As part of this unit assignment, you will have several tasks to complete. All of the tasks involve seeing a major world event from an individual human perspective, exploring multiple points of view.

TASK 1:
      You will read Lois Lowry's Number the Stars.
Although a fictionalized account, this book is based on the true story of courageous Danes who helped spirit their Jewish friends out of Denmark to save their lives. We see this story from Annemarie's point of view. To complete this first Task of the Unit, you will have an online study guide to complete and keep in your network folder, along with other reading and writing assignments(See the list on the Process Page). We will be reading and writng about this novel, but you will also have the chance to learn some things about the WWII Period and the Holocaust historically. This work will be checked periodically through the unit. It is important that you stay current in your reading.

TASK 2:

Inspiration concept maps will be developed on characters from the novel(the templates for these will be placed on the common student folder on the network) after we complete the reading of the novel. Different groups will have a concept map to do on one the following characters: AnneMarie, Ellen, Kirsti, Mrs. Johansen, Peter, Uncle Henrik. These concept maps will require you to identify and support character traits found in these character with ideas and examples from the novel. Groups will share copies of their concept maps with the entire class, and copies of the concept maps will be printed and added to your Interactive Notebook.

TASK 3

You will become a biographer for several of the children who suffered in the Holocaust. Why did some children survive in the face of horrendous danger, while others were obliterated? Your third task in this unit will be to learn as much as you can about these children and their plight and about the Holocaust in general. When did it happen? Where? Why? What was done in answer to it? What is the message of these young people to the world--and even more, what is your message as a young person in our modern world about them and their fate? What can we learn to keep this from happening again?

You will be assigned to a group to demonstrate your learning about one of the biggest atrocities in world history. You will individually write an imaginary diary for a child of the Holocaust, and your group will prepare a Powerpoint to examine the lives and suffering of these children, that will include an entry from your diaries. You will also read and research some of the people who helped rescue Jews from the Holocaust.

STEPS:

1. Take notes on the events of the Holocaust from the websites on the Resources page of the web study(and from books in the classroom), and use that information as background for the next steps. Also take notes on several children of the Holocaust. Although the number of victims is mind-numbing, every one of these victims was a real person, with hopes, dreams, fears--and an individual life and story. Through researching one, you will get to know the human side of this great tragedy. It happened to individuals, like each of us.
Save all your notes(and their sources) on a Word document in your file(you will be shown in class how to do this).

2. To express what you learn about the Children of the Holocaust, you will imagine you are the voice for one of them. Select a child whose story you find that also has a picture of the child. Save the picture in the designated file. You can also take notes on the child's life and experiences, and save those in your file as well. Be sure to write down the source of the information you find and source of the picture. THEN, write the diary entries you imagine the child would have written about at least five of the key days of his/her experiences(these can be consecutive days, or skip days--but they should be REAL dates in this child's experience). Place the child's name and picture at the top of a Word document(with the source) on which you write your diary entries.You can read real diaries in some of the books we will have for research, and on some of the websites. Save your imaginary diary with your name as the file name in the folder called "diaries". No two people should do the same child.

3. Take the children done by each member of your group and create two slides for the group Powerpoint on each child--one with the picture and some biographical information, and one with your BEST imagined entry in the diary.

4. Participate with the group in developing introductory and concluding slides for the Powerpoint that answer some of the key background questions about this bleak event in world history --and what we can learn from it to keep it from happening in the future.

5. Some people showed great heroism in the face of this danger-as did the fictional family in Number the Stars . Catholic nuns, individuals who participated in the Kindertransport, factory workers and owners, diplomats, teachers --many individuals risked their own lives to rescue Jews, and Jewish children in particular, from the horrible fate of Hitler's "Final Solution"--or to publicize their story and get them international aid. Research at least one "rescuer" or "advocate" for each member of your group. Create a slide for the group Powerpoint that illustrates the courage, creativity or sacrifice of this rescuer, as you also record the facts of what the rescuer did.

6. As a final slide in your PowerPoint, include a list of the sources you used.

TASK 4

For this task, you will imagine yourself to be a movie documentary maker. Some people(like the leader of Iran) have claimed that the Holocaust neve happened. You will be researching the history of the Holocaust from a variety of sources to decide what the truth is(you can use some of the same information as you researched for your PowerPoint--only you will be focusing on the bigger question of the who, what, why, when, where, and how, . You will save pictures, take notes from websites, and decide on music that will communicate your findings on "WHAT REALLY HAPPENED? " A good documentary communicates both facts, opinions and feelings. You will use the pictures, narration you write and music you choose to communicate YOUR message about the Holocaust. What really happened, and why do we need to know about it? What will it be? You will be in the same group as you were to prepare the PowerPoint. We will be using a really fun, new tool, Photostory3, that will let you become real moviemakers!

TASK 5

For this task, you will learn to BLOG. We will be using an online classroom for this, and you will have several blogging assignments to do--after chapter 5, 10, 15. We will also use our online classroom for "silent discussion": TappedIn. You can always get to it from this link on this page. You will have more directions for doing this when we have progressed to chapter 5 in our reading. To actually get into this site, I will be giving you your own login and password. This is an unusual online classroom because everything you say and write in it gets sent to the teacher in a transcript. You will also have the chance to "chat" in this classroom.