DIFFERENTIATED LESSON PLAN
Suggested Components
Name: Miss Smith
Subject: World History
Date(s): Jan 20
Lesson Topic: Holocaust
Within Unit on: Making decisions
Unit Essential Question(s): How can one decision affect millions?
Time Frame for Lesson: 3-5 days
Lesson Generalization(s): Relationships can be positive or negative.
Lesson Essential Question(s):
Where within our society (past, present, and future) have we seen moral or ethical dilemmas
create conflict?
Why is it important that we do not let history repeat itself?
CCSS/Objectives for the Lesson:
RH1, RH2, RH3, RH4, RH7, RH9; WHST1, WHST2, WHST4, WHST8, WHST9; SL1, SL2,
SL4, SL5
The students will be able to summarize the Holocaust by reading, note-taking,
class discussion, reflective writing on pictures, video, reading passages from Night by
Elie Wiesel, interactive field trip through educator cd, ushmm.org, newspaper articles/chronicles
and the movie The Devil’s Arithmetic.
Essential Standards: WH.8
KNOW
The Holocaust, 1938-1945,
genocide, concentration
camps, Hitler, ghettos, Jews,
WWII, prejudice, swastika,
ethical issues, Star of David,
Christians, victims, survivors
UNDERSTAND
Students will understand how
moral and ethical dilemmas create
conflict and why history should
not repeat itself.
DO
Creating, viewing,
summarizing, explaining,
listening, reading,
analyzing, plotting,
paraphrasing, reflecting,
problems-solving,
evaluating, writing,
speaking
Interdisciplinary Connections:
In Math, students are learning to display numerical data in plots (number line, box and whisker
plots). I will incorporate an option on the choice board to allow students to graph the various
countries and the number of victims and those who survived.
I will incorporate literacy by students writing responses to the essential questions. Students will
summarize and paraphrase information seen, read and heard.
*For more interdisciplinary connections: www.deafed.net/PublishedDocs/Holocaust%20Unit.doc
Knowledge of Students:
There are 27 students in my class. 18/27 are predominantly visual, 6/27 are predominantly
kinesthetic, and 3 are auditory. The students enjoy videos for learning, using technology, 1/3 of
the students do not enjoy reading. 5/27 have 504 plans (enlarged notes, seating, extended time).
One student has an IEP for behavior. All but 2 kids play a musical instrument. Two students are
ELL. One student is homeless. (I have completed a student interest survey to get to know their
interests: sports, dance, art, music, and science)
Time
Activating Strategy/Link to Prior Knowledge/Warm-up:
15 min
Share a Holocaust introductory article: Choose a newspaper article to acquire
background knowledge and make connections. After reading the article, students
will use the retell strategy with a designated partner based on their reading ability.
Retell strategy
 WRITE
Include information about what you read: main idea, setting, what it is about,
characters, problems, include a personal response to what you read.
 READ
Read about what someone else wrote.
 RETELL/LISTEN
Listen to the person retell what they read. Clarify misunderstandings or rewrite to
make more clear.
 SPEAK
Your turn to speak and have your partner listen. Allow your partner time to provide
feedback.
Differentiated Activating Strategy
The Retell strategy adheres to different learning styles by incorporating reading, writing,
listening, and speaking.
Time
30 min
Lesson/ Content/ Process Activity
INTRO TO NEW MATERIAL:
Jigsaw
First, divide the class into six expert groups. Each expert group will be responsible
for gathering and discussing information on a topic that is listed below.
Then, each group member will be reassigned to a heterogeneous base group
composed of one expert on each topic. In the base groups, they will share and piece
together information on WW II. Each expert will take time to share his or her
information, and, as a whole, the group will discuss how each topic connected to
WWII.
Task: Use the resource station and the internet to gather information about your
assigned topic. Students will use the note taking graphic organizer.
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30 min
Anti-Semitism in Germany
Ghettos
Concentration Camps
Nuremberg Laws
Additional Victims of Nazi Persecution
Death Marches
Rescue
Guided Practice:
This activity deepens the understanding that not all Europeans were against the
Jews. In addition, this activity allows the students to look through multiple lenses
(soldier and victims) connected to the war. By using Depth and Complexity
(perspective from different people), students are able to think deeper about the
situation.
In this activity you will be forced to make the difficult choice of who to save and
who to leave to their undetermined fate.
The year is 1942. You are a German soldier who doesn’t believe in Hitler’s ways.
You have come upon the small hiding space on the side of an old warehouse
concealing 10 Jews. You have a chance to save 5 of the Jews and take them to a
secure place in your camp but you cannot save them all at this time. You know that
there may be a chance that the others may perish (be taken to concentration camps,
forced into the ghettos, starve to death) because it may be days before you can
return. You don’t have long to decide. Who do you save and why?
1. Elderly Jewish man who must walk with a cane
2. Elderly Jewish woman who is the matriarch of the family and keeps the
morale of the family up
3. Middle aged blonde hair blue eyed Jewish woman who has been passing in
the community as a non-Jew and providing the group with supplies
4. Middle aged Jewish man who is a former business owner
5. Teen age boy who is ill with typhus (fever, nausea, and vomiting)
6. Twenty-something woman who is about 5 months pregnant
7. Thirty year old man who has been recording the groups experience in his
journal for the past 5 years
8. Two year old boy suffering from malnutrition who often cries at night.
9. Ten year old girl who grown depressed staying in the dark warehouse and
no longer speaks to the family
10. Twenty year old girl who was forced to leave college because she was a
Jew
Students should use the Final Word strategy to give everyone a chance to speak.
Use Final Word
• Works well with groups of 4 or 5
• Person 1 picks a person to save on the boat
• Person 2 comments, P3 comments….etc…
• Each member contributes to the conversation justifying their reasoning
for or against saving that person, when it is their turn
• The conversation rotates back to Person 1 to have the final word and
the group should decide if this is one of the people they will save
Rationale: All students receive a turn to comment and no single person dominates
the conversation.
15 min
To make connections for the students between the activating strategy and the
jigsaw, students extend their thinking to go beyond the Holocaust by answering the
following question by discussing with the people at their tables and then giving a
written response:
Where within our society (past, present, and future) have we seen moral or ethical
dilemmas create conflict?
Differentiated Content
A variety of texts (varied reading abilities) and online resources for the information are provided.
Based on ability, the teacher will assign specific reading materials for lower leveled learners.
Some of the materials that are predetermined for certain students are already highlighted for the
lower leveled students.
The note taking graphic organizers are tiered. The lower leveled students will receive a note
taking guide with an outline with the headings and subheadings. The students will fill in the
notes for each section. The on-grade level students will receive an outline given the headings.
These students will create subheadings and fill in the notes for each section. The above grade
level students will design their own and fill in notes for their outline.
Differentiated Process
Flexible Grouping
Jigsaw- The jigsaw strategy is a cooperative learning technique appropriate for students from 3rd
to 12th grade. It is also used extensively in adult English Second Language (or ESL) classes. The
strategy is an efficient teaching method that also encourages listening, engagement, interaction,
peer teaching, and cooperation by giving each member of the group an essential part to play in the
academic activity. Both individual and group accountability are built into the process. In ESL
classrooms jigsaws are a four-skill approach integrating reading, speaking, listening and writing.
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Teacher is not the sole provider of knowledge
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Efficient way to learn
Students take ownership in the work and achievement
Students are held accountable among their peers
Learning revolves around interaction with peers
Students are active participants in the learning process
Builds interpersonal and interactive skills
The use of depth and complexity icons (past, present, future with moral or ethical decisions)
allows students to make connections between their lives and the Holocaust and other events.
Adaptations for Inclusion:
Help each ELL student choose the activity that challenges his or her ability and offer additional
support needed.
Summarizing Activity/Closure (each day if lesson extends more than one day)
Time
Students will create a summary of today’s lesson. Guided notes are provided for
selected students.
Differentiated Summarizing Activity/Closure
Guided notes will be provided for the lower leveled and ELL students. On grade and above level
students will be able to free lance their notes to promote organization and summarizing of the
material.
Products/Assessment:
Students were given a tic-tac-toe choice board that is an extension of this unit. Students should
continue to work on these projects.
Differentiated Products
Students will all be assessed on The Holocaust. A choice board with a rubric was given to the
students at the beginning of the unit for scoring purposes but students can choose how to present
material based on their learning style.
A student does not have to use a computer to complete the assignments. However, based on
KOS, the majority of them enjoys learning using technology and therefore can create products
using the computer.
The choices on the choice board reflect the students’ interests.
The projects are tiered by learning styles to present project (one writer, one speaker, and one
artist); The rubric must be submitted with project.
15 min
Materials and Resource:
Planned groups
Varied Textbooks
Tiered organizers
Online resources/websites/videos
Copies of Night
Notes/ Follow-up Activities:
DAY 2
For a warm up tomorrow, groups of students will fill out the Flower of Detail to assess their
knowledge and summarize. Groups will be tiered by difficulty level. Students will complete the
flower through different perspectives: victims (Lower level), general soldier that favors the war
(On grade), general soldier that doesn’t favor the war (Above grade).
Differentiation: Tiered Flower of Detail
Additional help is offered to the ELL and below grade level group by the teacher modeling in
these groups and having at least one example that fits within each petal.
For part of tomorrow’s lesson, students will view United Streaming.org video: The Holocaust
from a Teenager’s Point of View and then list 5 brief facts from the video as Ticket Out the Door
at the end of class.
Discuss video: Would you be able to give your own point of view as a victim if you had survived
the Holocaust? What would you tell people?
(I incorporate the video for visual learners and discussion for auditory learners.)
DAY 3
Students will view the interactive field trip of the Holocaust Museum using ushmm.org website.
Student will write their reaction in notes to the artifacts, photos, and articles from the field trip
and website. Students will then describe the shoes, families, ghettos, camps, gas chambers and
write a response to “Did these people deserve to die?”
Students will make an ID card that would have been given to each victim (show ID card from
Holocaust museum) using construction paper and white paper for inside-fold in fourths.
Inside: Name, Location, Birth date, How were you taken prisoner? Family background, family
members, ID#.
Outside: Label as a personal ID. Very plain outside cover. Keep in binder as a remembrance of
the Holocaust.
(I incorporated the field trip to incorporate technology and for visual learners.)
DAY 4
Students will watch part of the movie “The Devil’s Arithmetic” and complete movie handout.
They will then finish the movie and go over answers to hand out. I will give out test review sheet
and students will play the test review game.
(I incorporated the game because some are kinesthetic and all the students in this class
enjoy playing games. I incorporated the video for auditory and visual learners.)