Artifacts and Characteristics of the Novice Teacher #7

The artifact I chose to use for this blog involves a unit I have created for this semester. My teacher had asked me to do a novel with my students in a resource room. Although they are all fifth graders, they all have IEP's and varied levels of ability. She chose the novel, Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry. This book is set during World War II and the Holocaust. It is about a young girl who is friends with a Jewish girl, and who helps her hide from the Nazi's. Since I knew the students were probably not very familiar with the Holocaust, I decided it was necessary for me to give them some background. Although I have read online that fifth grade is usually when students should be introduced to the Holocaust, I was very careful about how I approached the subject with them. I began the first day with a K-W-L chart just to see if any of them had heard of the Holocaust before, or if they knew anything about WWII. Just as a had thought, no one knew anything. I also had the students list some questions they might have about the Holocaust. They used the five "W's" for their questions (i.e. Who What When Where Why). I then began by introducing the word "tolerance" to the students, and letting them know that they will be learning about an event that occured during WWII called the Holocaust. I showed the students two short videos from the Brainpop website; one was titled The Holocaust and the other was titled Adolf Hilter. The videos are in cartoon form and created for children, so they were appropriate to show. We then discussed the video and tolerance once again. Right now, I am reading a trade book with them that is titled, A Safe Haven. This book has given the students additional background, and it is on their level. To my surprise, these students have been very interested in the content about the Holocaust. They are continuously asked questions during and after readings, and they have given me their full attention during the reading period, which can sometimes be a struggle for students with disabilities. I am very excited to start reading the novel with them, because I have many ideas planned for activities. I also received a lot of picture books and stories from Dr. Hayes that I plan to tie in while reading the novel. I believe that this artifact falls under characteristic #7, which is integrated pedagogy and content, because I had to be careful about how I introduced the Holocaust, and I had to know the history because the students had so many questions about what happened. I also had to be sure to leave some events out of our discussion about the Holocaust because they are not at an age where some of those things are appropriate and may be difficult for them to understand. So far, I have had a lot of fun with this unit, and will hopefully be able to use my plans in the future.