From the November 10, 2006 issue of The Cape Codder
Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School News
Studying the Holocaust
In keeping with Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School's cross-curricular, project-based mission, seventh-graders are engaged in a meaningful exploration of the Holocaust through an interdisciplinary language arts and social studies unit.
Students will explore several essential questions throughout the course of their study including: How did one's identity determine his/her fate during the Holocaust? What makes people hate? How could the Holocaust happen in a civilized society? What roles did people play during the Holocaust? Which role do you think was most difficult? What moral choices did people have to make during the Holocaust?
In language arts classes, students are exploring the Holocaust through Jerry Spinelli's "Milkweed," the award-winning story of a young orphan's experience in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. Spinelli's lively and engaging writing captures students' imaginations from the start and provides them a way to process what they're learning in social studies through a different lens. The book, with its focus on one young boy, also reminds students that the victims of the Holocaust were individuals, each with his or her own story and experience. In this vein, students are focusing their reading on the struggle for identity, the efforts of the Nazis to dehumanize their victims, and the power of individuals to make a difference, even in the face of unspeakable horror. They're exploring the text in reader-response journals and engaging in daily class discussions. The unit will culminate in analytical essays and a class-designed mural depicting the story's themes and messages.
In social studies, students have begun to consider issues of bias, prejudice, discrimination stereotyping and scapegoating. They will consider the depiction of Jews and other victims in Nazi propaganda and how these unfounded fears mobilized an entire nation. They will then explore a number of challenging topics including the roles people played during the Holocaust (i.e.: victim, perpetrator, bystander, rescuer), life in the ghettos and concentration camps as well as the aftermath of the Holocaust and its impact on contemporary Middle East relations.
To help support this annual study, CCLCS has generously been awarded a grant from Teaching Tolerance to expand the school's resources and to enhance students' knowledge and understanding of these important topics. Founded in 1991 by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Teaching Tolerance provides educators free educational materials that promote respect for differences and appreciation of diversity in the classroom and beyond. Thanks to this grant, CCLCS will be able to purchase numerous resources that will enable the school to create a Teaching Tolerance Resource Room. The materials will be available to students and faculty at all times but will specifically support the seventh-grade's Holocaust unit each year. Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School is proud and honored to carry on the meaningful work of Teaching Tolerance and the Southern Poverty Law Center.