code name for the physical annihilation of the European Jews.
 * __Use of text:__ After reading the section of the textbook which mentions the conference, I will hand this out to the students and read it with them in class. This will give them a more in depth look at the conference. By reading this text with them, I will be able to go over the more difficult vocabulary or wording of the article that they might have had trouble with reading by themselves. After reading, I will ask the class discussion questions that ties in with the reading and addresses their critical thinking skills.
 * __Attachment:__ []

Bachrach, S., & Luckert, S. (2009). //State of deception: the power of nazi propaganda.// New York: Nortan & Company.
 * B. Media Resources**
 * Text #6:** Pictures of Weimar Republic from //Nazi Propaganda//

Stella, Q. (Producer), & Lanzmann, C. (Director). (1985). //Shoah// [Motion picture]. United States: New Yorker Films.
 * __Text Summary__: These pictures are from the Weimar Republic Era. They show how horrible life was like during this period of time. Most people were very poor due to the Depression and some of the illustrations show this. One picture is of a ballot of 36 different candidates people had to choose from when they vote. And two pictures depict the power of the Nazi party.
 * __Rationale__: These pictures are a great way to show students the reality of what life was like during the Weimar Republic. By showing the horrible conditions the citizens of Germany were in, students can try to understand why someone might follow Hitler if he promised a change.
 * __Use of text__: These pictures will be used with the 2 excerpts from the //Nazi Propaganda// book on a lesson about the Weimar Republic. After reading the primary sources in small groups, each group will be given a picture to talk about. They will try to come up with reasons why someone living in the Weimar Republic might listen to the ideas of Hitler and follow him. Then they will share their photo with the rest of the class and share what they came up with.
 * __Attachment__: See attachment #4.
 * Text #7:** //Shoah// Documentary


 * __Text Summary:__ This is a documentary film that consists of interviews with people who were involved in various ways in the Holocaust like survivors, witnesses, and perpetrators. They also travel to the different places they discuss.
 * __Rationale:__ Students will be able to listen to more accounts of survivors like Elie Wiesel. But, they will also be able to hear accounts from witnesses who lived near the camps or people who had a hand in the Holocaust like SS officers or even the train drivers. Students can also see the remains of some of the camps and see how the Nazi party tried to cover up their work.
 * __Use of text:__ Because this video is over 9 hours, I will show only certain parts of it to the class. After going over the textbook, this will be a good time to show the film because it deals with how the Holocaust affected all of these people, but it will also go over what they already learned. Students will need to answer discussion questions after the film to show that they can connect what they learned to what they saw in the film.
 * __Attachment:__ No attachment available.

Yad Vashem. (2009). Children in the Ghetto. Retrieved October 20, 2009 from [].
 * C. Online interactive resources**
 * Text #8:** "Children in the Ghetto" Interactive Website

Cesarani, D. (2009). Timeline: Persecution and Genocide under the Nazis 1933-1945. Retrieved October 19, 2009 from [] __ genocide/launch_tl_persecution_genocide.shtml. __
 * __Text Summary__: This interactive website is about the lives of children in the ghetto. It shows a scene from a ghetto and when you click on different pictures it will give you more information about topics like hunger in the ghetto, schools in the ghetto or how crowded it was.
 * __Rationale__: After reading about ghettos in the textbook, this text will be able to help students go further in depth with the subject than the textbook could offer. They can click on the different features of the ghetto to learn more about what it was like to live there.
 * __Use of text__: This is a fun activity where the students can discover the information by themselves. This activity will also help them when writing their //Night// essay because they can connect what they read in the activity to what they read in //Night//, so the students will be told to write notes.
 * __Attachment__: []
 * Text #9:** Persecution and Genocide under the Nazis 1933-1945 Timeline


 * __Text Summary:__ This website provides an interactive timeline of the Holocaust where you can click on a date and be able to read what happened.
 * __Rationale:__ This timeline provides students an opportunity to see the events that lead up to the Holocaust, during, and after. It helps students visualize what events happened when and gives them an opportunity to review important dates and years that are key to the study of the Holocaust.
 * __Use of text:__ Students will be able to use this at the end of the unit to go over the timeline of events they already read about and reinforce the material. They could also use this if they wanted to include important dates or years in their essays.
 * __Attachment:__ []

Marcus, W. (2009). //Online workshop: teaching about the holocaust.// Retrieved October 19, 2009 from [].
 * D. Instructional Resources**
 * Text #10:** "Online Workshop: Teaching about the Holocaust" by Warren Marcus


 * __Text Summary__: This text is an online workshop that provides useful guidelines to teaching the Holocaust, topics to teach, personal testimonies, sample lessons and more.
 * __Rationale__: I feel like this website would be beneficial for a teacher to add to their knowledge about the topic. It also has guidelines which help give you useful tips when teaching this sensitive and emotional subject to students. The sample lesson plans would also be beneficial just to see how they would set up the unit.
 * __Use of text__: To use this text teachers can use aspects from the sample lesson plans and also implement the guidelines they give you while teaching the topic.
 * __Attachment__: []


 * Using these texts together in the classroom:** All of the texts above will be read or viewed by every member of the class. The textbook would be the base reading material for general knowledge about the Holocaust. The rest of the texts will provide further depth into the topics being discussed and access critical thinking skills, especially with the primary documents. All of the texts will be structured with either guiding questions for written answers or class/group discussions. The //Night// text will provide a further critical thinking task. Because the book could not be read in a day or two, students will be given the unit to read the book. At the end of the unit students will be able to tie in what they learned about the Holocaust to what they read in the book in an essay. Students will be given essay guiding questions to help them with this. While the students are reading //Night//, they will also have the other texts to look at in class. All the texts will be introduced in chronological order along with reading the textbook. The Treaty of Versailles and Weimar Republic texts will be broken down in small groups with guiding questions and a class discussion to follow. The Wannsee Conference article will be read with the teacher to go over difficult vocabulary and content followed by guiding questions. The interactive website for "Children in the Ghetto" will be done while the students are learning about ghettos from their textbook. While the other interactive website and the film //Shoah// will be used towards the end of the unit to review. The film will provide a visual, as well as get the students’ attention. After the film there will be guiding questions which will be completed individually. The diversity of the time span of each of these texts allows students to go through this unit with more than only a textbook to look at and each text enhances each section mentioned in the textbook.


 * Learning Objectives:**

National Social Sciences Expectations for US History: NSS-WH.5-12.8 Era 8: A Half-Century of Crisis and Achievement, 1900-1945 -Understands reform, revolution, and social change in the world economy of the early century. -Understands the causes and global consequences of World War I. -Understands the search for peace and stability in the 1920s and 1930s. 

__Reading Expectations:__ R-10-5: Analyze and interpret elements of literary texts, citing evidence where appropriate. R-10-5.1: Explaining a supporting logical predictions or logical outcomes.

Hey Christina, I really like your text set collection! I think you found a great collection of texts that will really teach students a ton of information about the Holocaust! I think the texts go really well together and you have good ideas for the uses of them. You have a ton of real life examples that will help students see the reality of the lesson. I like the inclusion of Night, mainly because I liked reading it! I also really like the pictures and the video. I think they will really help students relate and understand the gravity of the situation when it was going on. I like the idea of the timeline, and I think it is a great reference for the students. I wonder if there is a way you can make a copy for them to keep and refer back to? My only worry is that this may be a difficult lesson for students to learn and deal with, but it is a huge topic in history and I'm sure you will be great at teaching it! Mikaela

Christina, I liked the variety of texts you collected for your Holocaust lesson. It is very important to have different angles of history from historians, first person accounts, stories from that time period, to text based third party accounts. You seem to have a variety which will make it very interesting for students to learn about it, and you focus on the history before WWII which is good because it helps students understand how something so horrible could have happened. With me majoring in German, I like the fact that you are covering before Hitler came to power because I believe that is a key point to address. I agree with Mikaela that this is a huge topic, but you seem to focus on the Holocaust and your text doesn't stray from the topic. I also think that the timeline will be very beneficial for students in organizing all the events in their minds. Good job. -Richard Irons