Name: Mr. Amutah

Subject: U.S. History

Period: 2nd, 6/25

Time: 50 minutes

Objective: The students will formulate opinions regarding the Holocaust’s historical significance. (DOK 4, USH 1b, 4a)

Materials: Class set Vilna Partisan Manifesto; teacher sheet; cutouts of “genocide,” “ghetto,” and “Holocaust”

Do Now: Read the text on your desk [Vilna Partisan Manifesto]. Prepare to discuss it.

Set: Remind students that previously within this unit on World War II they covered the war in Europe and the particulars about that. Ask students questions about the Do Now (what was called for? who do you think wrote this? under what circumstances? do you agree or disagree with their stance?). Tell students that what they read was called the the Vilna Partisan Manifesto and it called for armed resistance to Nazi tyranny in the Lithuanian capital of Vilna (today called Vilnius). An organization called the United Partisan Organization or FPO in Yiddish. Connect this to the day’s lesson by telling students that today they’re going to talk about the Holocaust. Ask the students what they known about the Holocaust today. Connect this to students by talking about the field of human rights today and what they feel constitute human rights. Tell students that these rights came in the aftermath of the devastation and inhumanity of the Holocaust. State objective.

Procedures: 1) Do Now (5 min)

2) Set (8 min)

3) TTW collect student homework from yesterday (timeline of events in World War II). (1 min)

4) TTW commence the slideshow of photos from the Holocaust. Tell the students that these images will simply continue in rotation throughout the lesson today so that they can see some of the images associated with the Holocaust. (1 min)

5) TTW tell students that they’re going to do the ABCs of the Holocaust. Use the teacher sheet to go through a range of terms from A to Z that relate to the Holocaust. (16 min)

6) TTW put the cutout terms on the Word Wall after talking about each briefly. (2 min)

7) TTW have a discussion with the student about the Holocaust. Ask the student open-ended questions such as why it occurred, what Hitler’s goal was, whether they feel that most people agreed with it or just went along, why it took so long for Allied nations to act, etc. (10 min)

8) TTW give students their homework assignment. Talk to them about the task (persuasive letter about why the Holocaust is important to study). Tell student that it should be three paragraphs long and follow the proper letter format with a greeting, closing, etc. (2 min)

9) Closure (5 min)

Closure: Restate objective. Review with students details about the Holocaust (or terms from “A-Z”). Connect this to students by saying that the term “never more” came from this in reference to genocide but numerous instances have occurred after this throughout the world that could strongly be considered genocide though were not termed such and were not acted upon. Ask students why this might be? Tell students that next period they’ll learn about the end of the war and the atomic bomb’s controversial usage in Japan.

Assessment:

Informal:

The teacher will question students (M) about their views on the Holocaust’s historical significance throughout the lesson (C).

Formal:

The teacher will give students a classwork assignment (M) where they will be asked to write a letter to a state official in support of teaching the Holocaust being mandated by the state Board of Education (C) and the grade will recorded in the grade book (D).