The People in the Holocaust

A WebQuest for 5th Grade Literacy and Social Studies

Designed by
Meagan King

king6064@pacificu.edu		 school

Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits | Teacher Page

Introduction

This Webquest was designed to help you as students think deeply about the Holocaust and it's effects that it has had on the victims and survivors. Throughout this learning experience students will develop their literacy, writing, empathy and overall knowledge.

Students will explore the people who live during and throughout the holocaust.

My objectives for the lesson are to create a deeper understanding of the Holocaust and an empathetic outlook on this and many other world changing events.

Task

This webquest will allow students to genuinely get to know survivors and victims of the Holocaust. As students you will get to go deeper into history while working on our literacy skills. We will be "adopting" a child victim/survivor and then create a classroom quilt, similar to the one we made for Night of the Twister. We will also be writing a story about the rescuers and a letter to either the rescuer or child.


Map
Map of the European Territories

Guideline:
"The Holocaust refers to a specific genocidal event in twentieth-century history: the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Jews were the primary victims—6 million were murdered; Gypsies, the handicapped, and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic, or national reasons. Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and political dissidents, also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi tyranny."


http://www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/guidelines/


Process


Activity 1: The Child

group

1. Select a group of two or three classmates with whom you can work well.

2. Visit the Children of the Holocaust site and read at least three of the biographies.

  http://www.graceproducts.com/fmnc/main.htm

3. Choose which child you are going to adopt to remember.

4. Create a quilt square that will inform people about "your child." Just as before you can use words, pictures, symbols or colors that you feel represent the child. 

Activity #2 - The Rescuer

1. Visit the following site. Read about two different people that assisted the Jews.

http://history1900s.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm

2. Select one rescuer you would like to honor.

3.Write a short story in the voice of you as a rescuer, including at least two of the following questions. How would you feel? What would you have seen? What would you do? What would be the first three thing that you would get from home?
 

walking

Choose either the child or the rescuer and write them a letter as if they were a classmate. What would you say? Or ask them?


We will be looking at and discussing the Holocaust time line prior to the webquest. The children will have one literacy period  (45 minutes) to complete the computer portion of the webquest along with taking notes. Then the following day they will create their quilt square, write a story and the letter to their person of choice. This process will probably take 1 to 3 days to finish and will allow the other students to finish the computer portion. 



At the beginning of the Holocaust unit we will start a KWL chart so we can look for specifics and each individual will think of something they want to learn. Then after this certain lesson we will add what we've learned to the chart. So for instance they could share a feeling that a survivor had or a historical memory that the child they adopted had.

Evaluation


Individual grades based on:

Beginning

1

Developing

2

Accomplished

3

Exemplary

4

Score

 

Historical accuracy

 

 Students will chose a victim, describe and reflect at a beginning level of performance. Students will chose a victim, reflecting development and movement toward mastery of performance. Students will chose a victim, reflecting mastery of performance. Students will chose a victim, reflecting the highest level of performance.

 

Quality of Writing

 

 Students  write minimal information to the victim and child. Students may not write at all.   Students write a small amount and show that they are on the verge of developing towards more writing abilities. Students show that they are able to communicate through their story, letter and quilt piece. Students will show their understanding through their exemplary writing, use of knowledge and meeting mastery writing standards.

 

Quilt Performance

 

 Students will do minimal expressive work on their quilt, showing 0-2 symbols, words or colors.
 Students will express their quilt square by using a small amount of symbols, words or colors.
 Students will complete their quilt square by using an amount of symbols, words or colors that adequately fill and express their child. Students will finish their quilt square by using an amount of symbols, words or colors that completely fill and express their child.

 

Story Performance

 

 Students will respond to the life of a rescuers answer none of the questions and give an insufficient amount of information.
 Students will respond to the life of a rescuers answering at least one of the questions with a small amount of detail involved.
 Students will respond to the life of a rescuers answer two or more questions and giving adequate  details.
 Students will respond to the life of a rescuers answer several questions and giving a lot of specific details.

 

Letter Performance

 

 Students will write a letter to a child/rescuer talking only about them self.
Students will write a letter to a child/rescuer asking them how it felt, what they enjoyed, etc.
 Students will feel like the child/rescuer is a peer and will discuss and ask every day questions including "feeling questions."
 Students will feel like the child/rescuers is a peer and will discuss and ask every day questions including "feeling questions" and using specific details from the information.

 

Overall Performance

 

 Students will show a limited amount of gained knowledge after completing two of the tasks.
 Students will show gained knowledge after completing all of the tasks and expressing details in their writing. Students will show gained knowledge after completing all of the tasks and giving adequate details in all of their writing pieces.
 Students will show gained knowledge after completing all of the tasks and giving detailed writings, quilt square and thinking beyond the surface questions that are asked.

Conclusion

After finishing this webquest you should have a better understanding of the lives that were lived throughout this time period. This lesson allowed us to step into the shoes of others and see what they have had to experience. I encourage you to continue your journey in educating yourself about the holocaust, it's victims and pay special attention to all the small details that can be over looked. Although this was a horrific time in history it can also create a deeper appreciation of what we currently have.

Credits & References



Thank you to the site that helped my wheels start turning and realized I did have ideas storing up back there!
http://www.iss.k12.nc.us/schools/wms/asauer/asholocaust.htm

The amazing historical pictures were found at:
http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/blpictures.htm

For the children's stories from:     http://www.graceproducts.com/fmnc/main.htm

For the survivor's stories from:     http://history1900s.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm

Guideline quote:    http://www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/guidelines/

Include a link back to The WebQuest Page and the Design Patterns page so that others can acquire the latest version of this template and training materials.


Modified by: Meagan King January 17, 2006

Based on a template from The WebQuest Page