Interactive Learning: Graded Discussion,World History
Overview
Interactive learning is becoming increasingly important as the world and its demands continue to change. This approach to education provides many advantages for both students and educators. By promoting engagement, supporting collaboration, personalizing learning experiences, utilizing technology, and developing critical thinking skills, this educational method equips students with the necessary tools to succeed in the 21st-century workforce. Please email me at interactivelearning2288@gmail.com to receive a copy of my book that contains all 14 units. Please allow me several days to respond.
Below are step-by-step instructions for a graded discussion on the Holocaust, which includes stories and a scoring system: Unit 11.
Overview and Purpose
This graded discussion unit about the Holocaust can be a valuable model for teachers in other subject areas. Its structure is designed to familiarize students, making them more receptive to future scored discussions.
Students spend a considerable amount of time communicating with each other through oral discussions. They may converse face-to-face or via social media to exchange information and ideas. To help students improve their communication skills, Fred M. Newmann presents a scored discussion process in his book Clarifying Public Controversy: An Approach to Teaching Social Studies. This approach facilitates effective communication and enhances students' learning experience.
Graded discussions can be an effective way of assessing students' knowledge while also encouraging conversation without being argumentative or domineering. It is essential for students to actively listen and add information to both formal and informal discussions to exchange ideas and provide advice. Additionally, it is important to respect different learning styles, which requires providing various learning activities. Graded discussions help students develop their oral communication skills and provide opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge without fear of judgment. Furthermore, these discussions can help students learn how to use Google and AI properly. Oral presentations challenge students to reword information in a way that fits their comprehension and language skills, allowing them to convey it orally to their peers of the same age or ability.
Objectives
- Students will be able to perform in discussion groups.
- Students will be able to listen to fellow group members and create an understanding of the topic discussed.
- Students will be able to share time and don’t pontificate.
- Students will know how to put another person into a discussion.
- Students will know how to make relevant comments.
- Students will know how to state a clarifying question.
- Students will know how to share information and ideas while actively listening.
Students today rely heavily on devices and text-based communication, which allows them to edit and control their messages while remaining invisible. However, face-to-face interactions may decrease their ability to read and interpret nonverbal cues, such as facial expressions, body language, and eye contact. These nonverbal signals are crucial in effective communication, especially in the professional environment and personal relationships.
That said, different opinions are acceptable if the conversation remains calm and respectful. Typically, arguments arise in discussions when one person has no additional information to contribute and disputes what another person has said. An argument often begins when someone in a group uniform asks a question to which they already know the answer. If another person disagrees, an argument may ensue because the questioner believes they have the correct answer. Therefore, it's best not to ask a question you already know the answer to unless it's to listen and not argue. After someone answers a question, listening attentively and responding with an open mind is essential. It's okay to stay quiet, but you can respectfully disagree and discuss your viewpoints if necessary. Unfortunately, many people argue and fight during conversations, especially with friends they've known for a long time.
The discussion stories for this unit are about Holocaust camp guest-speaker experiences in the death camps during World War II. When making their presentations to high school students, most survivors were not able to stand for any length of time to make their presentations about their experiences because of their weakened physical condition. Moreover, in the late nineteen nineties, many were so old they had difficulty accurately recounting their camp experiences. When taken to lunch, Holocaust camp survivors ate only a special diet of soft foods because their digestive systems suffered massive damage from their daily two-hundred-calorie or less concentration camp food. On the presentation day, survivors made no more than one presentation due to the emotional hardships recounting their stories placed on them every time they told their stories. Their accounts of what they endured in the death camps inspired the author to write two fictional short stories.
Graded Discussions: The Holocaust
To create discussion groups, limit them to five or six groups. The number of students in each group will depend on your class size. If you prefer smaller groups, you must make six groups, but remember that it will take longer for the entire class to discuss their stories. Larger groups may result in less accurate scoring and less time for students to present their ideas. To create groups, rank students from high to low performers, and assign the top five as group leaders. Then, assign the next five as the second member of each group. After that, assign the next five as the third member of each group. Continue until all students are in a discussion group. Groups assigned by rank place students of excellent, good, and okay ability in each group.
Step 2: Students read one of the two short stories, “My Brother’s Hat” or “The Leather Trench Coat” by A. A. Stevens, about personal, real-life holocaust experiences told by European holocaust survivors who made presentations to high school world history classes in the late 1980s. When they read the story, they are to highlight or mark areas that stand out. Explain that if they don’t mark interesting statements, they may not find them again because their mind does not function like when they first read it.
Step 3 of the graded discussion requires students to actively participate and use their marked story to contribute to the discussion. There is no need to rely solely on memory, and students are encouraged to refer to their marked article throughout the discussion. A discussion usually begins with the last part of the book or movie they just saw or read. However, expect students to discuss the story in sequence from beginning to middle to end. During the discussion, students must listen to each other's comments and locate something to comment on in their marked article, which teaches them active listening skills—thinking and listening simultaneously. They should place their "finger" on a sentence and wait for an opportunity to insert their comment into the discussion. It's crucial not to divide the discussion into separate oral reports but instead to engage in a group discussion.
Inserting comments during a conversation is an essential skill. It's perfectly normal to pause during a discussion as it gives individuals time to gather their thoughts. However, students may need to fill those gaps with questions or laughter. Therefore, it is crucial to encourage students to contribute valuable information to the conversation to keep it flowing smoothly. Here are some comment starters that can help keep the conversation going:
Restate their comment. If I understand you, you feel that in the cattle cars, the adults were . . . Expand on a comment. I also got the idea that . . . I didn’t expect . . . I believe . . . Wow, that’s a great observation about (repeat it) I want to add . . . In my opinion . . . Amy, I see you are ready to add something (She has her finger on a comment.) | The place in the story that made an impression on me was . . . That is an excellent observation. I also noted . . . I noticed . . . Hmm, that’s an exciting way to understand that, but I feel . . . I felt deeply moved by the part where . . . I agree with what someone has said . . . I thought . . . One of the most potent parts was . . . I found the part where . . . made me very . . . That’s one way to see it, but I also thought . . . |
The room Setup and scoring sheet are below.
The more traditional room setup below works well. Student desks face each other; class faces group:
Circle: Student desks face each other, with the discussion group in the middle. The round-area discussion setup allows students to interact with each other very effectively. So, there would be an inner group of desks and an outer group where the class sits.
Student Scoring Graded Discussions—Points
Remind students to refrain from dividing the discussion into a series of oral reports.
Scoring criteria:
+1 Relevant Comments—An example of a relevant comment from a discussion on capital punishment might be, ‘You have to commit a pretty serious crime to be eligible for the death sentence.’
+2 Presenting Facts—Names, what, when, where, statistics, quotes, and definitions that pertain to the topic or agenda item discussed.
+2 Taking a Position—’ I believe...’ or ‘It Is my opinion...’ or ‘If It was up to me...’ clearly indicate that someone is taking a position on a topic but includes a relevant comment.
+1 Get Others Involved—A student draws another student into the discussion. When a student includes his information and then adds, ‘Amy, what can you add to this part of the discussion?’
+1 Clarifying/Moving on—A student asks a clarifying question. A student suggests that the group move on to the next topic item. Amy might say, ‘We’ve been discussing the actions of the Nazis for a while, and I think we should move on to the daily lives of the Jews. Does anyone have any last comments on the Nazis?’
+3 Making an Analogy—In using the analogy method, the student should show that the resemblances noted bear relevance to the point established, whereas the differences are irrelevant.
+2 Recognizing a Contradiction—A student recognizes a contradiction. Jim might say, ‘Amy, didn’t you just say the Jews had no rights, but now you are saying that they have some rights?’
Minus Points:
‑2 Interrupts Others—As long as the interrupting student politely retracts, no points are lost.
‑2 Not Paying Attention—A student is not paying attention or distracting others.
‑3 Monopolizing—A student dominates the discussions and does not allow others to participate.
‑3 Personal attack—A student attacks a student personally instead of giving his view or ideas concerning the topic.
‑1 Irrelevant Comments—Irrelevant comments include repeating information another student has already contributed or comments that do not pertain to the question or agenda item discussed.
My Brother’s Hat, A. A. Stevens
For nineteen months, I survived the Auschwitz death camp at sixteen. My camp home, a thin-sided wooden structure, sprawled along the Eastern side of the camp, providing no protection from the freezing winters and stifling summers. The drafty structure housed hundreds of women who suffered in it like sardines. New crematoriums spewed smoke into the air that rained down gray ash-like debris along the dirt streets. I heard Italian, Romanian, Polish, French, English, Russian, Greek, and Dutch spoken as I moved throughout the camp. Skeleton-like men huddled in clusters, dreaming of escape. Camp bullies prowled the muddy or frozen passageways to exploit the weak. I suffered dysentery, open sores on my skin, and a weight loss from one-hundred twenty-four pounds to seventy-one. There was no such thing as a lousy thief; I stole from others to survive. I had no choice. I became unfeeling. My story explains my trip to Auschwitz and my experiences there.
I was born Greta Stein in Germany just as Hitler, the little house painter from Austria, began his momentous rise to dominate German politics. I share my parents with a younger sister and brother. My mother is a housewife, and my father makes and sells jewelry. My story began when I was 12 years old; two days after my birthday, I began to fear for my family’s safety from the Nazis. My birthday falls on November 10th, an evil day for Jews. I learned what It meant to be a Jew in the new Germany in 1938. On the nights of November 9th and 10th, Jewish synagogues and Jewish businesses were destroyed, along with Jewish homes all over Germany and Austria, including my father’s jewelry store, where I worked after school.
As more details became available weeks later, we learned it was a massacre against Jews carried out by the Nazis and German-speaking people throughout Germany and Austria on November 9th and 10th. The Nazis dragged Jews from their homes and businesses and shot or beat them to death. We hid in our attic for three nights; they missed us. But our downstairs was ransacked. Over time, we began to refer to those two days as Kristallnacht or Night of the Broken Glass, which comes from the glass of the shop windows smashed by the German-speaking, vicious mobs.
From that day on, I had to wear the yellow Star‑of‑David badge whenever I went out. I was forbidden to use the public telephone system and public transportation, and I could not leave my apartment building after dark without a special identification card. Although I still went to school, Nazi Youths teased and tormented me, who were my non‑Nazi friends, because of the yellow star I wore.
For the next four years, a Gestapo officer would go around our apartment building here in Munich to notify the families scheduled for transportation to the Nazi work camps. Most Jewish high school friends had already departed from the work camp. Since Jews could not use the public mail system, it was challenging to write to them to find out how my Jewish friends and neighbors were doing in the work camps in Poland.
I naively believed my family was safe, never to be taken to a work camp since we had been good German citizens for over one hundred and ten years. But we were also Jewish. In July of 1943, the Nazis told my family and me we had fifteen minutes to be downstairs with only one suitcase. I looked around my room of sixteen years to decide what was to go with me and what was to wait for me until my return after the war. As I left my room, I took one final glance around. Little did I know I would never see the remainder of my possessions that did not fit into my suitcase. I grabbed my suitcase and went to help my nine‑year‑old brother close his smaller suitcase. My brother packed his favorite dress‑up hat and feathers in front with his name stitched on the rim like our father’s. Bringing his hat pleased me.
I waited with my mother, sister, and brother while my father purchased our train tickets from the Gestapo officer who oversaw our transportation. The Gestapo loaded me into a one‑ton canvass-covered truck with my family and thirty neighbors. As the truck flap began to close, Hans, my school friend since elementary school, leaped from our truck, yelling that the Nazis were pigs. With the flap tied down, I never saw what happened, but I heard a gunshot just as our truck moved away from my street to take us to the train station for transportation to Poland and its labor camp
Although the train station held thousands of families like mine, it was very organized and quiet. There were several Gestapo guards with their evil dogs, maybe twenty at the most. The Gestapo efficiently loaded my family and suitcases into the solid‑sided, windowless freight car. I remember my father saying to my little brother, who clutched his hat to his chest, ‘It’s okay. It’s only a short trip.’ Usually, it would have been only about a one-and-one-half-day trip, but that wasn’t to be. The large door slid shut and locked.
My freight car was extremely crowded, so much so that my fellow passengers and I could neither sit nor lie down. The Gestapo packed about two hundred of us into the cattle car. Most of us had to stand on our suitcases; we couldn’t sit. It was July, and by noon, It was stifling hot in our car, over one hundred degrees. There were no window openings, only a two‑inch by four‑inch slot to let air inside the car.
At about two o’clock, the Gestapo put our train on a sidetrack, where we had to wait. I heard an older gentleman say, “What’s to worry about? We’re just waiting for another train to pass by. It’ll be just a minute.” But this wasn’t to be. The train sat there for the rest of the afternoon and into the next day.
Since the train wasn’t moving, there was no air movement, so many older people fainted from the heat and a lack of water. I had to push closer together with others so they could lay flat. Finally, the sun went down. But that didn’t help because I felt cold and damp by two o’clock in the morning. The second day ushered in another beautiful day, as described by the ‘big’ man who would not let anyone else near the air slot. The Gestapo sidetracked my train like that on seven more miserable occasions.
About mid‑morning, the train began to move again. The odor in my freight car was nauseating. There was no place for anyone to complete their toilet, so we were forced to use one of the corners of my freight car. There was no privacy; I had to walk over and on top of others to get to it. On the third day, I chose to soil myself instead. Because the temperature began to rise again in the freight car, someone in our car announced our first death. It was an older woman. And, by late afternoon, the sixth to die was a two-year-old child right next to me.
On the afternoon of the fourth day, I had difficulty breathing. The stench of the bathroom bucket, soiled passengers, and the smell of the dead burned my lungs with every breath, which also burned my eyes. I was tired; I could not sleep from the constant crying of the children and whimpering of the adults. How can one sleep standing up? Finally, on the evening of the fifth day, the train stopped in the middle of an open field. The large door slid open just enough to push one large can of water into our freight car, but there was no food. The heavy door quickly slid shut. I didn’t get any water; It was gone before I got to my side.
On the seventh day, we arrived at the train station at the work camp of Auschwitz in Poland, where it said over the entrance, Arbeit Macht Frei, “Work Makes Free.” Nineteen children and twenty‑one adults died during my trip. My little sister was one of those who died in my father’s arms. Now, there were only four of us left. I tumbled out of the freight car with my battered suitcase and soiled clothes; I could hardly stand up.
I felt astonished. The Gestapo played a beautiful waltz on the public address system. I was lined up with the other survivors to stand in front of our freight car with my luggage. I was then moved with the others in an organized fashion toward the end of the loading platform, where several Gestapo officers were asking questions. We piled our luggage in front of the freight cars. My father told me to tell them that I was an artisan and could make and repair jewelry, which I was proficient at due to the hours I worked after school. It was our turn. The Gestapo officer put my father and me into a different line than my weeping mother and miserable, sad-looking brother. An official told me that I would see them after I was processed. The Gestapo guard was very polite. We, women, were processed: stripped naked, tattooed with an ID number, head shaved, and given a lice-covered, tattered uniform and a thin sheet. I found out later that the shaved head kept the lice under control.
They transported me to a women’s barracks but couldn’t find my suitcase. Before settling in, two Gestapo soldiers escorted me to a sizeable gym‑like building where other inmates sorted thousands of items into huge piles. They assigned me a sorting table to work on. Another worker would empty the contents of a suitcase onto my table, and I was required to sort the contents into various piles on the large floor: purses, dresses, scarves, dress shirts, belts, shoes, socks, and so on.
After several weeks at the work camp, I eavesdropped on the inmate’s chatter, who gossiped about her version of what was happening. It was just gossip, nothing more. After the “selection,” she said that able young men and women worked in the sorting facility. At the same time, the aged, the weak, children, and mothers perished in the crematorium that seemed to smoke twenty-four hours a day, we could see as we walked throughout the camp. She went on to say that workers were regularly “selected” weakened by overwork, disease, or hunger; they disappeared, never to be seen again. There were also stories about workers selected for strange medical experiments. Again, just rumors, stories. After being constantly hungry, I worked sorting fourteen-hour days, slept on a board with a thin sheet covered in lice, and listened to the strange sounds from the sleeping women in my barracks, so I shut out the gossip.
After several weeks of working in the sorting building, I went through the things on my table and grabbed a hat just like my father’s hat with its decoration and decorative rope on the front, but It had my brother’s name stitched on it. Then, as my hand clutched the scarf my mother had worn the last time I saw her, tears filled my eyes; everything blurred. I knew I would never see my mother, brother, or anyone else in the other line again. The rumors were true: a death camp.
After Thoughts, “My Brother’s Hat”
Group’s Personal Analysis, Ideas and Opinions
Groups discuss and answer the questions below. Specifically, Record all students’ feelings accurately; do not judge them. Students can say and write anything they feel without being judged on the value of their ideas or opinions. A recorder will write their thoughts and feelings to these thought-provoking questions below: PLEASE ENSURE ALL VIEWS ARE HEARD RESPECTFULLY.
Students should not attempt to change another person’s opinion; they should express their feelings and record them all. Later, each group can express their views to the class. Later, the teacher will listen to your ideas and then respectfully paraphrase them in a way that zeroes in on the significant issues so that your ideas are more focused. The teacher will do this without judging an idea as ‘good’ or condemning it as “without value.”
- What hypotheses can you offer/suggest that might explain the treatment of Jewish children during WWII?
- What reasons can you suggest that might explain the actions that SS Gestapo took?
- Many laws influenced the Stein family passed by the Nazis against the Jews only. Would It have been okay for the Stein family to disobey these laws? If so, why? Or, why not?
- Nazis applied laws in 1938 to a population of Germany that was a minority. When is it acceptable for a minority to disregard or not obey the laws made by a majority of a population?
- Should the Nazis be punished for “crimes against humanity?” However, “crimes against humanity” did not formally exist in international law until they were included in the London Charter after WWII ended. Would war crime trials be nothing more than the winners punishing the losers, using the law as a weapon of revenge rather than justice.
The Man in the Gray Leather Trench Coat, A.A. Stevens
My name is Hans Herber (hoo ber), and at nineteen years old, my story begins as Hitler prepares to march into Austria in 1941, just before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. I live in Munich, Germany. I always wanted to become a psychiatrist, and with that in mind, I was studying in Munich when Hitler came to power and annexed Austria. During my studies at Munich University, I, along with other students, received political indoctrination, which started at a very early age for most of us and continued through the Hitler Youth with the goal of complete mind control. We were encouraged in school to denounce our friends, neighbors, and our parents for derogatory remarks about Hitler or Nazi beliefs, especially the inferior Jews, according to the Nazis.
On the other hand, in my studies at Munich University, I had worked with many Jews, and, I married a girl, Anna (on uh), who was one‑quarter Jewish. She would be required to wear the yellow Star‑of‑David badge whenever we went out if the Nazis ever discovered she was Jewish. She would be forbidden to use public facilities and public transportation, and she could not leave her apartment building after dark without a special Gestapo pass.
We had a baby about a year later despite Anna’s unidentified Jewish status. In Munich, I set up my family in Schwabing (show awb ing) because of its proximity to Munich University. Schwabing provided a natural home for open-minded thinkers, artists, and writers, all tolerant of all races and religious faiths. It also provided the center of a good deal of anti‑Nazi activities and, in fact, some more overt action by the White Rose.
I hated and feared the Nazis here in Munich, here in Schwabing. My hatred and fear stemmed from my wife’s Jewish connection, although she was only a tiny fraction Jewish. I didn’t think the Nazis knew she was Jewish, but I always feared that they might find out. I had heard stories about Dachau being a death camp just outside of the Munich center and a short distance from where Anna and I lived in a modest apartment. I wasn’t sure, but in my heart, yes, I was sure, and I became involved in an anti‑Nazi movement, the “White Rose.” And my life was never the same.
Initially, the White Rose grew up around a couple of students at the University of Munich and one of the university’s teachers, Professor Gerhard (Gair Hard). The group was small, not dangerous to the Nazis, but more of an embarrassment. The few people in our White Rose group felt a commitment to fight against the Nazis in any way they could, and all they had was the ability to turn out a certain amount of anti‑Nazi propaganda.
My wife, Anna, threw herself into the group’s efforts with the kind of enthusiasm that had drawn me to her in the first place. She wrote anti‑Nazi leaflets, spent early morning hours delivering them, and wrote anti‑Nazi slogans on walls in the dark of night. She began to feel more Jewish, more a part of the group than I did, a non‑Jew. But still, she drew me farther and farther into the White Rose group. I didn’t mind. I shared her anti-Nazi sentiments, but by nature, I was no activist. Most of the time, I stayed home with our baby, Heinrich (hien rick), while Anna was on one of her anti‑Nazi missions. Anna and I became close friends with the anti‑Nazi student leaders, having them over to dinner, and occasionally, they would babysit our son for us.
I will never know how the Nazis learned of my small involvement in the White Rose, but one night they came, no Nazi uniforms, no fuss. They knocked on my door. There were only two of them in their suits and their gray leather trench coats with only a Nazi pin attached to their lapels, standing in puddles of rain, asking me if they might have a few moments of my time. The Gestapo told me that they knew my wife was part Jewish, which, of course, made our son, Heinrich, Jewish, according to the Nazis. And, it made me, the father, guilty of harboring two known Jews. The two Nazis acknowledged to me that sometimes these things happen, that love can lead anyone into shadowy paths, making them do illegal things.
The taller and more distinguished‑looking of the two Nazis, who did all the talking, wore a stylish gray leather trench coat. He was calm, well-mannered, and smiled in a friendly way. He explained that the Gestapo knew of Anna and my involvement in the White Rose; he suggested that I cooperate with them in breaking up this “minor irritation, this pimple on the Fuhrer’s behind.” Otherwise, he said it would be necessary to vigorously interrogate Anna, and, of course, Heinrich, our son, would join her when the Gestapo detained her. He reminded me that when their arrests and confinement occurred, the Nuremberg Laws made it unlawful for a non-Jew to associate with a Jew. He conveyed this in a smooth, conversational tone yet a threat: My wife and child imprisoned would be swift and unpleasant. On the other hand, the tall Nazi in the leather trench coat suggested a way out. My choice of either helping the Gestapo by informing on those involved in the anti‑Nazi White Rose group or endangering the life of my wife and the life of my child.
Naturally, I said nothing to Anna, but I did increase my involvement with the anti‑Nazi group out of necessity so I could report its activities to my newly made friends of the Gestapo. So, I became more involved in Anna’s anti‑Nazi group. My increased White Rose activities directly resulted from the need to report information to my tall friend in the leather trench coat, an evil yet polite Gestapo agent; obviously, I had no choice. And for quite a while, there were no Nazi arrests bought about by my information about the White Rose that I was aware of; no one was hassled, arrested, or interrogated. So, what was the harm done? Anna’s anti‑Nazi group continued operating as usual. I kept meeting the man in the leather trench coat in Munich’s English Park near the university, passing odd bits of information to him about the White Rose, such as the numbers of anti-Nazi pamphlets printed, who wrote the pamphlets, what type of printing press made the pamphlets, where they met, who distributed the pamphlets.
Then, in November of 1943, the White Rose planned a night to protest the treatment of the Jews, a night of danger. I tried to keep Anna from going, but my man from the Gestapo assured me that there would be no trouble and that she would be safe from arrest. I believed him; I had no choice. So, Anna went with the group and painted DOWN WITH HITLER seventy times along Ludwigstrasse. Seventy times. To my relief, the Gestapo made no arrests and no trouble by the Gestapo, and my wife, Anna, returned safe and sound.
Two days later, the Gestapo arrested two university student leaders for passing out leaflets, which Anna had written. After their beheading, they joined the already thousands of Jews who lost their heads to the Nazi guillotine, which the Gestapo favored to bring about the gruesome sentences. Anna evaded arrest or interrogation as promised by the Gestapo. Did I set the student leaders and the professor up for the arrests? But more importantly, did I ever have a choice in the whole matter? As for my son, Heinrich, he grew up a healthy, intelligent child. Today he is an architect, lives in Rome, has his own family, and remembers nothing of his mother Anna, who eventually was killed in the bombing of Munich by the Americans during the wars end, an accident of the war, and my Nazi friend in the gray leather trench coat is now a successful businessman in Munich. He often visits me in my home here in Munich, minus his gray leather trench coat. Although the gray leather trench coat is gone, he has not changed; he is polite, kind, and caring. We have built up an unusual bond of friendship.
After Thoughts, “The Gray Leather Trench Coat,” the group’s personal analysis, ideas and opinions.
Each group is to discuss and answer the questions below. Specifically, Record students’ feelings accurately with no comments. Students can say and write anything they feel without being judged on the value of their ideas or opinions. A recorder will write their thoughts and feelings to these thought-provoking questions below: PLEASE ENSURE ALL VIEWS ARE HEARD RESPECTFULLY.
Students should not attempt to change another person’s opinion; they should express their feelings and record them all. Later, each group can express their views to the class. Later, the teacher will listen to your ideas and then respectfully paraphrase them in a way that zeroes in on the significant issues so that your ideas are more focused. The teacher will do this without judging an idea as ‘good’ or condemning it as “without value.”
- What suggestions can you offer/suggest that might explain the treatment of Jews during WWII?
- What reasons might explain the actions that the father, Hans Huber, took?
- Why were the Nazis so successful in controlling the individual and groups within the Third Reich? Advanced: Does any segment of our society use their control methods today in government, family, or groups?
- Is it okay for a citizen to disobey an unjust or unfair law? Under what circumstances is it okay? Suggest a criteria to determine who and when a law is terrible and ignored. Who will decide when a law is just or unjust?
- Is there any truth to the statement, “They, the Jews, deserve what they got because they didn’t put up a fight or resist?” If it’s true, why? If it’s not, why? Advanced: Today, what are some examples of when someone refuses to resist or put up a fight when they are wronged (government, family, groups) by an authority?
Group of people talking. UNE photo. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Group_of_people_talking.jpg. License https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons.
Jagtbreve (hat). Hansen, Hans Nikolaj. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jagtbreve_-_side_042.png. License https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain.
Newmann, Fred M. Clarifying Public Controversy: An Approach to Teaching Social Studies. Jan. 1, 1970, Little Brown and Company
Trench coat. Ring, David. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trench_coat.tif. Scanned by team of MoMu. License https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons.
Stevens, Anthony. Cover, Interactive Leartning. Canva.com, 1 Feb. 2024. Free app edition use.
Stevens, Anthony. Scoring table image. 7 Mar. 2024
Stevens, Anthony A. “The Gray Trench Coat.” 2020: Complied from Holocaust guest speakers.
Stevens, Anthony A. “My Brother’s Hat.” 2020: Complied from Holocaust guest speakers.