During our Holocaust unit, students often have a hard time understanding how such terrible acts are perpetrated on a mass scale. They often say, "I would just refuse to go..." or "why didn't someone tell them, 'no, I'm not doing that." To help students get a better understanding, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. King and Mr. Benton collaborated lessons with me; my 8th students learned the brain science that is involved in manipulating and the killing of millions. Mrs. Miller created a victim 'passport' for each student and each week, they would read what their REAL victim did before the war, during and after. We then saw how many of our real victims survived. We read the book, "The Butterfly" by Patricia Polacco, and created our own symbolic butterfly of our victim that are now hanging in the 8th grade hallway. Along with the passports, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. King and Mr. Benton did experiential learning activities with the students to show how easy our brain can be tricked or what we see may not be reality. These activities helped students not only learn the ELA lessons and the history, but also, helped them understand and be able to empathize. Students loved the collaboration and looked forward to it each week! I just regret that I was so involved in the activities as well that I failed to take any pictures. 😏
6 Comments
Ashley
3/25/2019 03:04:42 pm
That's amazing! The butterflies look beautiful
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Mrs. Yarbrough
3/26/2019 04:19:31 pm
Thank you for reading and commenting on our class blog. I agree, the butterflies are beautiful!
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Laquitta Doak
3/25/2019 03:23:50 pm
Excellent! It all sounds so interesting and very creative looking butterflies!
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Mrs. Yarbrough
3/26/2019 04:20:16 pm
Thank you for your support always! You are wonderful!!
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Shona Rose
3/26/2019 09:20:26 am
I would have loved to participate in these activities. Would you be interested in sharing this unit at the Service Center for a presentation? We are looking for presentations for our Literacy Conference this summer. Your work would be a highlight for this conference. This also reminds me a lot of the work of Linda Reif in Seeking Diversity. She has some ideas that I think you would enjoy and extend what you've already done.
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Mrs. Yarbrough
3/26/2019 04:18:24 pm
Thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment on our class blog. I am definitely interested in the Literacy Conference and flattered you feel this is worthy of it. I will get in contact you with more questions! Thanks so much!!
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