 |
|||
Rochelle Wilner |
Frank Dimant |
Prof. Stephen Scheinberg |
|
|
|||
Rochelle Wilner |
Frank Dimant |
Prof. Stephen Scheinberg |
|
The following are selected themes that can be used to help prepare your students for a formal assembly or presentation on the Holocaust. The themes selected could be used as a basis for background information and are age appropriate. These themes link the issues raised in the Holocaust with curriculum that is appropriate and readily available. Selected lessons tied to the themes are presented.
*Taken from A Social Studies Handbook for Grades 1-3, Toronto Board of Education 1997
**Taken from A Social Studies Handbook for Grades 4-6, Toronto Board of Education 1997
POTENTIAL
This activity presents an opportunity to identify and describe different feelings, and to connect these with the accompanying thoughts and behaviours. The students vocabulary around the topic can be enriched. It can help students recognize that others have similar feelings.
RESOURCES
magazines, scissors, glue, pulp, construction paper, Handout 1
PROCEDURE
Brainstorm a list of feelings and record an individual card. Provide magazines for students to cut out pictures which best illustrate the identified feelings and attach the pictures to the words. Display the illustrated words in different areas of the room. Read a number of scenarios (see Handout 2), one at a time, and have the students go to the "feelings" word which best describes how they might feel. Allow time for students to explain why they chose that feeling.
Show a number of pictures to the calls and have the students descriv\be how they feel about the topic in the picture, e.g. A snake in the grass; at the circus; riding on a roller coaster… Encourage them to talk about experiences which produce other feelings. Model writing about this ideas using a frame such as:
When I see a rainbow I feel happy and I tell my friends.
When I hear thunder I feel scared and my heart thumps and sometimes I cry.
Each student could use the frame to write their own feeling and illustrate it. The results could be compiled to create a class book for shared or individual reading. In sharing time, discuss how these feelings affect us physically, e.g. red face, waving arms, sweaty hands, crying… Encourage students to talk about their own physical reactions.
POTENTIAL
This is a good activity to help students develop and improve observation skills, and to begin to explore non-verbal communication.
PROCEDURE
Have the students sit in a circle. Choose one student to begin ‘passing the mask’. Tell him/her to make a face to express a certain feeling and then ‘pass’ it to the person sitting beside him/her. Tell the second person to copy the expression and then pass it to the next. When everyone in the circle has had a turn have the students try to guess what the feeling was.
POTENTIAL
This is an excellent way to introduce new vocabulary and to help students interpret body language.
PROCEDURE
Use and empty classroom or gym for this activity. Announce a feeling, e.g. sad, happy, angry, scared and tell the students to move around the room in ways that shows this feeling. One part of the body can be used, e.g. “Move your head to show you are angry”.
Choose one student to move in a particular way and have the others try to guess the feeling being expressed.
POTENTIAL
This activity helps individuals to feel affirmed. It celebrates origins and enables the students to make connections. It provides a visual example of ‘togetherness’.
RESOURCES
construction paper, felt pens, mural paper, paint and sponges, photocopies of students’ individual school pictures.
PROCEDURE
Have the students design their own leaf shapes from construction paper and tell them to write their names and glue the photocopied pictures on to the leaves.
Have a small group volunteer to create the tree — mural paper could be sponge painted (or finger painted) and tree parts cut out to represent the trunk, branches and roots.
Explain to the students the meaning of “country of origin”. Prepare a chart with a survey question such as “What is your country of origin?” or “Where does your family come from?” and conduct a survey with the class to identify the students’ countries of origin.
Assemble the ‘tree’ on a large bulletin board and attach the ‘leaves’ to ‘branches’. Place the ‘country’ cards in the ‘roots’. With coloured yarn have the students connect their names to appropriate countries in the ‘roots’.
Have the students discuss the finished tree:
POTENTIAL
Our names hold important personal significance for each of us and this activity, in highlighting and celebrating students’ names, provides affirming experiences.
RESOURCES
coloured felt pens, strips of squared experience chart paper, scissors, chart with appropriate title
PROCEDURE
Organize the class into groups of three. Tell the students to print their names on the squared paper, one letter in each square. Ask them to work together to sort the names, according to the number of letters.
Have the student glue their names on the class chart in order of length, to create a graph, as in example.
Note: Many self esteem building activities can be designed around the students’ names. Using names in a variety of ways in the daily routines of the classroom will deal with many routines and meet other curriculum expectations, besides enhancing self esteem, e.g.,
POTENTIAL
The ways in which people show care and affection, greet each other, and celebrate are part of the human experience.
TIME NEEDED
three sessions
RESOURCES
Chart paper, books: Loving; Children Just Like Me; Welcoming Babies; On the Day I Was Born
PROCEDURE
Have students work in small groups. Each group will require a chart, divided into two columns, for recording ideas. One column should be titled ‘Families’ and the other ‘Friends’. Have children work together to record all the things their families and friends do that show they care for each other. In the large group share ideas and construct a common list. Discuss:
Look at picture books which illustrate families and friends showing care and affection. Two very good resources are Loving, and Children Just Like Me.
People in all cultures have ways of greeting each other and saying good-bye. Have students from different cultural backgrounds share greeting and farewell customs. Choose one way of greeting or saying good-bye for each day and have everyone in the class use it for the day.
Make a collection of words of welcome in many languages. Write each on a large strip of colourful cardboard and arrange near or around the entrance to your classroom. Here are several to get you started.
Have each student interview their parent(s) about how their birth was celebrated and record the information. In addition ask each child to bring along a baby picture.
willkommen (German)
karibu (Swahili)
hinhanh don tiep (Vietnamese)
bienvenidos (Spanish)
Make a bulletin board display called “When I was born…” Each student attaches his/her picture along with a written sentence completion for “When I was born…”
Welcoming Babies or On the Day I Was Born are excellent books to read.
Post a sign-up sheet titled "Celebrations". Over the period of several days have each student sign his/her name and write a list of the celebrations which they and their families observe. Use this list of celebrations to form groups or pairs of students who share the same celebration. Have each group work together to record information on their celebration using Handout 2.
Individual students might pair up with another individual and they could help each other, or they could take their sheets home to be filled out with a family member.
Have students share their information in the large group. Sharing by category will help emphasize the commonality of making food, for example, as part of our celebrations.
Discuss:
INTEGRATION OPPORTUNITIES
Visual Arts: Make a jigsaw mural depicting aspects of many celebrations. Cut mural paper into jigsaw-shaped pieces, one for each student to use to illustrate part of one of his/her celebrations. These are then pasted back onto another sheet of mural paper.
POTENTIAL
These activities provide students with concrete experiences to help them recognize there are many ways to solve conflicts peacefully, and to give them opportunities to learn the necessary language. The students begin to understand that all the skills of listening, cooperating and observing work together.
Note: “Conflict, while frequently viewed as a negative, is a natural event in any social environment.” *
Since school is the major social environment that students will experience for many years, it follows that, understanding the nature of conflict and learning how to resolve conflict constructively are necessary components of the school curriculum.
Self Esteem, feelings, communication and cooperative skills form the foundations for classroom work in conflict resolution. As in other areas, there are numerous teacher resources which describe complete programs. The suggested activities offer some starting points.
*Margaret McCabe & Jacqueline Rhoades The Nurturing Classroom pg. 95
POTENTIAL
This activity enables students to see that there are different ways to solve problems peacefully and that the best solutions are those where all involved feel satisfied.
PROCEDURE
Create a ‘Once Upon A Time’ story, based on a recent classroom conflict, to tell to the class. Stop the story at the point of conflict and invite the students to suggest ways to solve it. Include one of the suggested resolutions to complete the story. Consult the ‘real characters’ involved as to whether they consider this would be an acceptable way to solve their conflict.
EXAMPLE
Teacher: Once upon a time Duan and Joshua were building. When they went to choose props, they both went to pick up the farm animals at the same time. How can they solve this problem?
Child: Joshua could have them today and Duan could have them tomorrow.
Teacher: Duan doesn’t want to wait until tomorrow.
Child: They could share the animals.
Teacher: How would they do that?
Child: Duan would take one and then Joshua would take one.
Teacher: Joshua, Duan, do you think that would have been a good solution for your problem?
Joshua & Duan: Yes
Teacher: So they continued their building and put their animals into the fields and barns.
Follow with a discussion on why this would have been a satisfactory solution, establishing the idea of it being a peaceful one and that it was a ‘win-win’ situation for everyone concerned.
EXTENSION
Present various scenarios to the class. Have students work in pairs/small groups to choose scenarios, discuss acceptable solutions and role-play the situations. Alternatively, students could use puppets to act out the scenarios.
POTENTIAL
This activity provides students with the language and framework to state their feelings. By using this model a possible conflict can be diffused by eliminating the more accusatory ‘You’ message.
PROCEDURE
Present the following sentence chart.
I feel
________________________
when you
________________________
because
________________________
Use some classroom or home incidents to have the students identify the associated feelings, actions and reasons in order to complete the sentence, e.g. I feel angry when you push in front of me because I got there first. Have students work in pairs and give each pair several sentence frames to complete together. The framework for the ‘I’ Message can be permanently displayed as a visual reminder.
POTENTIAL
By using the model presented in this activity students realize that to solve a problem they need to look at many possible options and try them. When one solution fails, they can examine the reasons why and try another.
PROCEDURE
First introduce the strategy to students involved in an actual conflict and teach the steps.
1. Describe the problem.
Give each member an opportunity to tell what happened. Help the students to focus on the behaviour by saying:
What did you do? This is what I saw happening…
2. Generate solutions.
Ask the children to think of all the ways the problem might be solved, e.g., Take turns, use alphabetical order, consult a list, ask the teacher, cancel the activity…
3. Evaluate suggestions.
Have students talk about which solutions might be best and eliminate the inappropriate ones. Have them chart them and decide on one solution to try, stressing that each party needs to agree.
4. Implement the plan.
5. Evaluate the solution.
Have the students tell how the solution worked. Ask them to describe how they felt; if they would use this solution again. If the solution was not satisfactory, have the students return to step 2.
° ° °
To share the event with everyone, perhaps in a class meeting, prepare a chart, as illustrated, to highlight the steps.
POTENTIAL
An activity designed to show, in a simple and enjoyable way, how different groups can have different perspectives on what it means to be human.
TIME NEEDED
40 minutes
RESOURCES
A mystery bag containing a number of items for each group of three/four students e.g., two markers (different colours), adhesive tape, piece of string, selection of coloured wools, plasticene, three paper clips, two balloons, glue stick, two paper cups, coloured paper, scissors, sheet of newsprint for each group.
PROCEDURE
Divide the class into groups. Each group is given a sheet of newsprint and a mystery bag. The task is to use the contents of the bag to depict a human being. The depiction can be abstract and/or concrete and should convey more than just a physcial image of a human being. The depiction may also contain images that reflect the culture of the person. Each group displays and explains their human being. Class discussion follows on the commonalities and differences in the various depictions. A list of points may be compiled. The group projects are displayed around the list.
Handout 2: Who We Are is given to each students for home research.
POTENTIAL
This activity builds self-esteem and harnesses students’ enjoyment in finding out about, and sharing, the origins of their names. It also provides an interesting point of entry into exploring the cultural diversity that is a hallmark of Canada and Canadian identity, both past and present.
TIME NEEDED
40 minutes
RESOURCES
A name tag (or piece of card and pin) and a marker for each student; a large world map
PROCEDURE
One or two days before the activity ask students to find out from their parents, or from books at home, the origin and meaning of their first name, including — if known — the part of the world from which it originated. If such information cannot be found, students should find out their parents’ reasons for giving them that name. Back in the classroom, give students name tags and markers. On one side, they print the origin of their first names (or their parents’ reasons); on the other side, they print their actual names. Form groups of 8—10 and ask all students in the group to give you their cards without showing them to each other. Lay out the cards on a table with meaning and origins facing upwards. Encourage students to try to guess which card belongs to which person in the group on the basis of the meanings of names (the meanings will be positive and discussion should be entirely about positive characteristics). Guessing completed, ask students to pin on their name side. Have them walk around the room collecting details of the places of origin of each other’s names. The countries or regions noted should be located on a world map and marked with a pin.
In post-activity discussion, focus upon the influences of other cultures on Canadian society and seek to determine what part such influences have played in the formation of Canadian identity, and will continue to play in the future.
EXTENSION
An interesting research task is for students to find out the top ten boys’ and girls’ names in Canada at selected dates over the past century and compare these with the most popular names today, or even the most popular names in the school.
SUPPORTING RESOURCES
Surveys of names, particularly those including names from non-English speaking cultures, are a valuable resource for this activity. One example is Hanks, P. & Hodges, F., A Dictionary of First Names, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1990.
SOURCE
Derived from Johnson J. and Benegar, J., Global Issues in the Intermediate Classroom, Boulder, Colorado, Social Science Education consortium, 1981.
POTENTIAL
This activity examines cultural perceptions and stereotypes as a way of exploring how Canada and Canadians are perceived around the world.
TIME NEEDED
40 minutes
RESOURCES
70 slips of paper (plain sheets cut into six rectangular slips); large sheets of paper, each with the name of a selected country written at the top; 8 glue sticks; paper, pens/pencils for each group of 4 students.
PROCEDURE
Ask students, working in groups of four, to brainstorm their perceptions of selected countries around the world. Give each group a different country on which to focus (country names should not be disclosed to other goups). Suggested countries include: Brazil, China, England, France, Germany, India, Iraq, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Vietnam, USA. Students should discuss and write down anything they know, imagine or believe about their country, without resorting to reference materials, Following discussion, have each group select 6—8 different perceptions or images and write these clearly on the slips of paper (each one on a separate slip) without stating or inferring the name of the country. Collect all the slips, shuffle them and randomly re-distribute them to the class, so that each student has two slips. Before re-distribution, include the following perceptions of Canada (already written on prepared slips of identical size):
Students who are given slips that originated in their own group should return them, in exchange for others. Finally, ask students to stick both of their slips onto the country sheets(s) (to include Canada, and to be stuck on the classroom wall) to which they think they most aptly refer.
In follow-up discussion, students will probably want to debate, first of all, the extent to which they agree with the posting of the slips. If there are students in the class who come from any country represented, or have that cultural background, they should be asked to comment. Any desired changes can be negotiated and agreed upon. Students should then be asked to consider the origins of these perceptions: what sources (e.g., family, friends, teachers, books, media, personal travel, etc.) might have given rise to such images? How reliable are these sources? Do they come directly from a native citizen of the country, or indirectly though other non-native people? Can the perceptions be considered representative of the whole country and all its people, or just a certain part or group? In attempting to formulate answers to such questions, reference can be made to the perceptions given of Canada. How accurate, representative and comprehensive are they? How do students feel about the way they are perceived by others?
EXTENSION
Students are asked to imagine that they come from a very different climate and cultural background, and are visiting Canada for the first time. In groups, they discuss and then write a newspaper report on their first impressions of one of the following:
SOURCE
Perceptions of Canadians taken from: Bruce Daniels, “We are not tenants and they are not landlords”, Journal of Popular Culture, no. 22, 1988, 85-100; E. Hastings & P. Hastings, Index to International Public Opinion 1990-1991, Wilmington, Delaware, Scholarly Resources, 192; R. Nader, N. Millerson & Conacher, Canada First, Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1992.
POTENTIAL
This activity offers a student-centred introduction to human rights. It limits itself to children’s rights and asks class members to reflect upon what they perceive the rights of children to be.
TIME NEEDED
70 minutes
RESOURCES
A sheet of paper and pen for each small group; a sheet of newsprint and marker for each combined group; a copy of Handout 3 for each student.
PROCEDURE
(a) Ask the class to share ideas about what rights are. If somebody says ‘I know my rights’ or ‘It’s against my rights’, what do they mean? Encourage students to volunteer a few examples of rights they think they should have after you have given them a summary definition such as ‘something which, in all fairness, you feel that you are entitled to’.
(b) Have students form groups of four/five to brainstorm as many rights of the child as they can think of. All ideas are to be accepted. When groups have completed the task (or, in the case of less forthcoming groups, achieved lists of at least ten items), explain that in 1959 the United Nations issued a ten-point Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Ask groups to get together with another group to negotiate and write down their own agreed ten-point declaration. The process may involve rejecting some ideas on the brainstormed lists entirely, collapsing some items together in a more general statement, or simply editing two similar statements so they can stand as one statement. The final agreed list must contain no more than ten items.
(c) When the combined group declarations are complete, hand students a copy of the 1959 Declaration and give them the task of comparing and contrasting the latter with their own work. Are there any important rights which, upon reflection, they as a group had overlooked? Are there any important rights which the UN Declaration, now nearly forty years old, fails to include? Invite groups to amend their own declaration and/or the UN Declaration, in the light of their discussions. Then have students move into whole-class session first to report back on their own declarations, the differences between their own work, and that of the UN and any amendments they have made to either declaration, and then to discuss and reflect upon the learnings from the activity.
Group declarations will often tend to lay emphasis upon rights at a materialistic and superficial level. The introduction of the UN Declaration often comes as somewhat of a shock, with its emphasis upon rights of a more basic nature. Students will probably want to amend their own declaration when the realization dawns that they had been blind to, or taken for granted, a number of fundamental rights. The ethnocentrism of class perspectives prior to reading the Declaration can be teased out in the final whole-class discussion (the insights of refugee and other newly arrived children can be very important here). The final combined group activity may also bring to the surface the point that we continue to identify new rights as time passes. For instance, the UN Declaration (1959) does not mention environmental rights or the right of children to be free from abuse, but there is every chance that the student declaration will — because of the heightened consciousness of environmental and abuse issues in contemporary society. At the close of discussion, the class can be informed that a larger, more complex Convention on the Rights of the Child was issued by the UN in 1989 and this will be looked at later. The 1959 Declaration, although outdated, is a good entry into the subject.
VARIATION
Ask students, working in groups, to brainstorm the rights they consider they should have. Then ask them to consider which of the rights on their list should be enshrined in law and which should not. Follow this with reporting back and class discussion.
EXTENSION
Students revisit their own declaration and the UN 1959 Declaration, having viewed one or more of the excellent UNICEF videos films (see box below). Back in their combined groups, they try to draw up the ten-point declaration that the child/children depicted in the film might put together.
|
Beyond Hunger (1982, 17 minutes, 16 mm/VHS). Children and relief efforts in Somalian refugee camps. Children of the Sun (1989, 47 minutes, VHS). Impoverished children and UNICEF projects in Bolivia. Ethiopia, Parched Lands and Promise (1981, 12 minutes, 16 mm). Children facing drought and famine in Ethiopia and UNICEF’s relief program. Remember Me (1979, 15 minutes, 16 mm/VHS). The daily lives of seven children in different countries. Tarazani of Khartoum (1989, 10 minutes, VHS). Sudanese children driven from their homes by civil war and forced to turn to life on the streets in Khartoum. That’s Right (1989, 15 minutes, VHS). Looks at the lives of two children from Guelph, Ontario, and two from Ghana. Who will Help Paulinho? (1983, 26 minutes, VHS). Street children in Brazil. The above videos are available on free loan from UNICEF Ontario, 333 Eglinton Ave. E., Toronto, Ontario, M4P 1L7 (416-487-4156; fax: 416-487-8875). UNICEF advises booking four weeks in advance. |
Institute for International Affairs
| Commission
on Jewish Culture
| Sports Corporation
| League
for Human Rights
| Publications
Government Relations Office
| Centre for Community Action
| B’nai
Brith Foundation
| Press Releases
| The Jewish Tribune
Canadian Jewish Law Students Association
| Links
| B’nai Brith Canada