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MEMPHIS EXPLORATORY: GRADE 7 Course Outline

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MEMPHIS EXPLORATORY: GRADE 7 Course Outline MEMPHIS EXPLORATORY: GRADE 7 Course Outline Using This Course of Study to Help Us The 7th Grade Exploratory leads students through an 18-week course of study that examines the Understand Ourselves and Our World catastrophic period in the twentieth century when Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews and millions of other civilians, in the midst of the most destructive war in human history. Following Facing History and Ourselves’ scope and sequence, this course outline guides students on a parallel journey through an exploration of the universal themes inherent in a study of the Holocaust that raise profound questions about human behavior. Over the course of the semester, students will examine the choices of individuals who experienced this history as victims, witnesses, collaborators, rescuers, and perpetrators. Along the way, they will pay special attention to the relationship between identity and community, while also exploring how the stories we tell about ourselves and others have the power to both humanize and dehumanize. This course will help students recognize the responsibility that comes with bearing witness to an event in the past and the power of their own voices in the shaping the future. The 7th Grade Exploratory draws upon the Facing History unit Teaching Holocaust and Human Behavior and the resource book and media collection Holocaust and Human Behavior on which the unit is based. It also devotes several weeks in the middle of the semester to teaching Somewhere There Is Still a Sun, Michael Gruenbaum’s gripping memoir about his childhood experiences in Prague in the late 1930s and then as a prisoner in Terezín until the end of the war. Following Facing History’s scope and sequence, students begin with an examination of the relationship between the individual and society, reflect on the ways humans divide themselves into “in” groups and “out” groups, and dive deep into a case study of the Weimar Republic and the Nazi Party’s rise to power in Germany. Students then bear witness to the human suffering of the Holocaust and examine the range of responses from individuals and nations to the genocidal mass murder of the Nazi regime. Next, they will revisit some of these key moments in history as they read Somewhere There Is Still a Sun, which invites students to consider how one individual’s story can add new layers of complexity to what they already have learned. In the final lessons of the course, students draw connections between this history and the present day, weighing questions like how to achieve justice and reconciliation in the aftermath of atrocities, how painful histories should be remembered, and how this history helps to educate them about their responsibilities in the world today. Teaching Emotionally Challenging Content Many teachers want their students to achieve emotional engagement with the history of the Holocaust and therefore teach this history with the goal of fostering empathy. However, like any examination of the Holocaust, this course includes historical descriptions and firsthand accounts that some students may find emotionally disturbing. We can’t emphasize enough the importance of previewing the readings and videos in this curriculum to make sure they are appropriate for the intellectual and emotional needs of your students. It is difficult to predict how students will respond to such challenging readings, documents, and films. One student may respond with emotion to a particular reading, while others may not find it powerful in the same www.facinghistory.org 1 way. In addition, different people demonstrate emotion in different ways. Some students will be silent. Some may laugh. Some may not want to talk. Some may take days to process difficult stories. For some, a particular firsthand account may be incomprehensible; for others, it may be familiar. Our experience tells us that it is often problematic to use graphic images and films or to attempt to use simulations to help students understand aspects of this history. Such resources and activities can traumatize some students, desensitize others, or trivialize the history. We urge teachers to create space for students to have a range of reactions and emotions. This might include time for silent reflection or writing in journals, as well as structured discussions to help students process content together. Some students will not want to share their reactions to emotionally disturbing content in class, and teachers should respect that in class discussions. For their learning and emotional growth, it is crucial to allow for a variety of responses, or none at all, from students to emotionally challenging content. Fostering a Reflective Classroom Community We believe that a classroom in which Facing History and Ourselves content is taught ought to be a microcosm of democracy—a place where explicit rules and implicit norms protect everyone’s right to speak; where different perspectives can be heard and valued; where members take responsibility for themselves, each other, and the group as a whole; and where each member has a stake and a voice in collective decisions. You may have already established rules and guidelines with your students to help bring about these characteristics in your classroom. If not, it is essential at the beginning of this unit to facilitate a supportive, reflective classroom community. Two ways in which you can create a strong foundation for a reflective classroom are through the use of classroom contracts and student journals. Even if you already incorporate both of these elements into your classroom, we recommend taking a moment to refresh yourself. Exploratory Essential Questions The following essential questions provides a framework for exploring the 7th Grade Exploratory’s central themes: ffHow is my identity shaped and reshaped by the individuals and circumstances I encounter in my life? ffWho is in my universe of obligation? Who is in my community’s universe of obligation? ffHow can the stories we tell about ourselves and others lead to “in” groups and “out” groups? How can they create empathy and strengthen community? These essential questions challenge students to draw connections between history, identity, and obligation. We do not expect students to determine a single, “correct” answer. Essential questions are rich and open-ended; they are designed to be revisited over time, and as students explore the content in greater depth, they may find themselves emerging with new ideas, understandings, and questions. Because the Exploratory’s main ideas and themes are tied to its culminating two-week project, the essential questions for this course differ from what you will find in the unit Teaching Holocaust and Human Behavior. At the lesson level, however, the Exploratory’s guiding questions and learning objectives match those found in Teaching Holocaust and Human Behavior. www.facinghistory.org 2 Exploratory Final Project For their final project, Building Connections and Strengthening Community, students will conduct research in their school to better understand where and how its community members’ stories are acknowledged, incomplete, or missing from the collective school narrative. After compiling and analyzing their school’s demographic data, groups will examine a specific space in greater depth, learning about the narratives presented by those spaces and who authors and controls these narratives. Finally, they will create an action plan with suggestions for how the space might increase the range and complexity of the stories it tells, thus expanding the community’s universe of obligation. Developing Student Vocabulary The readings and videos in this unit introduce some vocabulary and concepts that may pose a challenge for your students, especially for struggling readers, so you may want to consider using the Word Wall strategy to keep a running list of critical vocabulary posted in your classroom that you and your students can refer to over the course of the unit. Students might have a corresponding list in a section of their journals or notebooks, and you could also challenge them to incorporate word wall terms into their writing and discussions to help them internalize and understand these challenging terms and concepts. Where to Find the Lesson Plans and Resources Weeks 1–9 and 15–16 of the Exploratory course outline correspond to specific, detailed lesson plans from the unit Teaching Holocaust and Human Behavior, which is available both online and in print. Throughout this course outline, you will find links to the online version. Teachers using the print version of the unit should refer to the lesson number and title listed in the course outline to find the corresponding lesson plan in the book. Because Teaching Holocaust and Human Behavior is a unit designed to last approximately five weeks, and this portion of the 7th Grade Exploratory lasts more than 10 weeks, this course outline includes additional activities and assessments that are not found in Teaching Holocaust and Human Behavior. Thus it is important that you use refer to both this Exploratory course outline and Teaching Holocaust and Human Behavior when planning and teaching this course. Because Facing History does not have a teacher’s guide for Somewhere There Is Still a Sun, in Weeks 10–15, you should use this course outline for your planning and teaching. Course Outline Structure This course can be broken into four sections that span an 18-week semester. Weeks 1–9: The lessons in the first nine weeks of the Exploratory draw from two Facing History publications: the unit Teaching Holocaust and Human Behavior, and the resource book Holocaust and Human Behavior. The course outline includes a brief summary of each week’s content, the materials, activities, assessments, and Notes to Teacher for each lesson. The corresponding lesson plans include overviews, historical context, and detailed lesson plans with assessments and extension activities. Weeks 10–15: In the middle section of the course, students will dig deeper into the themes, questions, and content from the first nine weeks of the Exploratory by reading Holocaust survivor Michael Gruenbaum’s memoir, Somewhere There Is Still a Sun.
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