Appendix A
Nazification of Germany: A Story in Digital Pictures – Example Lesson
Picture books provide an extension of the human element to stories of the past through the connection of visual imagery and powerful prose. A picture book is the medium through which an author has chosen to portray a story. The combination of image and text tell the author’s story more thoroughly than can be accomplished through text or image alone (Billman, 2002; Giorgis, 1999). Far from being appropriate for just the elementary classroom, picture books often address topics and issues that are more appropriate for the older student (Giorgis, 1999; Osborn, 2001). The Holocaust is such a topic. It is complex and often difficult for young adolescent learners to fully grasp. Picture books provide a sense of relevancy that enables the adolescent reader to associate with the events of the era.
The creation of a picture book provides students with an authentic exercise in higher order thinking – requiring students to research the time period, identify the most important events, and analyze available images obtained through database research. These activities are rich in complex thinking skills and require students to construct their own understanding of the era.
In this activity, students were tasked with the exploration of how the Nazi regime was able to transform 1930s Germany, arguably, the most technologically advanced and modern society of the time, to a fascist state of prejudice, social conformity, and violence. Through their research, students became aware of the political and historic factors that set the stage for the rise of the Nazi party and the policies enacted by the regime after gaining power. Through this activity students explored the factors, both historical and societal, that permitted the events of the Holocaust to unfold.
The students utilized Internet research and digital archival photographs to create a digital picture book of 1930s Germany, similar to The Children We Remember by C.B. Abells (1986), a picture book of historical photographs of the Holocaust. This activity can be used as a self-directed research activity or as a unit culmination assignment guided by materials presented in class.
Abells’ book is a powerful picture book of black and white photographs from the Yad Vashem archives combined with minimal text. The pictures largely tell the story, with the sparse text creating context. Students were charged with creating a picture book with a similar feel. They were required to use the images available in digital archives to tell the story of the Nazification of Germany and pair these images with sparse text to create meaning. For this assignment, as in Abells’ book, the images tell the story and the text provides support. The emphasis was on developing student visual literacy, as well as assessing their understanding of the unit. This activity differs from the paper and scissors cut and paste activities where images are taken from magazines or other printed sources, because students are required to systematically search through thousands of digital images to find the few they deem the most appropriate to tell their story. This was not an easy assignment. The research requirement was significant, and the students had to learn how to tell a complete story with limited text. For the verbally talented students, it was a unique challenge – requiring them to be parsimonious with their words and still relate the meaning. For the visually talented students, this activity proved a unique opportunity to utilize their talents in social studies class, which is typically linguistically-dominant.
Students worked collaboratively in pairs or groups of three to plan, research and create their picture books.
Students were given one week to complete the project. In that week students were required to brainstorm, storyboard, research, and create their picture books. In the interest of time, students were required to pre-plan their picture books, identifying the types of pictures they wanted to use before going on-line. By requiring students to pre-plan their product, archival searches were focused and purposeful. Digital archives can be a maze of information; therefore, without a plan for research, students can easily become lost in the amount of material available. Once students identified the images they desired for their book, they began searching the digital archives available on the Holocaust. Students were provided a listing of appropriate websites in which to search. With thousands of digital images, these websites (listed in the appended lesson plan) provide ample material for the creation of the book. Students were required to capture both their desired image and the website URL and copy them into a word document. This step is the equivalent to writing note cards in a research page. The students gathered their images and sources in a central location before creating their final document. Once students collected all necessary images, they were ready to begin construction of their books using PowerPoint presentation software. This software package provides the combined advantage of easy manipulation of images and text and has an appearance similar to a picture book when printed. Students imported their captured images into a slide show and combined these images with text to create their picture books. As part of the assignment, students were required to create a reference page at the back of the book identifying the websites from which all images were obtained. The final step in the creation of the picture books was the physical construction of the book. The PowerPoint slides were printed and glued to card stock to provide rigidity to the pages. The pages were then bound using metal rings. The final picture books were then displayed in a student-designed display in the local public library during Holocaust Remembrance month.
Completed projects were assessed in four areas: accuracy, research, presentation, and participation. As this was a social studies project, accuracy of information was the most heavily weighted portion of the assessment. Included in this portion of the assessment was whether the book answered the question “How did it happen?”, and if the provided information was historically accurate. The selection of appropriate images indicated if the students understood the information and had been successful in their research and technology use. The attractiveness of the visual presentation of the picture book was also taken into consideration – specifically, if the product looked like a picture book and was neatly presented. Finally, as this was a group project, students were assessed on their participation within the group. This portion of the grade was a combination of student self-assessment, teacher assessment, and peer-assessment.
For students who are technically gifted, the use of presentation software alone may be too simplistic. This project was structured using the picture book format for several reasons – i.e. the experience of “publishing” a book, ease in sharing the final product, and the ready availability of PowerPoint software in the school. This project, the way it is originally designed, can be accomplished in schools with even the most limited technology. All that is necessary is a Microsoft Office package, the Internet, and a printer. These tools are found in most schools today. However, if movie production software is available, technically gifted students could create a documentary about the Nazification of Germany using the same research skills and research question. If such software is not available, then the technically gifted students could be used as class troubleshooters, assisting the teacher with addressing technical problems that invariably arise in technology-oriented activities.
In this activity, students were challenged to research, create, and cooperate to produce a product to be shared with an authentic audience. Although this particular assignment centered on the Holocaust, the same activity could easily be incorporated into any lesson for which digital archives exist. Similarly powerful picture books could be created for the civil rights movement, World War II, the Vietnam War, September 11, 2001 or any number of other topics. Literally, the world is the limit.
Lesson Plan – The Nazification of Germany: A Story in Pictures
Grade Level: 6-8
History/Social Studies Discipline: World History; Holocaust Studies
NCSS Thematic Strands:
Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
Performance Expectations:
- identify and analyze examples of tensions between expressions of individuality and group or institutional efforts to promote social conformity
- identify and describe examples of tensions between belief systems and government policies and laws
Time, Continuity, and Change
Performance Expectations:
- identify and use processes important to reconstructing and reinterpreting the past, such as using a variety of sources, providing, validating, and weighing evidence for claims, checking credibility of sources, and searching for causality
- develop critical sensitivities such as empathy and skepticism regarding attitudes, values, and behaviors of people in different historical contexts
Power, Authority, and Governance
Performance Expectations:
- give examples of how government does or does not provide for needs and wants of people, establish order and security, and manage conflict
- recognize and give examples of the tensions between the wants and needs of individuals and groups, and concepts such as fairness, equity, and justice
NETS-S National Educational Technology Standard for Students:
Technology communications tools
Performance Expectations:
- Design, develop, publish, and present products (e.g., Web pages, videotapes) using technology resources that demonstrate and communicate curriculum concepts to audiences inside and outside the classroom.
Technology research tools
Performance Expectations:
- Use content-specific tools, software, and simulations (e.g., environmental probes, graphing calculators, exploratory environments, Web tools) to support learning and research.
Objective:
Students will be able to create a digital photograph picture book chronicling the transformation of Germany under Nazi rule through the use of Power Point software. Students will research the events of the era through the use of appropriate internet websites; organize information for the picture book through the use of a storyboard; identify and capture appropriate images to use in the picture book; and, create the digital picture book through the usage of Power Point presentation software.
Time: A minimum of five 1-hour sessions
Instructional Steps:
There are four steps to this assignment: introduction, research, planning, and publication. This assignment may be completed individually, in pairs, or in groups.
Introduction:
- The most effective method to introduce the assignment is by reading aloud Abell’s (2002) The Children We Remember. Following the read aloud, discuss the information presented, the emotions triggered, and the interaction between images and text.
- Upon completion of the discussion, the teacher will distribute the assignment rubric and explain the assignment objectives.
- Teachers and students will re-visit the example picture book to explore the mechanics of the book. Discussion will include an examination of the types of photographs utilized, the text associated with the images, and how the combination of text and image crates a more powerful message than either alone.
Research:
Research on these topics will include gathering informational material as well as surveying the available photographs illustrating the topics. Through their research, students should be able to make educated decisions of topics to address, images to include, and the appropriate text to write.
- Prior to students being provided access to the internet for research, the teacher should discuss internet safety and methods for ensuring web material validity. Students should be directed to focus their research on the websites provided with this lesson plan. The teacher may want to create a word document with the suggested websites hot-linked and load the document to the student computers. This step will lessen the chance of students engaging in unsafe activities while on-line.
- Depending on the technical skills of the students, the teacher may be required to model internet research skills for the students. Included in this demonstration should be an explanation of how to access and use the suggested websites. It is an efficient use of time to demonstrate how to capture and save images and web addresses from the internet, as this will be a vital skill for the creation of the picture books.
- If this assignment is to be treated as a self-directed activity, students will need to be provided guidance on topics to research. Appropriate topics related to the Nazification of Germany include the following: pre-war Jewish life, anti-Semitism, the Treaty of Versailles, the Great Depression, the Nazi party platform, the election of 1932, the arrest of intellectuals and political dissidents, the eugenics movement and the T-4 program, censorship and book burning, the Hitler Youth, propaganda, the Nuremburg laws and the isolation of Jews, the 1936 Nazi Olympics, Kristallnacht, the Anschluss and the invasion of Poland, the establishment of the ghettos, and the Wannsee conference.
- If this assignment is to serve as a culminating activity for an instructional unit, students should be directed to review the materials presented in class and conduct additional research to enhance their understanding of the topics listed above.
Planning:
A significant portion of the time necessary to create the picture book will be spent in the planning phase. Students will be provided blank copies of a storyboard format to use in their planning (See Figure 4).
- The teacher will need to display a copy of the storyboard form and explain its use.
- Students will need to be provided with a minimum of 10 copies of the storyboard form. This will allow for sufficient space to address the pertinent topics, include both covers and introductory pages, and still provide space for errors.
- In each of the boxes students will need to draw a rough sketch or describe the type of image she/he would like to include. The text for the page is to be written on the provided lines.
- After the pages are storyboarded, students will need to return to the photo galleries from the web and verify that the pictures to be included are available. If not, the students will need to revise the storyboard. If the desired images are available, students should capture both the information and the picture’s web address and save them in a word document for future use.
Publication:
Publication of the picture book requires the capture of images from internet databases, the import of these images into PowerPoint presentation software, and the addition of text to each slide.
- Depending on the proficiency of student with PowerPoint, the instructor may need to demonstrate the use of the software.
- The students will create their picture books by creating a separate slide for each storyboard frame. Appropriate backgrounds and fonts are to be added after all images and texts have been placed within the slides.
- Students are to save their picture books to the school network, the laptop, or to a flash drive and print out the slides. The printed slides will then be combined and bound to create a hardcopy version o the picture book. This hardcopy can then be shared with audiences outside the classroom.
Assessment:
Students should be assessed on their performance in several categories: accuracy of information, appropriateness of visual images chosen for the text, technical skills in searching for information and images, researching skills – as evidence in references for images and information, and overall picture book creativity and presentation.
Teaching Tips:
- Partner students who have limited computer proficiency with other students more proficient in using computers, the internet, and PowerPoint software.
- If saving to a network is not an option, the teacher may wish to use a flash drive to store student works. This alleviates issues of missing material and will simplify computer management. Additionally, the teacher will be able to monitor the student’s on-going progress. For efficiency, it is beneficial to use more than one flash drive – this streamlines both loading and saving of projects.
- Due to graphic nature of the some of the photographs from the Holocaust, student research must be carefully monitored. Limit the extreme violent and graphic photographs associated with this era by having students focus on images from the time before the “Final Solution.” Additionally, teachers may wish to send parental notification letters, explaining the assignment and the potential risks of exposure to graphic images and concepts.
- Teachers will want to preview the website photo galleries and direct students to photo galleries most appropriate to the topics of research.
- If this activity is to be used as a culminating assignment for a unit, an effective technique would be to have the students storyboard pages associated with topics they have discussed in class. This will reinforce material discussed in class, lessen the total time spent on the project, and result in more accurate information and appropriate images.
Technology Resources:
Hardware:
- Personal computers with internet access, and printing capabilities.
- LCD projector (for demonstration of research skills and PowerPoint software)
- Flash drive (preferably 1G)
Software:
- PowerPoint presentation software
- Microsoft Word software
Appendix References and Suggested Websites
Abells, C. A. (1986). The children we remember. New York: Greenwillow Books..
The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. (2006) Jewish Virtual Library Holocaust Photographs. Retrieved December 8, 2006, from http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/phototoc.html
Florida Center for Instructional Technology. (2005).Galleries of Holocaust Images.
Retrieved December 8, 2006, from http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/gallery/gallery.htm
Billman, L.W. (2002). Aren’t these books for little kids? Educational Leadership, 60(3), 48-51.
Giorgis, C. (1999). The power of reading picture books aloud to secondary students.The Clearing House, 73(1), 51-53.
Osborn, S. (2001). Picture books for young adult readers. The ALAN Review, 28(3), 24.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (2005). The Holocaust: A Learning Site for Students. Retrieved December 8, 2006, from http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/#.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (2005). Photo Archives. Retrieved
December 8, 2006, from http://www.ushmm.org/research/collections/
Yad Vashem. (2003). Shoah Holocaust Resource Center. Retrieved December 18,
2006, from http://www1.yadvashem.org/Odot/prog/index_before_change_table.asp
Figure 4 : Planning Storyboard Form (Save In Word)
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Figure 5: Student working on the Holocaust picture book on a classroom computer.
Figure 6: A group of students working on the Holocaust project on two classroom computers.
Figure 7: A group of students working on the Holocaust project in the school’s computer lab.
Figure 8: Students working on a technology-related class project using one of the school’s laptop carts.
