Day 1:

Introductory Lesson

English- Introduction to “The Giver”

Social Studies- “World War II Holocaust Introduction”

So, Who Are you?

Introduction lesson

Team Members: Kiley Schouten, Erin Cordell, Nicole Scholten, Jake Van Otterloo, and Emily Groen

Topic: Introduction to Integrated Unit on Identity and Human Value

Objectives

1. Students will be able to wrestle with the concept of identity.

2. Student will be able to work together as a class to accomplish a group activity.

3. Students will be able to begin making connections between the Holocaust and the concept of identity.

Materials needed

1. Bibles

2. Student Journals

Procedure

• Introduction

1. Tell students you will be doing an activity where there cannot be any talking (class size of about 25 students is preferable for this activity, with larger sections it may be helpful to have different teachers take smaller groups)

2. From this point on the only person talking can be the teacher

3. By one category at a time, students will be instructed to put themselves in a line of ranking or in a group based on the following:

4. After each category go down the lines of check the groups to see if they were able to accomplish the task

• Lesson Steps

1. Have students go back to their seats

2. Ask the students to answer in one word, it cannot be their name, “Who are you?”

Students may say: “daughter, brother, gamer, friend, etc.

3. Ask students “Can we really answer the question of ‘Who are you?’ fully only using one word? Why?”

4. Ask students “What parts of your identity did we miss in the line and grouping activity? What would people miss if they only ever saw you as the oldest in your class, or as a part of the brown haired group?”

Students may answer: my likes and interests, what I’m good at, what my personality is like.

5. Tell the students that you believe they are telling you that you cannot rank people or group them based on the attributes in the line and grouping activity, that we would miss part of their identity.

6. Read this quote: "Our many Jewish friends and acquaintances are being taken away in droves. The Gestapo is treating them very roughly and transporting them in cattle cars to Westerbork, the big camp in Drenthe to which they're sending all the Jews....”-Anne Frank

7. Ask students “What happened to the Jews during the Holocaust? Where were their identities?”(This is an opportunity for formative assessment of what students may already know about the Holocaust.)

8. Tell students, “The Holocaust in World War II was a very dark and sad time because the Jewish people were stripped of their individual identities and what made them unique and they were tortured and many were killed because of their race.”

9. Tell students “During this upcoming unit we will study the Holocaust, we will learn the science about our DNA which gives us each unique characteristics, and we will read a book that asks us to examine the worth and identity of a human.”

• Closure

1. Read Psalm 139 out loud to the students. The have them open their Bible and read Psalm 139 in unison.

2. Tell students “God created us each unique and our value is found in His love for us. As you go about the rest of your day consider your valuable special identity that God “knitted together.”

Assignment:

• Basic- Students will be asked to journal their initial thoughts and beliefs about human value. Where does human value come from? What is an identity? What is the connection between human value and identity? (300-word journal)

Evaluation:

• Formative:  By listening carefully to the discussion, teachers will be able to assess how students are interacting with the subject of identity. With this information, they can choose to push questions further or ask students for deeper reflections.

• Summative: the journal will be graded on the following criteria

1) Completeness 2) Organization of thoughts 3) Demonstrates wrestling with key ideas 4) Well written

* students will receive 1 point for each of the categories that are competently met. This will provide for a number out of four, which will translate easily to a percent grade. The main focus of this assignment is for students to clearly wrestle with the topic of identity.

Introduction to the Book

Topic: A Perfect Society

Objectives:

1. Students will be able to recognize the importance of the setting to the story of The Giver by identifying the author’s view or purpose (Iowa Content Standard).

2. Students will be able to discuss the challenges of creating a Utopian society.

Materials Needed:

1. Worksheet 1

2. The book The Giver

Procedure

• Introduction-

1. Divide students into groups of 4 (groups can be predetermined or counted off).

2. Tell students that their group is in charge of coming up with a perfect society.

3. In each group students will be assigned a role:

• Scribe—one student will fill out the worksheet to be handed in.

• Planner—one student will draw out the quick sketch of the town layout.

• Reader—one student will read each question out-loud as they go through the worksheet.

• Task Manager—one student makes sure the group finishes the worksheet within 20 min.

4. Hand out worksheet 1 and have student divide the tasks among group members.

5. Will be important to walk around the classroom during group work and ask questions that will help students struggle with the task of coming up with a perfect community.

• Lesson Steps-

1. After 20 min. have students face the front of the room to participate in a whole class discussion.

2. Ask students “What did you find was difficult about creating a perfect society?”

Expected answers: can’t easily ensure that nothing ‘bad’ is going to happen

3. Ask students “What factors are hard to control to make a perfect community?”

Expected answer:

• weather

• emotions/feelings

• disease

• people’s actions

4. Ask students “how would a perfect community look at individuals? What would be their roles? What about our sinful nature?”

Expected answers:

• Individuals do not matter as much as the group.

• Individual roles must support the group.

• Sinful nature is ignored.

• Closure-

1. Tell students that The Giver is set in a Utopian society

2. A Utopian society is a perfect or ideal society.

3. Tell students to watch out for how the Utopian aspects of the society affect the identities of the people in the book.

4. Start reading chapter 1 to the students.

Assignment:

1. Students will read chapter 2-3 on their own.

2. Students will journal their initial reactions to the first chapters of the book; journal entries should be 3-4 paragraphs. They will answer two questions:

• What is it important to know that the book is set in an Utopian society?

  • What are the biggest struggles that face a Utopian society?

Evaluation

1. Group Assignment- students will receive points on , working well as a group (as observed by teacher), and participating in the classroom discussion

2. Journal assignment

Social Studies: Day 1

Topic: World War II Holocaust Introduction

Objectives:

1. Students will be able to know the struggles that the Jewish race faced during the war

2. Iowa State Standards: Essential Concepts and/or Skills for Grades 6-8

Understand the role of culture and cultural diffusion on the developmental and maintenance of societies (History)

Materials:

1. Computer

2. Internet (You Tube video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVkc-0cI91o)

3. Map of Europe (http://www.freeworldmaps.net/printable/europe/europe_countries.png)

4. Individual maps of Europe handouts to students

(http://www.freeworldmaps.net/printable/europe/europe_countries.png)

Procedure:

• Introduction

1. The teacher will begin with this video. Before the video begins, the teacher may want to explain that this is about Anne Frank and it reflects what the Jews went through during WWII. She was also about the students same age. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVkc-0cI91o)

• Lesson Steps

1. The students and teacher will reflect on this video and talk about it. What was she forced to wear because she was a Jew? What other ways was she labeled as being a Jew? What were the conflicts that she and her family faced being Jews? After this the teacher will pass out the map of Europe to each student. The teacher will then show where Germany is and the other key countries that contributed to the war. (Russia, Poland, ect.) Students will label these on their maps so they visually understand the outline of what they are studying. The teacher will then explain each of the big counties role in the war and what side they were fighting for. (USA, Great Britain, Russia, Germany, Italy, Japan.)

2. The teacher will explain that in the other countries that weren’t fighting against the Nazi’s there was some people that tried to help the Jews and hide them from the Nazi soldiers. Even within Germany this happened. The teacher will show this short video that explains how this event occurred and how helpful it was. The teacher can show the whole video but after about half of the video the students will get the point. (http://vimeo.com/10665997)

3. Students will get into groups and come up with two interesting or new facts that they learned from the videos or the Smart Board presentation in class. If time allows, they will share their facts with the class.

Assignment: There will be no assignment for this lesson. Students will be encouraged to begin researching information about Anne Frank for the lesson.

Evaluation: The evaluation will be based on participation and discussion in the class during our reflections. Students will also be able to participate through the use of the Smart Board activities (if Smart board is available), otherwise through explaining to the teacher how to conduct the activities on the Smart Board. (which can be done through the teacher performing the activities on the laptop, which will be displayed on an overhead screen.) The teacher will record the participation of each student through a student log.o:p>