Ideas Have Consequences
Grade Level: 10th
Unit Title: Injustices / Timeframe Needed for Completion:
Grading Period: 4 weeks
Understandings:
- Ideas have consequences.
- We all make decisions to play the roles of perpetrator, victim, bystander and hero.
- War and genocide does not happen in a vacuum. There are behaviors and actions that lead to that.
- We choose how we react and respond to others’ actions against us.
- There is only one race, and that is the human race.
Essential Questions:
- Is all propaganda bad?
- Why is there always war?
- What is the nature of prejudice?
- What are the consequences of labeling the “other?”
- What does it mean to be a human being?
- What roles do we as individuals play in atrocities?
- What leads to genocide?
- How is language manipulated for evil purposes?
1.02 Respond reflectively to written and visual texts.
1.03 Read, listen to, and view expressive texts, both print and non-print. Make connections between works, self, and related topics.
2.02 Create responses that examine a cause/effect relationship among events.
3.01 Examine controversial issues.
3.03 Respond to issues in literature that requires gathering of information to prove a particular point and emphasizes culturally significant events.
4.01 Interpret real world events.
4.04 Evaluate the information, explanations or ideas of others.
4.05 Read, listen to and view critical texts.
5.01, 5.02, 5.03 Interpret and analyze world literature.
6.01, 6.02 – Apply conventions of grammar and language usage.
Common Core Standards:
RL- 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10
RI-1, 2, 3, 7, 10
W- 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
SL-1, 3
L- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Essential Skills/Vocabulary:
Use inquiry to explore and analyze.*
Formulate effective research questions.
Analyze credibility of texts and sources.
Synthesize information from multiple perspectives and add student voice to make valid conclusions.*
Actively read by making connections (text to self, text and world) and actively annotate.*
Examine author’s purpose.*
Draw conclusions from what you read.*
Make inferences about deeper meanings.*
Examine the structure of a text.*
Summarize.*
Analyze character motivation.
Examine multiple perspectives.*
Examine cause/effect relationships.*
Write to define.
Write to inform.
Establish main idea and elaborate with details in writing.
Listen and respond to peers in group discussions (face to face as well as online).
*Both in literature and informational texts
Vocabulary
Tier 2
Holocaust
Shoah
Stereotype
Roles of bystander, hero, victim and perpetrator
Triangle of Hate (Anti-Defamation League)
Golem
Eugenics
Nuremberg Laws
Forgiveness
Shtetl
Progrom
Blood Libel
Anti-Semetism
Selection
Deportation
Crematorium
Extermination
Liquidation
Dehumanize
Tolerance
Prejudice
Inhumanity
Genocide
Transportation
Tier 3
Intertextuality
Rhetorical Triangle
Epigraph
Preface
Forward
Introduction
Paratext / Assessment Tasks:
Benchmark
Teacher-made test
Reading checks(Annotation Checks)
Writing Circles
Walk-a-Quote
Message in the Bottle Project
Diamonte Poems
Tableau Sculpture Poses
Mind Maps
CD Window to the World
Comparison/Contrast paper
Blog Entries
Research (Lodz Ghetto Research Project)
Holocaust Poetry Packet Assessment
Intertextuality Paper
*Exchange of views with a class in another country (E-Pals?)
Suggested Anchor Literature:
Elie Wiesel’s Night / Suggested Anchor Informational Text(s):
USHMM Online Photography Exhibit Auschwitz: Through the Lens of the SS
/ Mentor Text(s):
Leonard Pitts’ “Sometimes, the Earth is Cruel”
Literature:
Children’s picture book The Sugihara Story
Golem / Informational Texts:
Simon Wiesenthal’s The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness
“The Roots” Article
Informational articles and speech on War in Afghanistan / Poetry:
Holocaust (art and poetry)
Poem Taha Muhammad Ali’s Revenge
Music:
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (Violin) / TV/Film/Podcasts:
Film Hotel Rwanda
Film Schindler’s List
Survivor Testimony on DVD
Bernd Wollschlaeger’s “We Don’t Talk About It”
Outcast
Discovery Channel Curiosity Series on Milgram Experiments
Oprah Interview with Elie Weisel / Art/Photography:
Robert O. Fisch’s Light From the Yellow Star: A Lesson of Love from the
Little Polish Boy Photograph
State of Deception USHMM Exhibit (both online and museum exhbits)