Julia Giordano

In My Hands Unit

Art

Language Arts

Students will create a movie poster

for In My Hands.
Students will represent the Holocaust
in a college, using magazines.
Students will create an art exhibit of
the Holocaust, displaying important
events of the time.
Students will look at the art entered
into the Holocaust Museums art
contest.
http://hmlc.org/artandwriting/

Students will write journal entries as if

they were in hiding during the
Holocaust.
Students will read entries from The
Diary of Anne Frank.

Students will identify the symbols
used in In My Hands.
Students will create a symbol of their
own life and write a passage.
Students will participate in a literature
circle to discuss the readings every
week in In My Hands.

A Holocaust Unit based

on
In My Hands
by Irene Gut Opdyke
Mathematics

Social Studies

Students will research the Holocaust

timeline via
http://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-ofevents/before-1933
Students will look at the maps of the
Holocaust:
http://www.ushmm.org/learn/mappinginitiatives
Students will create a newspaper
including pictures and articles from a
certain time during the Holocaust.
Students will research other genocides in
history.
Students will listen to a guest speaker
who is a survivor of the Holocaust.

After researching the maps of the

Holocaust, students will calculate the
distance between concentration
camps.
Students will compare the numbers of
victims of the Holocaust to the victims of
other genocides.
Students will research statistical facts
from the Holocaust.
Students will make a scaled down version
of the Holocaust to represent numbers in
the class.
Students will create a graph to display
how many victims there were over time.

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In My Hands Unit

Unit Explanation & Rationale

This unit that revolves around the book In My Hands is designed for sixth grade.
This interdisciplinary unit will use the book as a basis for discussions and activities about
the Holocaust. Using In My Hands throughout the unit will give the students a real
account of the times. The book will provide the class with a common ground for studying
the subjects. They will see how different subjects can be incorporated to different parts
of the book. While reading, there will be a specific topic to study in each chapter or
reading selection. The students will be assigned into groups to participate in a literature
circle. Each student will have a role in the group. The students will meet together every
morning after reading a chapter or selected reading each night. Before any whole group
instruction, the students will review the reading in their groups, ask questions, make
connections, identify symbols, and discuss any of their thoughts. After meeting, the class
will come together to learn that days lesson and activity.
In My Hands is a great book for this unit because it shows many aspects of the
Holocaust from a first person point of view. It is an easy book to connect to emotionally
and to learn from. Students in sixth grade will be able to get a sense of the feeling of a
rescuer. Having this point of view is different from what usual Holocaust stories are
about. The students will see how almost everyone was a victim of the time. With

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In My Hands Unit

additional resources from the Holocaust Museum and The Diary of Anne Frank, students
will see from numerous perspectives of the Holocaust and World War II.

Pre-Reading Activities
1. Mathematics
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.RP.A.3
Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems, e.g., by
reasoning about tables of equivalent ratios, tape diagrams, double number line
diagrams, or equations.
This mathematics standard will be addressed as students create a scaled model of the
victims of the Holocaust. Students will be given the number of Jewish people killed
during the Holocaust. They will also be given the total number of Jewish people living in
Europe at the time. They will then determine how many members of their class would
have been killed if the total number of students represented the total number of Jewish
people who lived in Europe at the time. This activity will show the students how large the
number of people killed in the Holocaust was.
2. Language Arts
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.2
Determine a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details;
provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.7
Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually,
quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or
issue.

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In My Hands Unit

Since this may be the first time many students are learning about the Holocaust, they will
research the topic using the US Holocaust Museum website. The students will be looking
for main ideas and events of the Holocaust. Students will be broken up into groups.
Each group will be given a time period or question, such as When did the Holocaust
Start?; How did it start?; or What happened in 1942 in regards to the Holocaust? This will
give the students a brief understanding of why the Holocaust started, and they will
determine where the locations of the Holocaust were. Students will share their findings
with the class to create a general timeline.
3. Social Studies
6.2 World History/Global Studies All students will acquire the knowledge and skills
to think analytically and systematically about how past interactions of people, cultures,
and the environment affect issues across time and cultures. Such knowledge and skills
enable students to make informed decisions as socially and ethically responsible world
citizens in the 21st century.
This standard will help introduce the Holocaust as students read speeches by Adolf
Hitler. After reading, students will discuss their thoughts on the speeches. After
discussion, students will try to determine why Hitler acted the way he did. They will write
down ways that they think Hitler has affected society today.
4. Art
1.2.8.A.3 Analyze the social, historical, and political impact of artists on culture and the
impact of culture on the arts.

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In My Hands Unit

Studying the art of a time can increase ones ideas and feelings about that time.
Together, the class will be shown a painting from the Holocaust. I will ask them what
they think the picture depicts and how it makes them feel. Students will then choose a
piece of art from http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/arts/art.htm
and describe how it makes them feel and answer questions about the artwork, such as
When is the artwork from?, and What do you think the artist was trying to tell us?
5. Technology
8.2.8.C.2 Compare and contrast current and past incidences of ethical and unethical use
of labor in the United States or another country and present results in a media-rich
presentation.
Students will learn about the technology of the times. They will have to then compare
and contrast the technology from the Holocaust times to todays technology. Students
will present their findings in groups and present any ideas about technology affecting the
Holocaust. Students will be asked to think about if modern technology would allow
something like the Holocaust to happen in our society today.

Reactions
Students will have the opportunity to react to the reading in a few ways. The first
way will be in their literature circles. The literary luminary will provide passages each
morning for the students to react to. The literary luminary will change each week.
Students will react to the passage by discussing their feelings with their group.

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In My Hands Unit

At the end of each class, students will each write down one reaction they had from
the book. The reaction can be one they had initially from the reading the night before or
something new that they reacted to in the class that day. I will collect all reactions and
hang them up on a board. The reactions will be anonymous, but this will allow the whole
class to see the reactions of their peers. Because the Holocaust is such a delicate topic,
students may feel strange about the reactions they are having. They may not want to
show their sadness or other emotion in front of the class. The students can see if others
have similar reactions to their own. It will also help me to determine if there is anything I
need to address.
The final way students can express their reactions will be with post-it notes.
Students will be given a set of post-it notes. Every night when students are reading, they
will mark a spot where they had a strong reaction and write a little about how they felt.
This is really to help the students acknowledge their feelings. It would not be right to
hold your feeling in in a book about the Holocaust. The students can express their
feelings in an individual way.
These reactions would not be assessed because you cannot put a grade on
feelings or emotions. The reactions are simply to guide students to release their feelings
in a healthy way. It could be hard for sixth graders, because they are in a time where they
may not be comfortable with themselves. This is why I have added anonymous and

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In My Hands Unit

individual ways for them to record their reactions.

Assessments
1. The first assessment would be to assess the students in their literature circle. I
would collect each students work from when they were each different role in the
literature circle. I would check for written connections (Connector), passages to
discuss (Literary Luminary), mapped out or written locations of the readings (Travel
Tracer), discussion topics (Discussion Director), and definitions of words (Word
Wizard).
2. The second assessment would be a culminating assignment. At the end of the
unit, I would have students take all the facts, details, ideas, and feelings discussed
throughout reading and learning about the Holocaust and present it in groups.
The groups would be able to pick from creating a newspaper, recording a video,
displaying artwork, or an idea they think of if approved by me. This would show
me how the students can take everything learned from various subjects and
present it in an organized way.
3. The third assessment would be a take home writing assignment. I would ask
students to choose a point of view to write from. It could be from the perspective
of a victim, rescuer, or runaway. I would ask the students to write 3 journal entries.
The students would have to include detail in their writing.

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In My Hands Unit

Extensions

1. After finishing In My Hands, students will research the after effects of the
Holocaust. We will have a discussion about the refugees and damages done. I
will then explain to the students that our class will be acting as the Damage
Control Center. The class will be broken up into groups. Each group will be
given a role, such as the refugee department, the finance department, and the
environment department. The refugee department will have to submit a plan of
how to deal with the refugees of the Holocaust, including how to find families,
where to house the refugees, and how to help them get back to normal life. The
finance department will submit a plan for Germany to pay its dues and to become
a standing country again. The environmental department will submit a plan of
how to reconcile the land that was used for concentration camps and the
damaged land from fires and war.
2. Our class would have a distance learning with the Virginia Holocaust Museum. It is
like a video chat. The experts there would connect the class with Holocaust
survivors, who we could ask questions based on the knowledge learned in the unit.
3. Students will learn about different cultures of Europe. Because the unit on the
Holocaust focuses on cultural oppression, it is appropriate for students to learn
about the customs and distinguishing characteristics of the cultures discussed.

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In My Hands Unit

We will focus on the Jewish culture, German culture, Polish culture, Russian
culture, and French culture.
4. Students will investigate the changes in technology over time. Since they have
already studied the technology during the Holocaust, it would be a great
extension for the students to see how technology has advanced, and more
importantly, how it is rapidly advancing today.
5. Students will take an activist role and learn about the genocide happening today
in Darfur, Sudan. We will research the facts about the genocide. The students will
come up with their own way to raise money for the cause. They will work together
to support the end to this genocide, and after, students will act as a United
Nations delegate to create a mock proposal to end the genocide.