May is Jewish Pacific Heritage Month

The following blog post was written for and first appeared on teachbetter.com blog on May 2, 2023.

The month of May is designated as Jewish American Heritage Month and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. During this month we honor “the generations of Jewish Americans and Asian and Pacific Islanders who have enriched American history and are instrumental in its success.” 

The month of May in my eighth grade classroom is when we are studying  WW2, the Holocaust, and Japanese Internment. In both English and social studies students are reading historical fiction, memoirs, and nonfiction texts of their choice about these topics. In history students are studying the dates and facts, reading primary sources, and understanding the ramifications of the war on a global level. The aim in this cross curricular unit is for students to develop an understanding of the roots and ramifications of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping in any society. Additionally, students develop an awareness of the value of pluralism and encourage acceptance of diversity in a pluralistic society. One key facet is to not just learn about the victims but also honor the Jewish and Asian American heroes who showed perseverance and were instrumental during this time.

Students learn about Japanese Internment as well as the 442nd regimental combat team, a segregated Japanese American unit who are the most decorated unit in US History for their bravery and heroism. Students read the graphic novel They Called Us Enemy by George Takei and gain a child’s perspective of Executive Order 9066 and living in an Internment Camp in Takei’s memoir. Some students select to read Traci Chee’s We Are Not Free, a Printz Honor Winner young adult  historical fiction text that was based on the author’s grandparents stories of being incarcerated during WW2. 

I have put together two different hyperdocs,  a digital document such as a Google Doc where all components of a learning cycle have been pulled together into one central hub for students to learn more.. Within the hyperdocs students are provided with hyperlinks to all of the resources to work on at their own pace and learn about the diverse groups of soldiers who made up America’s military and a second hyperdoc that examines Japanese Internment and the ramifications for today. You can make a copy of these two hyperdocs when you click on the images below. 

Similarly, in studying the Holocaust students read stories of survivors and even have the opportunity to Zoom with a survivor to hear her story. You can connect with a speaker through the Jewish Heritage Museum’s Speakers Bureau in New York City. Additionally, students look at art work and read poetry from the victims and survivors of the Holocaust to understand the horrors of this period in history. The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam offers a virtual tour online of the Secret Annex where Anne and her family hid for more than two years during WW2 where she wrote her diary. 

Educational materials have been curated by The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration with primary sources about the Chinese Exclusion Act, Annexation of Hawaii, and Japanese Americans during WW2. The National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has links and resources for teaching about  the generations of Jewish Americans who have contributed to American history, culture and society.

For our culminating project for WW2 students create their own multi genre text on a specific topic and theme about World War II. This summative assessment  and multi genre project incorporates five different texts (fiction and nonfiction) grounded in specific historical documents to highlight a common theme prevalent in WWII. Allowing students to be researchers and writers enables students to use higher order thinking and comprehension skills while at the same time tap into 21st Century skills as digital citizens and creators. Students will utilize technology for research and writing to produce a blog that presents their understanding and learning of this inquiry unit on WWII and the Holocaust.

This May consider ways to share stories, expose stereotypes and myths about Jewish and Asian Americans and celebrate their rich culture and diversity. 

Be sure to share in the comments ways that you are helping to celebrate Jewish Pacific Heritage Month in your classroom. 

Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art

During World War II, untold numbers of artworks and pieces of cultural property were stolen by Nazi forces. After the war, an estimated one million artworks and 2.5 million books were recovered. Many more were destroyed.

You might have seen movies like Monuments Men which tell the true stories of the British and American men and women who tracked, located, and recovered looted objects of Western Civilization from the Nazis and Hitler during WWII or The Woman in Gold which tells the true story of Maria Altmann, a Jewish refugee, who sued the Austrian government to recover artwork she believes rightfully belongs to her family.

The Jewish Museum in New York City’s current exhibition Afterlives chronicles the layered stories of the objects that survived from famous paintings to religious artifacts that were stolen by the Nazis. Some items were supposed to be destroyed where as other painting were selected by Nazi military leader Hermann Goering for his personal collection, and even put in storage for Hitler’s degenerate art exhibits and antisemitic exhibitions. Afterlives explores the circumstances of each painting’s theft, their post-war rescue, and their afterlives in museums and private collections.

Henri Matisse, Daisies, 1939

Henri Matisse, Girl in Yellow and Blue with Guitar, 1939

Pierre Bonnard, Still Life with Guelder Roses, 1892

Henri Fantis-Latour, Self Portrait, 1861

Gustave Courbet, Nude Reclining by the Sea, 1868

Afterlives includes objects by renowned artists as Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cézanne, Marc Chagall, Gustave Courbet, Paul Klee, Franz Marc, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Camille Pissarro. Treasured pieces of Judaica, including rare examples of Jewish ceremonial objects from destroyed synagogues, are also on view, as well as rarely seen archival photographs and documents that connect the objects to history.

75 years after the Second World War, Afterlives explores how surviving artworks and other precious objects were changed by those events, and how they have moved through time, bearing witness to profound historical ruptures while also acting as enduring carriers of individual expression, knowledge, and creativity. The exhibition follows the paths taken by works of art across national borders, through military depots, and in and out of networks of collectors, looters, ideologues, and restitution organizations.

One of the plaques in the exhibits reads, In war, property becomes power, and stolen art becomes an instrument of policy. During WWII, looting from Jewish collections was widespread and included both systematic plunder and opportunistic thefts. One of the largest Nazi art-looting tasks forces, operating throughout occupied Europe, was the Einsatzsab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, ERR. The ERR was shared with stealing valuables – jewelry, furniture, and especially works of art. Some were absorbed into Nazi collections as marks of prestige; others were sold on the international market to raise funds for the Nazi war machines and many, labeled “degenerate,” were destroyed. Below is the audio transcript of the exhibit and the artifacts.

The Nazi’s hid the art work they stole across multiple countries and continents. In 1945 Allied forces found looted art that was transferred to a salt mine in Altaussee in Austria, one of the largest Nazi storage depots. The mine’s underground tunnels housed more than six thousand artworks, including masterpieces by Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Jan van Eyck, and Vermeer. Some items were sent from Paris to Czechoslovakia like Picasso’s 1929 Group of Characters.

The Monuments Men Foundation has a lot of information on its website of the men and women who helped to saved the art, more about the discoveries and returns, and more about restitution. Anyone can discover the story of the Monuments Men through an interactive online game developed by Mystery City Games. In this point-and-click adventure, you will collect clues, solve puzzles, and complete missions as you race to find some of Europe’s most precious pieces of art looted by the Nazis. Experience the story in a whole new way through beautiful graphics and fun puzzles as you compete or collaborate to solve the most missions! 

You can read more about Hitler’s “Degenerate” Art Exhibits used to politically and culturally spread Nazi ideals. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum provides more details of the Degenerate Art Exhibits and Disposal of Confiscated Art.

When my students are learning about WWII and the Holocaust I have a QR code art exhibit with some of the art Hitler deemed “degenerate.” I used this guide and pamphlet for students to record their observations of the art work, ask questions, and dismantle Nazi propaganda.

History is more than dates, name, and places. Each piece of art that was looted during WWII tells a story and encompasses a journey that is steeped in history worth sharing with our students.

Marvel Comics As A Teaching Text

Marvel’s The Falcon and Winter Solider mini-series on Disney Plus has kept me watching for the past six weeks. This Marvel spin off introduces the backstories of Captain America’s two friends Sam Wilson, the Falcon and Bucky Barnes turned White Wolf, turned Winter Solider. Both of these characters have minor roles in Avenger’s Infinity War and Endgame, as well as all the Captain America movies. There is lots of action and then there are many subplots throughout the series that address American’s past involvement in war, medical experimentation on African American soldiers, racism, and the world’s responsibility to refugees.

Every episode I watched I thought how can I bring this into my classroom as a teaching text. The ethical questions raised in the series are current controversial topics that connect to history, civics, and global issues.

What are the symbols of America and what do they stand for?

What are the benefits and consequences of taking (or giving people) a super solider serum?

Who’s responsibility is it to take care of refugees?

What does “one world and one people” mean?

We cannot ignore the fact that the series took on some of these tough questions all the while Sam’s journey of becoming the next Captain America. Erik Amaya writes for Rotten Tomatoes, “But for all those interesting global issues, the series really revolved around Sam’s emotional journey to accepting the Captain America identity. From the financial struggles Black people face on the regular to the way they are used and tossed aside by the military, the series constantly introduced reasons why Sam might not want to wear the U.S.” 

Erik Deggans reports for NPR, “But having a Black man step up to be a symbol of America at a time when police brutality and systemic racism are front-page issues couldn’t be a simple matter.”

“Every time I pick this thing up, I know there are millions of people out there who are going to hate me for it,” Wilson says in one poignant speech in the season finale. “Yet I’m still here. No super serum. No blond hair or blue eyes. The only power I have, is to believe we can do better.” Deggans responds, “At a time when average people are risking their safety to protest police brutality, putting so much on the line for the belief that America can be made better by the hard work of earnest people, that kind of speech feels like a rallying cry.”

So where does this fit into my curriculum?

My students are currently working on an independent reading unit on World War 2. Last week I introduced a side quest or call it a slide deck I created about Marvel tackling WW2 starting with X-Men and then looking at Captain America and The Falcon and Winter Solider — or should I say Captain America and the Winter Solider.

The slide deck introduces students to X-Men’s Magneto and his origin story as a Holocaust survivor in comics and the movies. Students learn about the Nuremberg Laws, Auschwitz, Dr. Mengele, and Sonderkommandos. The slide deck also gives the history of Captain America’s first comic, the connection between Red Skull, Captain America’s Arch Enemy and his connections to Hitler. There is the topic of super solider and eugenics that a connects with the current series of The Falcon and the Winter Solider. At the end of the slide deck I include two different Roll the Dice Activities based on whether students are Marvel fans or not.

If you have ideas for using Marvel in your classroom, share your ideas in the comments section of this blog. I would love to get more ideas and even collaborate with others.

Addressing Anti-Semitism After the January 6th Attack on the Capital

Last week’s attack on the Capital is something that shook up the world and also brought attention to the vile, pervasive white supremacy in America today. Images of insurgents wearing “Camp Auschwitz” and “Six Million Wasn’t Enough” shirts to carrying confederate flags, to a noose hanging outside the Capital building affirms that anti-semitism and Neo-Nazis, hatred and racism, are not only something of America’s history and dark past. White supremacy is alive and well, and last week’s terror attack continues to affirm this.

Amy Spitalnick writes in a blog post for Integrity First for America, a nonprofit organization dedicated civil rights and equal justice, how “the capital attack followed the Charlottesville playbook in many ways: On both mainstream and fringe social media sites, these extremists planned violence in explicit detail. They then show sup with weapons in tactical gear, prepared for the violence they planned. Both are field by the idea of the “country being stolen from them.” And now, far right extremists are using the attack to recruit and organize online, with all indications pointing to the potential of more violence in the coming weeks.”

The Anti-Defamation League reports 2,107 hate crimes against Jewish people nationwide in 2019, according to the organization’s annual survey. That’s the highest the number since the ADL began tallying hate crimes in 1979. In 2020 the number of hate crimes around the world only increased. Hannahmichelledraws created and posted the image below on her Instagram account to highlight 9 antisemitic incidents in December 2020 alone.

We must allow for space and time in our classrooms and around the dinner table for conversations about dismantling racism, hatred, and anti-semitism.

Here are some resources to support these conversations:

21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge from America and Moore

Teaching Tolerance recommends the resources below to help teach about Jewish identities and antisemitism: 

• Teaching Tolerance’s free film One Survivor Remembers and teacher’s guide
• Teaching Tolerance’s school climate resources, including Responding to Hate and Bias at School
• Selections from our Student Text library: “Out of Auschwitz,” “About Feeling Jewish,” “Danger on My Doorstep,” “Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport” and “What Is Talmud?” 
• Facing History and Ourselves’ antisemitism and religious intolerance resources
• The Anti-Defamation League (ADL)’s tools and resources for anti-bias education
• A classroom activity from the ADL titled Anti-Semitic Incidents: Being an Ally, Advocate and Activist
• The United States Holocaust Museum’s tools and resources 

When teaching social justice and WW2 with my middle school students we start with the Anti-Defamation League’s Pyramid of Hate. The Pyramid shows biased behaviors, growing in complexity from the bottom to the top. Although the behaviors at each level negatively impact individuals and groups, as one moves up the pyramid, the behaviors have more life-threatening consequences. Students read choice novels about WW2 and the Holocaust that coincides with studying about WW2 in social studies.

Classroom Resources for Teaching the Holocaust

• Teaching About the Holocaust (United States Holocaust Museum)
• Teaching the Holocaust (Echoes and Reflections)
• Holocaust Resources (Faching History and Ourselves)
• Resources for Teaching About the Holocaust (Larry Ferlazzo)

Here is a curated list of 50 social justice books from the nonprofit Teaching for Change. Here is a second, broken down by grade level, by The National Network of State Teachers of the Year. On this blog I have shared out the playlists and projects that my students create that coincide with their reading and research about WW2 and social justice. You can check out more of these posts or grab a copy of the WW2 playlist HERE.

Holocaust Memorial Day: Why It Matters

Our child and students are the “last link” to Holocaust survivors. Many survivors are in their mid to late 80s. They will not live forever, but their stories will.

Technology has allowed us to capture the stories and testimony. The Jewish Heritage Museum in New York City has introduced virtual reality and virtual conversations with Holocaust survivor testimony. Dimensions in Testimony allows visitors to experience a “virtual conversation” with Pinchas Gutter, a survivor of six Nazi concentration camps. When you ask questions, Pinchas—in the form of a pre-recorded projection—provides answers in real time.

To create this experience Pinchas answered approximately 1,500 questions for the creation of Dimensions in Testimony. Your unique questions prompt his recorded responses—made possible by specialized recording and display technologies and next-generation natural language processing. As the JHM states on its website, “Dimensions in Testimony ensures that future generations will still be able to speak with and learn from survivors.”

The current Auschwitz: Not Long Ago. Not Far Away “exhibit brings together more than 700 original objects and 400 photographs from over 20 institutions and museums around the world. Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. is the most comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the history of Auschwitz and its role in the Holocaust ever presented in North America, and an unparalleled opportunity to confront the singular face of human evil—one that arose not long ago and not far away.”

In conjunction with the exhibit, there is a virtual reality experience for visitors. The Last Goodbye is a 20-minute immersive virtual reality testimony experience produced by USC Shoah Foundation. It represents unprecedented advances in storytelling through technology. During the VR experience Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter tours the Majdanek concentration camp where his parents and twin sister were murdered during World War II. As Pinchas recounts his experiences, you walk alongside him—seeing what he sees, hearing what he hears, and learning as he guides you through an account of his own history.

Why Remember?

The entranceway to the Museum’s Core Exhibition has two biblical quotations carved into its granite walls: “Remember . . . Never forget,” [Deuteronomy 25:17, 19] and “There is hope for your future” [Jeremiah 31:16].

• What should we remember, and why?

• On what should humanity as a whole base its hope for the future?

• On what do you base your hope for the future?

 

Last week there was an opportunity for my students to hear two survivors. Henry Brecher was six years old in Graz, Austria in 1938. On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria to annex the German-speaking nation for the Third Reich. In early 1938, Austrian Nazis conspired to seize the Austrian government by force and unite their nation with Nazi Germany. As a result, Henry’s parents decided to send him to live with cousins in Croatia and for six years he was sent off to live with friends and family while his parents and grandparents stayed back and were later killed in concentration camps. At the age of twelve, Henry was sent to a refugee camp in Oswego, New York. Imagine your parents sending you to a foreign place with relatives you know little about.

Marion Blumenthal Lazan was speaking in our community for Yom HaShoah Commemoration. Following Hitler’s rise to power, the Blumenthal family  were trapped in Nazi Germany. They managed eventually to get to Holland, but soon thereafter it was occupied by the Nazis. For the next six and a half years the Blumenthal’s were forced to live in refugee, transit, and prison camps that included Westerbork in Hollan and the notorious Bergen-Belsen in Germany. Though they all survived the camps, Marion’s father succumbed to typhus just after liberation. It took three more years of struggle and waiting before Marion, her brother and moth obtained the necessary papers and boarded ship for United States.

Racism and bigotry continue today. These survivors speak to students because they know that today’s generation will be the last to hear first hand accounts of the dark time in our history. If you do not have access to a survivor you might ask students to read a Holocaust memoir.

Biography, Memoirs, and Diaries

Auerbacher, Inge. I Am a Star: Child of the Holocaust. New York: Puffin Books, 1993.

Drucker, Olga Levy. Kindertransport. New York: Henry Holt, 1995.

Fluek, Toby Knobel. Memories of My Life in a Polish Village 1930-1949. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990.

 

Frank, Anne. The Diary of Anne Frank: The Revised Critical Edition. New York: Doubleday and Company, 2003.

Frister, Roman. The Cap: The Price of a Life. New York: Grove Press, 2000.

Grossman, Mendel. My Secret Camera: Life in the Lodz Ghetto. London: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 2008.

Heller, Fanya Gottesfeld. Love in a World of Sorrow: A Teenage Girl’s Holocaust Memoirs. New York: Devorah Publishing, 2005.

Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013.

Michel, Ernest W. Promises Kept: One Man’s Journey Against Terrible Odds. New York: Barricade, 2008.

Neimark, Anne E. One Man’s Valor: Leo Baeck and the Holocaust. New York: Dutton, 1986.

Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. London: Penguin Books, 2003.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006.

Zapruder, Alexandra (ed.). Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.

Zeller, Frederic. When Time Ran Out: Coming of Age in the Third Reich. New York: Permanent Press, 1989.

To Gamify or Not to Gamify a Holocaust Unit of Study

BreakoutEDU does not accept or recommend creating games on topics such as slavery and the Holocaust. In fact, on the website it states, “Not all topics are suitable for a Breakout EDU game. For example, topics like slavery and the Holocaust are better suited for a classroom discussion or reflective essay and should not be gamified.”

With a sensitive topic like the Holocaust, I am reflecting on whether or not to gamify an 8th grade Holocaust and WWII unit of study.

There are a few games related to the Holocaust currently on the market like Secret Hitler which “is a social deduction game for 5-10 people about finding and stopping the Secret Hitler. Players are secretly divided into two teams: the liberals, who have a majority, and the fascists, who are hidden to everyone but each other. If the liberals can learn to trust each other, they have enough votes to control the elections and save the day. But the fascists will say whatever it takes to get elected, advance their agenda, and win the game.”

I came across a game in development titled Rosenstrasse by Moyra Turkington and Jessica Hammer last summer at the Games for Change Conference. Rosenstrasse is “a tabletop freeform scenario with a strongly defined historical story weaving the lives of four pairs of men and women bound by love under the tightening chokehold of Nazi Germany. Players work through two characters to deeply explore two of these relationships as the clock ticks towards WWII and the Final Solution. Ideologies will be challenged, marriages tested, personal losses will be grave, and they will have to hold tightly together to see it through. The stories of these eight people will converge in a historic moment of terrifying civic defiance.”

 Additionally, Call of Duty WWII depicts the Holocaust where “the player controls an American soldier fighting in the European theater. In addition to shooting Nazi soldiers, players will also be exposed to racism towards Jews and African-Americans within their platoon.”

I have thought about giving students passports or avatars, similar to those guests received upon entering the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Students go on a mission to uncover the events and actions that led up to Holocaust, collecting evidence on both allied powers and axis powers for their roles during WWII. Furthermore, students examine primary documents to address the refugee crisis, decision to use atomic weapons, and the trial of Nazi War Criminals to explore the complexities of this time period. What are the choices and decisions that were made and how did it impact masses of people.

I am still thinking this through and developing lessons. The one burning questions at this time is when a game is created to address a sensitive topic what is lost and or gained building students’ understanding and empathy?

Please share your thoughts in the comments section on this blog.

Field Trip: Neue Galerie New York

My students are currently studying the Holocaust and WWII. Collaborating with social studies, students are reading in small groups a wide selection of historical fiction, nonfiction, and memoirs connected to this time period. In addition to the independent books, primary sources, propaganda posters, diaries, poems, and art work are presented to help students learn about this time period and from multiple perspectives.

A current exhibit at The Ronald S. Lauder Neue Galerie in New York City, Museum for German and Austrian Art foreshadows the atrocities of Germany in the 1930s. — Yes, this is the same Ronald S. Lauder who purchased Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) better know as the Woman in Gold also on permanent display at the museum.

Currently on exhibit is “Before the Fall: German and Austrian Art of the 1930s” an exhibition devoted to the development of the arts in Germany and Austria during a decade marked by economic crisis, political disintegration, and social chaos. The website states, “This exhibition, comprised of nearly 150 paintings and works on paper, will trace the many routes traveled by German and Austrian artists and will demonstrate the artistic developments that foreshadowed, reflected, and accompanied the beginning of World War II. Central topics of the exhibition will be the reaction of the artists towards their historical circumstances, the development of style with regard to the appropriation of various artistic idioms, the personal fate of artists, and major political events that shaped the era.” Works by Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Max Ernst, Oskar Kokoschka, and Alfred Kubin are presented alongside pieces by lesser-known artists such as Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, Albert Paris Gütersloh, Karl Hubbuch, Richard Oelze, Josef Scharl, Franz Sedlacek, and Rudolf Wacker.

This exhibit and the paintings are windows and doorways into artists premonitions and warnings that something terrible was brewing in Europe in the 1930s. Many of these artists were deemed “degenerate” by Nazis because of political and religious affiliations. As the The New York Times states, the art work on display is “more than mere evidence of barbarity.”

In order to help my students understand the events that occurred during this time period and understand the hatred and the horror in conjunction with the books they are  reading, I created a virtual “degenerate” art exhibit. Upon entering the classroom, students were given a pamphlet with excerpts of Hitler’s Speech at the Opening of the House of German Art in Munich (July 18, 1937). Select paintings were posted around the room for students to view in a gallery format. I also included a QR Code to link to a slide show of the pictures on the art show pamphlet. Utilizing Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), students viewed the paintings. Together we viewed closely and discussed as a large class Felix Nussbaum’s Self Portrait [see above]. The next activity  required students to complete the statements from the point of view of Hitler and the perspective of a modern artist deemed “degenerate.”

The closing quote at the bottom of the pamphlet poses a quote from the artist, Paul Klee, “Art does not reproduce what we see. It makes us see.” Isn’t that what we want for our students, to make us see, provoke questions, make connections, and build empathy.

 

 

Let’s Link Up: WWII & Holocaust Literature Hyperdoc for Book Clubs and Literature Circles

Hyperdocs are digital documents like a Google Doc where all aspects of learning are pulled together in one place. Within the document students are provided with hyperlinks of all aspects of the inquiry unit: videos, slideshows, images, and activities to complete the unit of student and gain understanding. Students have  multi-modal opportunities for learning and there is less teacher lecturing at the front of the class.

 Jennifer Gonzalez, blogger and editor in chief of Cult of Pedagogy describes hyperdocs being synonymous with Playlists. Gonzalez writes, “With playlists, the responsibility for executing the learning plan shifts: Students are given the unit plan, including access to all the lessons (in text or video form), ahead of time. With the learning plan in hand, students work through the lessons and assignments at their own pace. And because each student has her own digital copy of the playlist (delivered through a system like Google Classroom), the teacher can customize the list to meet each student’s needs” (2016).

Depending on the hyperdoc the teacher makes, differentiated activities and technology rich assignments can help student learn and show their understanding throughout. Hyperdocs allow students to  work at their own pace and the hyperdoc offers a “roadmap” for student learning. When teachers design Hyperdocs they are “using technology to create, adapt, and personalized learning experience that foster independent learning and accommodate learner differences to maximize active, deep learning” (ISTE Standards for Educators 5a-b).

Below is a Hyperdoc I recently created for a Holocaust and WWII book club unit. The Hyperdoc includes individual student assignments and collaborative activities for students to discuss their reading with their peers. For this unit, students select one of titles to read in book club and meet in their book club groups three or more times over the course of the unit, taking ownership of this reading inquiry. Students meet for book club twice a week for about 20 minutes per class. These book clubs are opportunities for student centered and student driven learning. 

Double Whammy: Games for Change Conference & Games in Education Summit

This week was the golden opportunity for gamers, gamification, and game developers. Both Games for Change Festival and Games in Education Summit took place in New York the the first week of August.

Games for Change addresses how “how games can impact education, healthcare, research, civics, and social issues. The first two days of the Festival showcases the best and brightest game creators and changemakers with panels and keynotes, demos, networking events, and an expo. On the third day of the Festival, VR for Change Summit explores the positive power of virtual technologies in storytelling, science, and social justice.” The fact that this conference is not just focused on education, broadens one’s understanding of the impact of games across fields and highlights game designers who have created innovative and impacting games. Listening to Jesse Schell from Schell Games and jennifer Javornik of Filament Games discuss what is on the horizon with gaming and virtual reality is inspiring.

Additional gems shared at #G4C17 include ArtsEdge Games presenting a Romeo & Juliet LARP (Live Action Role Play). Students participate in creating a scene from Shakespeare’s play with the aim to “embody characters and explore the choices of several characters and learn what drives each one.” In the Larp, students talk to one another and behave as they think their characters would (students are given role cards with a list of tasks they must achieve during the role play). All the details and directions are available on the ArtsEdge website.

Jessica Hammer, Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and Shoshana Kessocks of Phoenix Outlaw Productions presented games they created about the Holocaust and WWII. Jessica Hammer with Moyra Turkington have a tabletop game in development called Rosenstrasse that require players to make difficult ethical decisions about standing up and defying the Third Reich. Shoshana Kessock’s WarBirds Anthology is a collection of LARPs based on women during World War II. Available through Unruly Designs, these games are valuable for grade 8 and up studying WWII and the Holocaust.

Tracking Ida is a unique “homebrewed” game similar to a BreakoutEdu. “Tracking Ida is an educational alternate reality game (ARG) inspired by the pioneering investigative journalism of Ida B. Wells in the 1890s. Players uncover Ida B. Wells’ crusade against lynching and use her strategies to investigate police and vigilante killings today. Along the way, they solve puzzles, decode messages through a phonograph, role-play as investigative journalists, interview members of their community, and harness social media to spread awareness. Players explore a trunk sent by Ida B. Wells. The trunk contains the salvaged evidence of Wells’ investigation into Memphis lynchings–what she managed to preserve after her newspaper office was burned down by a lynch mob in 1892. To keep these documents out of her persecutors’ hands, Wells secured them in locked compartments. Players solve puzzles to unlock each compartment in the trunk as they search for the map to her investigative tactics.” This history based game allows students to be explorers and detectives to uncover and interact with American History past. More information is available on the Tracking Ida website.

The learning did not just stop at #G4C17, at the end of the week the 11th Annual Games in Education Symposium (#GiE17) took place at University of Albany. This two day summit was for game developers and educators to learn from each other. Dr. Chris Haskell’s keynote presentation “To Boldly Go: Technology, Captain Kirk, and the Future of Education” took us on a trip into space as members of the Star Trek Crew to realize that “fiction is the playground of possibility” and the impact that science fiction, Star Trek especially, has had on our current technology. He encouraged participants to make their classrooms their own StarShip and take students on a mission to seek out new ideas, work together, work ethically, and reach beyond the stars.

#GiE17 had both presentations and hands on workshops on Makey Makey, Game Design, Raspberry Pi, Boxels, and Minecraft. Presentations from the amazing teacher Peggy Sheehy, shared how she turned her class into a game, Excalibur: Explore, Create, Analyze, Learn, Iterate, Break, Understand, Reflect. John Morelock and Joshua Garcia Sheridan both students at Virginia Tech shared how the Board Game Pandemic is used to teach teamwork in the Engineering School at VT.

The key lesson for teachers at both #G4C17 and #GiE17 was that gamification and gaming is not some fad. Gaming is not the future, it is now. Our students are engrossed in the gaming culture and it is changing the way they think and see learning, teamwork, and the world. Teachers need to meet students where they are at and use gaming as a tool for learning and collaboration. There infinite benefits to gaming. And if Jeopardy is your idea of gaming in the classroom, it’s time to renew your own participation in the current wold of gaming: table top games, video games, role playing games, digital games. Would you rather be an XG or N00b? If your not sure what I am talking about, look it up. Your mission begins here.

Lessons from the Past: Building a Multi-genre Humanities Unit on the Holocaust

I am currently working with two social studies teachers to create a unit of study on the Holocaust. This collaborative unit will tap into the new 3C Framework  for Social Studies Standards and the Common Core Learning Standards for Literacy to promote critical thinking, close reading and students creating their own multigenre text.  

This 6-8 week unit on World War II incorporates multigenre texts (book excerpts, poetry, plays, letters, primary documents, speeches, political cartoons, and additional art work), project based activities, and co-teaching among ELA and Social Studies teachers. Over the course of the unit students will write their own multigenre text as a formative assessment based on some aspect of World War II. This unit of study will be a skills based unit that requires students to look at aspects of humanity within war and conflict.

Below are five learning stations that highlight the voices and testimony of Holocaust survivors and victims.

Station One: Concentration Camp Life

1. Read the story of Holocaust survivor Erma Sonnenberg Menkel (http://www.ou.org/holidays/the-three-weeks/saw-anne-frank-die/)

What did you learn after reading this article?

What happened to Anne Frank after she was taken out of the secret annex?

2. Watch the survivor video testimonies of Norbert Wolheim (http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_oi.php?ModuleId=10007143&MediaId=5721) and Alice Lok Cahana (http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_oi.php?MediaId=1081)

How were their stories similar or different from Erma’s?

Would you have done the same things they did if you were in their position(s)?

3. Choose to complete 20 Words Activity or Found Poem

Station Two: Reading Diaries of Teenagers Who Lived in the Ghetto

1. Read excerpts from diaries, written by teenagers, about their life in the ghettos, and their physical and emotional conditions there.

The story of Yitskhok Rudashevski from Vilna Ghetto began writing his diary when he approached his fifteenth birthday. He wrote about his academic pursuits and of how he sees himself contributing to the intellectual and literary life of the Ghetto.

On September 1943, the liquidation of the ghetto began. He and his family went into hiding; later on, the family was found and taken to Ponar, where they were shot to death. His friend, who survived, returned to the hiding place where she discovered the diary.

2. Complete the Think Dots Activity: Each person at your table will take turns rolling the dice and complete the learning task from the corresponding dot.

Station Three: Poetry & The Holocaust

1.Read the poem three times. Then answer the following questions:

What are some words in the poem that brings images to your mind?

What do you think is the theme (message) of the poem? What line or lines from the poem gave you that indication?

What is the poet’s purpose for the reader (How did the poet stir you?)

Emotional- Does the poet wants the reader to become emotional about the message? (angry, sad, happy, peaceful, complacent, courage, fear, etc.) What is your evidence?- Share a line.

Reflective: Think about the message in terms of your own life, be inspired. Share a line and make a connection.

Homesick

(from I never saw another butterfly)

I’ve lived in the ghetto here for more than a year,

In Terezin, in the black town now,

And when I remember my old home so dear, I can love it more than I did, somehow.

Ah, home, home,

Why did they tear me away?

Here the weak die easy as feather And when they die, they die forever.

I’d like to go back home again,

It makes me think of sweet spring flowers. Before, when I used to live at home,

It never seemed so dear and fair.

I remember now those golden days…

But maybe I’ll be going there soon again.

People walk along the street,

You see at once on each you meet That there’s ghetto here,

A place of evil and of fear.

There’s little to eat and much to want, Where bit by bit, it’s horror to live. But no one must give up!

The world turns and times change.

Yet we all hope the time will come When we’ll go home again.

Now I know how dear it is

And often I remember it.

Station Four: Art and the Holocaust
What does the text say? – Read the picture carefully. What do you notice? (Literal Understanding)

About the artist: Samual Bak is one of many artists that choose to express in their artwork their feelings and thoughts about the Holocaust. Samuel Bak is a survivor of the Holocaust and for many years he painted subject surrounding the Holocaust. The painting The ghetto, as Samuel Bak explains it is “An inclined surface with no horizon and no possibility of escape. Indeed, when we were thrown into the ghetto like human garbage, it felt like being in a deep hole. This hole is in the shape of the Star of David, the emblem of the ghetto. Near it lies our badge of identification.”
What does the text mean? What is the artist’s purpose in taking this photo? Who did Samual Bak hope would see his artwork? Why?

Station Five: Terrible Things

When a child is born, it has no prejudices.

Bias is learned, and someone

Has to model the behavior.

1. Read aloud in your group Eve Bunting’s picture book Terrible Things.
2. Discuss with your small group your thoughts and reactions.
3. Write a reflective response drawing connections to the picture book and the following passage by Holocaust survivor and author Eli Wiesel:

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in the camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.

Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever.  

Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live.

Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God himself. Never. (Night, 32)

4. The question that is always asked in why do we learn what we do in school, with that question looming in many student’s mind,  Why study the Holocaust, something that happened more than 50 years ago? What are the important lessons that you take away from the testimonies of people who were witnesses, allies, targets, and rebels during this time.