TEACHER

This lesson was designed to fulfill a course requirement for the technology integration class offered through the M.Ed. program of Western Governor's University.

The lesson is a follow-up activity to an in-class reading assignment, Suzy and Leah by Jane Yolen. Its purpose is threefold. First of all, it is intended to provide practice in identifying main points and ideas, applying text to self, and summarizing information -- three skills that lead to increased reading comprehension. Second, this lesson provides practice in prewriting, organization, and word choice skills that are essential for good writing. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it is hoped that students will gain a better awareness of the history of intolerance and the extremes to which racial, religious, and other forms of hatred can lead.

A Holocaust Diary is a seventh grade language arts lesson with crosscurricular connections to social studies and history. It can easily be adapted to a social studies or history curriculum and can be used for all middle grade levels. Before beginning this lesson, it is recommended that students receive at least a basic introduction to World War II and the Holocaust. Possible texts for language arts teachers are Suzy and Leah by Jane Yolen, The Devil's Arithmetic (also by Jane Yolen), Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, or any other Holocaust novel or short story geared toward teen readers. In addition to this, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has a variety of excellent teaching resources that are available free of charge to educators. Please click on the resources link for more information.

This lesson addresses the following seventh grade language arts standards of the Utah State Core Curriculum:

Standard 1
Objective 2 (Comprehension of Informational Text): Comprehend and evaluate informational text.
c. Retell, paraphrase and summarize from informational text.
d. Distinguish main idea and supporting details in text.

Standard 2
Objective 1 (Writing to Learn): Retell or summarize and make connections to clarify thinking through writing.
a. Retell significant events in sequence.
b. Summarize essential information from literary or informational text.
c. Connect text to self.

Objective 2 (Extended Writing)
b. Relate a clear, coherent, chronologically-sequenced incident, event, or situation with simple reflection.
c. Use sensory details.

Objective 3 (Revision and Editing): Revise and edit to strengthen ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and conventions.

In addition to these standards, this lesson also encourages inferencing, critical thinking, and the development of creative writing skills.

To effectively teach this lesson, a computer lab with enough computers for each student will be needed. The lesson has been designed with individual learners in mind, but it is possible to add an element of collaboration by pairing off students and having them create a Holocaust diary together.

This WebQuest from research, to writing, to revision can take anywhere from three to four hours of instructional time. Individual class characteristics and reading levels need to be accounted for when scheduling time in the writing lab.

To avoid lack of understanding and repetitive questions, it is helpful to have student volunteers or aides read through each of the instruction pages (Introduction, Task, Process, and Evaluation) as the rest of the class follows along. Many students will skip this part of the activity unless guided through it in this way. The "Information and References" worksheet (see Resources) is an optional instructional aid for this lesson to further help students focus on the processes of inquiry as they seek out information.

A writing lab with word processing and internet capabilities is essential, and the instructor should be skilled in the troubleshooting and use of both of these technologies.

*These cards are available in PDF format through USHMM's Education Resource Center (http://www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/resource/idcards.pdf). They can serve as a useful
additional teaching resource. Other materials for teaching about the Holocaust can be found
at the following URL: http://www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/

As a measure of their learning and understanding, students will create fictional Holocaust diaries that summarize, point out main events/ideas, reflect, and otherwise demonstrate good reading comprehension and writing skills.

More and more in today's world, we and our students find ourselves in circumstances where an increased tolerance for racial, religious, and ideological differences is needed. This lesson provides an opportunity for students to reflect on this issue while simultaneously practicing their reading comprehension and writing skills.