Unit of Work: The Holocaust Year 10Time: 6 lessons -10 lessons

Statutory Requirements addressed: Investigate the impact of a significant event of the twentieth century on our way of life.
Investigate ethical issues in history or historical figures who behaved ethically or unethically.
Focus of the Unit: This unit will focus on why we should remember the Holocaust today .In doing so we will investigate what the Holocaust was and how and why it happened. This topic also links very strongly with citizenship theme of Human Rights and also the theme of the Democracy and Active Participation namely what can happen when democracy breaks down and governments neglect their responsibilities to all citizens.. There are also opportunities to connect the study of the Holocaust with our world today by giving pupils to reflect on the lessons learned and what can be done to help prevent further genocides today. Pupils will also gain experiences of strategies that will help them to face other controversial issues in the context of the twentieth first century. This unit will allow pupils to explore different types of human behaviour during the Holocaust for example bystander/rescuer/victim/and perpetrator and the reasons behind such behaviour. Throughout the unit the pupils will be practicing the key historical skills of evaluation of evidence and cause and consequence
Key Questions / Thinking Skills & Personal Capabilities / Key Elements
e.g. Cultural Awareness and
Ethical Awareness
What is the Holocaust?
What happened to the Jewish people during the Holocaust?
Why did the Holocaust happen?
Why should we remember the Holocaust today? /
  • Major Focus:
Managing Information
•Ask focused questions
•Plan and set goals, break task into sub-tasks
•Use own and other’s ideas to locate sources of information
•Select, classify, compare and evaluate information
•Select most appropriate method for a task
•Use a range of methods for collating, recording and representing information / Cultural Understanding
Why did people act as they did?
Citizenship: Democracy and Active Participation
What happens when rights and freedoms have been denied?
How do people resist the denial of their rights and freedoms?
What happens when people do not actively resist when rights and freedoms are denied ?
How can people today make a difference?
Ethical Awareness
How have some people in the past behaved ethically or unethically?
What were the consequences of action and inaction?
Learning Intentions
We are learning to / Learning and Teaching activities / Skills and Capabilities / Opportunities for assessment
To define the Holocaust
What happened to the Jewish people during the Holocaust?
Why did the Holocaust happen?
Why should we remember the Holocaust? / Pupils use a KWL grid to establish prior knowledge of the Holocaust and what the class already knows about it.
Pupils could look at photos of an ordinary Jewish people before and after the Holocaust . and using the Five Ws pupils write their questions in their grid. Using a range of pictures pupils speculate what they think is happening and why ?
Pupils then write their initial definition of the Holocaust and display them on the class display board to return to them at the end of the unit.
Create a timeline of events in Germany from 1919 -1945 the steps taken by the Nazi government to influence peoples attitudes towards the Jews. Teacher could use a visual diagram of a staircase which takes pupils through the various stages of the Holocaust for example
Step 1 Creating the Enemy
Step 2 Control
Step 3 Separation
Step 4 The Final Solution
Pupils to use a wide range of historical evidence e.g. Nazi propaganda poster /videos extracts/photos /to establish not only what happened at each stage but also the effects this had on the experiences of the Jews.
Use the language bag strategy to help pupils deal with emotive images and language of the sources.
Debrief this stage by asking pupils to consider what would they have done and each stage and what choices do they think the Jewish people had?
Use a range of evidence for example a survivors or eye witness account/ posters/dairies/written sources /photos and websites for pupils to explore reasons for different types for human behaviour –the bystander, the rescuer ,the victim and the perpetrator . Use the silent conversation or a learning log to help pupils deal with emotive content of the sources. Debrief by asking pupils to consider what were the consequences for each type of behaviour on the Jews?
Why did everyone act or react in the different ways and can they explain their answers ? Why would the Holocaust be called a crime against humanity? How did you find using the visual of a staircase? Can they suggest an alternative form of diagram to represent the steps towards the Final Solution? Explain their choices to others.
Pupils in groups research the different ways in which the Holocaust is remembered today for example
Visit Holocaust websites/ reference books/dvds/dairies/eye witness accounts /guest speaker / to find examples of different forms of commemoration. Pupils come up with their own criteria for assessing their findings and share their findings using their criteria.
Debrief
Each group make a list of reasons why it is important to remember the Holocaust with their explanations.
What lessons from the Holocaust are relevant for us today?
Pupils could design their own form of Holocaust memorial or engage in planning a Remembrance Day for their school.
What can we learn about these different types of behaviour during the Holocaust? What lessons are there for us to remember today about how genocides can happen? / Being Creative –seeking questions to explore a topic
Chapter 4 Hodder Text
Managing Information
Select, organise and evaluate sources.
Reaching conclusions
Making connections between cause and effect
Detecting bias and stereotypes
Learn from and value other peoples ideas.
Consider the consequences of action and inaction / Generating questions
Listening skills
Compare and contrast
Reflective journal why do people act the way they do in certain circumstances.
Visual representation of learning
Research task
Resources : See list of websites /photos/music on CD Rom from Year 10 ALC training days
DVD In Their Own Words with accompanying booklet Holocaust Educational Resource
Hodder Year 10 textbook Chapter 4