Lesson Plan: Wednesday, 2/8 90 minutes

This lesson plan will be the same for both the Monday/Wednesday section and the
Tuesday/Thursday section.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Holocaust
o How and why did the Holocaust happen?
o How can some people resist injustice and others obey authority?
o How can an individual be upstander?
History and today
o How can the past affect the present?
Primary/Secondary Sources
o What is the purpose of using both primary and secondary sources?
o Why do we need to critically evaluate what we read?
Graphic novel
o How can graphic novels depict historical events?
o How are themes utilized in graphic novels to tell a story?

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS
Content/Enduring Understandings:
o Students will learn how and why the Holocaust happened.
Students will understand the Holocaust was not an accident in historyit
occurred because individuals, organizations, and governments made choices
that not only legalized discrimination but also allowed and promoted
prejudice, hatred, and ultimately mass murder to occur.
Students will learn what it means to be an upstander vs. a bystander.
Students will understand silence and indifference to the suffering of
others, or to the infringement of civil rights in any society, can
however, unintentionallyperpetuate the problem.
Students will learn how to become upstanders in their day-to-day lives.
o History and today
Students will come to understand that the past affects the present on
individual, familial, community, national, and global scales.
o Graphic novels
Graphic novels allow authors another level of expression compared to
traditional books.
Graphic novels blend text with art to create a new form of literature.
The artwork in a graphic novel is a form of text that conveys additional
information to the reader.
The art in a graphic novel allows a deeper level of expression; this concept is
a valuable tool for the reader to utilize.
Skills/Goals/Objectives:
o Students will develop skills in analysis of primary and secondary sources.
o Students will draw explicit connections between graphic novels and history to
understand deep knowledge of the Holocaust and how it affects today.

STANDARDS
N/A

MATERIALS
 I will need my lesson plan with script, the soundtrack, the PowerPoint, and my copy of
Maus.
Students will need a piece of loose-leaf and a pencil to write and a classroom only copy of
Maus.

PROCEDURES

OPENER- 5 minutes
Students will be lined up in 2 quiet lines.
I will explain that students need to silently walk into the classroom and take a seat on
the rug with their bags.
The lights will be off in the classroom.

BODY OF THE LESSON- 80 minutes

Warm up 45 minutes
o Students will sit in their assigned seat.
o I will take a seat at the front of the room.
o I will explain to students that:
This is an image of a cattle car, a train car that is used to transport cattle
(cows) across large distances.
I want students to imagine that instead of being in PAS that we are all
packed into this cattle car.
I will mention that if students need to leave the room during this
experience that is ok.
I will ask students to close their eyes.
I will begin to play the soundtrack of the train.
o I will then read: Eva Kors Transcript Narrative

END
o I will ask students to open their eyes.
o I will ask that students take out a piece of loose-leaf and write about how that
experience made them feel and any questions they have.
Debrief
o I will ask if students want to share about how that experience made them feel
that they can.
o I will ask for students questions.
o I will stress to students that while we just imagined what it would have been like
to be on a cattle car, the reality is that we do not know what it was like to suffer
in the cattle cars for Holocaust victims. In reality, we are sitting here in 2017, the
US, in Philadelphia, in PAS, in a huge room with 5 huge windows with fresh air,
with clothes on our back, and with knowledge that in 2 hours we will be eating
lunch.
o We are incredibly lucky.
PowerPoint
o I will present the information on the PowerPoint about Eva Kor and her life.
o You heard me describe Evas experience, I want you all to listen and see a
survivor tell his story: LEO SCHNEIDERMAN
o These are both first person testimonies see PowerPoint.
Maus- 35 minutes or less
 o Depending on the class feel:
Students independent read and take notes on the themes
We read out loud and answer questions in groups or think-pair-share

CLOSURE- 5 minutes
I will ask students to get out their field trip slips if they have them and their planners.
Homework:
o Field trip slip
o Review notes
I will ask students to pack up. Once they are seated and quiet, I will dismiss them.

ACCOMODATIONS
I have made accommodations for those who are spatial and visual learners.
I have made accommodations for those who are exited ELL students in that the
PowerPoint has images and text.
I have made accommodations for students who learn best through independent work,
partner work, and/or whole class discussion.

ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION
To gauge students learning that the Holocaust was not an accident in history (but
rather an institutionalization and legalization of anti-Semitism that affected real,
everyday people), I will be taking students questions throughout the lesson.
To gauge student understanding about what it means to be a bystander, we will read
and have class discussions about Leo Schneidermans experience and about Maus.
To gauge student understanding of the idea that history and today are interconnected
on individual, familial, community, national, and global scales, I have the class
discussions of survivors stories and Maus, which highlights this idea through the use of
the dual narrative and flashbacks.
To gauge student understanding of the Maus and the graphic novels form as a graphic
novel, I have planned class discussions about the artwork and how the art and text
(captions/dialogue between characters) interact.
To gauge student ability to make connections between graphic novels and history, I
have planned class discussions.

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS / NOTES