Multidisciplinary Unit Plan and Rationale

Upon reading a young adult novel that has multidisciplinary themes, you will design a unit that features
this novel as a centerpiece to the unit. Lessons will be designed for language arts, social studies, science
and math. You will also provide a written rationale that demonstrates the thinking behind your decisions
and the goals you hope to accomplish.

Unit Title: The Holocaust Teacher: Taryn MacLean

Subject: All Duration: 6 weeks
Grade: 6th
Summary of unit: Students will be reading the book The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon
Leyson. They will learn about his story and how he fits into the Holocaust. We will also cover
many different topics surrounding the theme of the Holocaust. It is important for middle
school students to connect information across content areas because it helps to solidify the
information in their minds. By incorporating this theme into math, science, social studies,
and language arts lessons, these students will have a deeper understanding of this subject as
a whole.

Stage 1 Desired Results

Objectives/Standards: Essential Questions:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.9 Why were Jewish people being persecuted? Does

Compare and contrast texts in different this type of discrimination still exist today?
forms or genres (e.g., stories and poems;
historical novels and fantasy stories) in
terms of their approaches to similar
themes and topics.

SS.H.2.6-8.LC: Explain how and why

perspectives of people have changed
over time

SS.H.4.6-8.LC: Explain multiple causes

and effects of historical events

MS-LS3-2 Heredity: Inheritance and

Variation of Traits
Develop and use a model to describe
why asexual reproduction results in
offspring with identical genetic
information and sexual reproduction
results in offspring with genetic
variation.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.SP.B.4
Display numerical data in plots on a
number line, including dot plots,
histograms, and box plots.
 Factual Knowledge Procedural Knowledge Conceptual Knowledge
Students will know: Students will be able to: Students will understand:
- Causes/effects of - Create box plots - How the Holocaust is
the Holocaust - Compare/contrast relevant today
- Character traits can songs/poems - Why we study the
be scientifically - Discuss the Holocaust
explained parallels of the
Holocaust and
today
Stage 2 Assessment Evidence
Performance Tasks: Unit Pre-Assessment:
Students will be involved in a socratic Much of the content from previous units will
discussion and they will create cards, carry over. Teachers can use previous
poems/songs, and visual assessments to see how students are
representations of data. understanding topics.

Other Evidence/Assessments:
Each subject area has their own assessment for
the lessons.

Extensions: Differentiation Considerations:

For a challenge, students can combine The texts in the unit are purposefully in different
the assessments in science and language forms in order to accommodate different learning
arts. Meaning, they can write a thank you styles and expose students to a multitude of
letter about genes using a song or poem resources.
format.
Stage 3 Learning Plan
Learning Activities:
- Class discussions
- Project-based assessments

*Lesson plans attached

Rationale

The rationale behind teaching this unit is that the Holocaust was an important time in
history. A group of people faced unwarranted discrimination and their stories deserve to be
told. The main focus of the unit is on the reason why it is important for students to learn
about the Holocaust in the first place and how it relates to todays world. The concept
collective blame described in social studies is an important takeaway from this unit because
blaming groups of people is a theme throughout history. Students can take a stand at this
type of injustice if they have the knowledge to understand what it is.
My decision to teach this unit was informed by the fact that I knew this novel and this topic
would open the door for discussions that incorporate social justice and multicultural
teaching. We can explore aspects of multicultural education by looking at Europe during this
time, as well the Jewish religion in some ways.

My goals for the unit are that students understand the human aspect of the Holocaust,
instead of just looking at it as an event in history, which may feel disconnected to the real
world today. I want them to understand the multicultural aspect of the unit, as well as the
power struggle in society discussed in science and social studies. This goes along with the
issue of blaming groups of people, which is part of the answer to one of the essential
questions that this blaming groups of people continues into the world today. The type of
discrimination that the Jewish people faced was not entirely new. This helps to have
conversations that incorporate social justice, since students at this age will be able to see
how these situations are unfair. I also wanted my students to use their discipline-specific
knowledge and habits of mind within the subject in order to complete the activities and class
discussions.

I based my decisions about the lessons and activities of my unit on my overall goals. The
texts that I used in the unit helped to support my students by exposing them to a wide range
of resources that require different types of skills when it comes to interpreting them. This
will help to meet the literacy needs of my students by exposing them to many different
forms, which will help to challenge them and also to use their strengths to their advantage.
Text Set: Taryn MacLean

Text How this text will meet the How this text meets literacy
goals needs of student

The Boy on the Wooden Box This novel gives readers a
by Leon Leyson first-hand look into the
Holocaust. It is about a ten
year old boy whose family
survived the Holocaust by
being placed on
Schindlers list. It also
describes his struggles
during this time. We will
use this text to explore
many of the concepts
surrounding the Holocaust
such as ghettos and
concentration camps.
The language of the book is
written at a level that sixth
grade students should be
able to understand. We can
discuss first-hand accounts
of events and how the
language that Leyson uses
in the novel and the events
that he describes can only
be described by him and
other survivors.

Newsela article:
A History of anti-Semitism
https://newsela.com/read/lib-
anti-Semitism/id/29346
This article gives a brief
overview of anti-semitism
and its role in the
Holocaust/beyond. It is
important for students to
understand this piece to
the Holocaust as it is this
type of hatred that created
much of the tension during
this time.
This will give students
practice reading nonfiction
writing that provides
information about the topic. It
is written at a sixth grade
level, but students are able
to change the readability
level through the website. It
will expose them to key
words (Jew, anti-semitism,
Nazi, Hitler) that they have
been seeing throughout the
unit.

A collection of testimonies
from Holocaust survivors
http://web.library.yale.edu/te
stimonies/excerpts/index.ht
ml
One of the goals for the
unit is for students to
understand that this is an
issue that impacted
individuals. With all the
statistics about the deaths
and suffering that
occurred, it is beneficial to
remind students that
everyone who endured the
Holocaust was an
With videos, students must
think differently about the
content being presented than
if it was just in text. They are
able to see the faces of
these people as they explain
their hardships and can pay
attention to their tone of
voice, emphasis on words,
and facial expressions.

A poem by an anonymous
Holocaust survivor about
missing home- Homesick missing home during
https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k
12/cur/socstud/foundation_g
r6/blms/6-2-4b.pdf
Map showing the major
ghettos in occupied Europe,
1939-1944
https://www.ushmm.org/outr
each/en/media_nm.php?Me
diaId=356
Map of liberation of major
Nazi camps, 1944-1945
https://www.ushmm.org/outr
each/en/media_nm.php?Me
diaId=381
A song called Our Town is This song inspired people
Burning by Mordecai to rebel against the Nazis
Gebirtig
https://www.ushmm.org/outr
each/en/media_so.php?Medi
aId=2621
individual with his/her own
story. These testimonies
will give students a view
into some of their stories.
This poem shows the
pains of a person who was
language when looking at
his/her time at a
concentration camp.
Students will be able to
discuss how they might
react to being taken out of
their homes with no
warning and what they
would miss about home if
the situation occurred.
We will look at the maps in
order to figure out
locations of ghettos
around Europe while we
discuss that specific
concept. Another map that
we can use is one that
shows the liberation of
major Nazi camps.
Students will see who
liberated the camps and,
in some cases, when the
camps were liberated.
Students will be able to read
the lyrics of the song.
and became popular in the
Krakow, Poland ghetto.
This is the same area that
Leon Leyson (the author
of the novel) was in.
Students will be able to
explore some figurative
this poem as well as vivid
imagery. The way that
poems are written is different
than how people would write
a narrative story, so students
can explore the language
and type of writing used in
poetry.
Map reading involves looking
at different areas and
determining what happened
in the area by using the key.
There is also a scale for
students to be able to see
how far apart the countries
are.
English is not the language
that is was originally written
in, so we can discuss
translation and how certain
lines of text may sound odd
due to the translation. There
is also a recording of the
song (not in English) that the
students can listen to for
mood/tone.
LESSON PLAN
Date: 12/12/17 Class: Language Arts Unit: Holocaust

LESSON TOPIC: Poetry/music

OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to:

- Discuss mood and tone of a song

- Create a song/poem as if they were not able to go home
anymore

MAIN ACTIVITY: Students will have been reading Leysons story about his experience in
the Holocaust. So far they have been reading about his experiences from
the novel, which is a memoir. For these lessons, students will be
expanding their knowledge of genres into poetry and music.

First, we will listen to the song called Our Town is Burning by

Mordecai Gebirtig. We can talk about the song and its connection to our
book. It was sung by people in the Krakow, Poland ghetto and inspired
people to rebel against the Nazis. This is the same area that Leon Leyson
was in when his family got relocated.

We can talk as a class about the differences between mood and tone. We
can discuss how mood and tone in music are the same as in literature. We
need to listen for the tone (instead of reading in literature) and interpret
the mood ourselves.

The teacher can play the song for the students once and have them write
down words that they would use to describe the mood and tone of the
song. Students can then discuss different words that they used to describe
the mood and the tone, as well as why they chose the words that they did.
We can talk about the lyrics in the song and how songs are typically
structured.

After we have discussed the song, we can look at the poem together and
the students can talk about the similarities/differences between songs and
poems. This will allow them to use their literacy skills of reading and
understanding different genres. Songs have lyrics, verses, typically a
chorus, and many times they rhyme. Poems have stanzas, figurative
language, and different rhyming patterns that we can discuss.
 Since they have discussed similarities and differences, students can then
work in groups to create a poem or a song. It can be very short, as this
group work is to practice for their individual assessment. They will then
specifically describe how their product would be different had they
chosen the other format. For example, if a student chose to write a song,
he/she might mention that a poem might not include repeated lines such as
a chorus.

Students will be using disciplinary literacy in language arts when they

interact with the different types of text. In language arts, they must
examine the mood/tone of a piece and be able to create one themselves
that shows emotions as well. As working in a language arts mindset calls
for, students will be carefully examining word choice and placement of
words within their writing.

ASSESSMENT: Students create their own poem/song (they can choose) about what it
would be like if they had to leave their home suddenly. They will write a
paragraph or so about how their product would look different had they
chosen the other format (either song or poem).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.9
FOCUS CCSS:
Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres (e.g., stories
and poems; historical novels and fantasy stories) in terms of their
approaches to similar themes and topics.

MATERIALS: A song called Our Town is Burning by Mordecai Gebirtig

https://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/media_so.php?MediaId=2621

A poem by an anonymous Holocaust survivor about missing home-

Homesick
https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/socstud/foundation_gr6/blms/6-2-
4b.pdf

TECHNOLOGY: The teacher will need a computer and speakers in order to play the song
for the students.
LESSON PLAN
Date: 12/12/17 Class: Social Studies Unit: Holocaust

LESSON TOPIC: Changing Perspectives Over Time

OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to:

- Identify causes of the Holocaust

- Explain how peoples perspectives have changed while
identifying parallels between history and today

MAIN ACTIVITY: In the previous unit in social studies, students were studying World War I.
Since they know what was happening in the world around that time, we
will examine how Hitler came to power, specifically examining his use of
collective blaming of a group of people.

We can start by reading and discussing the anti-semitism article, with

which students will become more familiar with the discrimination toward
this particular group. This will hit on our essential question about the
reason behind the persecution of Jews. We can discuss how Hitler used
this fear to his advantage and blamed the Jews for economic troubles and
more. We can look at the map of the ghettos and talk about map reading
skills, such as using a key. We can show on the map the specific ghetto
that Leon Leyson from the book ended up in, in Poland.

All of this blaming and hatred led to the eventual opening up of the Nazi
death camps. There is a great deal that we will explore in social studies
about the conditions of theses camps. We will talk about the types of
accommodations that people had in concentration camps, the difference
between these and death camps, and the discrimination that allowed for all
of these camps to be opened. The map that shows the liberation of these
camps and when they happened would fit into the discussion here. They
can use the knowledge from reading maps such as keys and scales that
they learned previously in the unit.

So far, the students had been studying the causes and effects of the
Holocaust. Then, they are going to take their content knowledge and
apply it in order to understand how peoples perspectives have changed
over time. We will talk about how this discrimination does not exist in
this way today against Jewish people. However, there are parallels that
can be made between the blaming of groups of people. In todays society,
groups such as muslims and immigrants are being blamed for the
problems in America, just as the Jewish people were being blamed for the
problems going on in Europe.
 Students will conduct research about the discrimination that we have
discussed in class toward various groups of people. Once they have done
their research, they will create questions that revolve around the idea of
peoples perspectives changing over time. We will go over what it means
to ask meaningful questions during these types of discussions and how all
voices should be heard in some way. Students will be responsible for
completing a task both inside and outside of the circle. When they are
inside, they are asking critical questions and having a discussion about the
perspectives of people blaming or discriminating against certain groups of
people. We will talk about the origins of this based on what they found in
their research.

Students will be using disciplinary literacy in social studies when reading

the maps that will strengthen their understanding of the location in which
the novel takes place. They must know how to read a scale and a key on a
map, which must be taught to them in this discipline. Through their
historical habits of mind, they should be looking at the situation back then
and examining who was involved in the issue as well as causes/effects of
the event, as they have been examining in class.

ASSESSMENT: Their summative assessment will be the socratic discussion. The teacher
is looking for the sharing of ideas about the topic of discrimination of
groups/group blaming while using information from the research portion
of class. Students should be discussing how these perspectives were
different in the past and how they have changed. They should also be
interacting with the ideas of others.

FOCUS CCSS: SS.H.2.6-8.LC: Explain how and why perspectives of people have
changed over time

SS.H.4.6-8.LC: Explain multiple causes and effects of historical events

MATERIALS: Map showing the major ghettos in occupied Europe, 1939-1944

https://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/media_nm.php?MediaId=356

Map of liberation of major Nazi camps, 1944-1945

https://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/media_nm.php?MediaId=381

A History of anti-Semitism
https://newsela.com/read/lib-anti-Semitism/id/29346

TECHNOLOGY: Students will need their Chromebooks to access the article from Newsela.
They will also use it to view the maps online.
LESSON PLAN
Date: 12/12/17 Class: Science Unit: Holocaust
LESSON TOPIC: Genetics
OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to:

- Identify the relationship between genetics and the events of

the Holocaust

MAIN ACTIVITY: Students will have previously created a model to understand asexual and
sexual reproduction and the different types of genetic variation that go
along with them. The described lesson has objectives that go beyond the
standard in order to connect what students have learned in science to the
rest of the Holocaust unit.

Students will be able to use their knowledge of Punnet squares and

dominant/recessive genes in order to discuss the appearance of people.
We will connect this discussion of appearance back to the Holocaust in
order to talk about how Jewish people were persecuted based on how they
looked.

We will talk about the typical German stereotype that was considered
dominant during that time and discuss how those individuals looked the
way that they did due to what we have learned about genetics. In
examining this issue through the lens of science students will see how
biology explains genetic variation. These traits that were considered of
more or less worth were not given to anybody for any specific reason,
rather the science and logic behind it will allow for an objective
discussion about how these concepts of certain character traits being
dominant over other ones did not come about from research such as this.
Scientifically speaking, no one group of people is superior to one another.
We can describe how they got these inherited traits, though. This will
connect to the discussion about collective blaming of groups that students
will have in social studies. It will explain the science behind groups of
people gaining power over one another in society.

In discussing this topic, students are understanding the science behind

traits and genes that are inherited such as skin color, eye color, type of
hair, etc. By doing so, they should gain a new understanding of these
topics.

Students will look at their own genes by examining dominant/recessive

genes about themselves. They will use this information in their summative
assessment to describe how they received the character traits that they
have.
 Students will be using science literacy skills by using their understanding
of Punnet squares and character traits in order to have a discussion about
power struggles in society. They must be able to put themselves in the
mindset of science, using the literacy skills of looking at situations
objectively based on hard evidence. Since the evidence shows that all
humans can be described by a genetic makeup, students should see that
the power struggle in society was created by humans and cannot be
described by our genetic makeup.

ASSESSMENT: Students will write a thank you letter/card to their parents (or guardians if
they choose) thanking them for the variety of genes they have given them.
In the letter, they are to include their character traits (straight thumb,
attached earlobe, etc.), which they will identify as dominant or recessive.
They will also describe, in a narrative format, what they have learned
about genetics and their understanding of the relation of genetics to power
in society.

FOCUS CCSS: MS-LS3-2 Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits

Develop and use a model to describe why asexual reproduction results in

offspring with identical genetic information and sexual reproduction
results in offspring with genetic variation.

MATERIALS: Paper/markers for thank you letters/cards

TECHNOLOGY: N/A

LESSON PLAN
Date: 12/13/17 Class: Math Unit: Holocaust
LESSON TOPIC: Box Plots
OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to:

- Construct box plots using data from the Holocaust

- Discuss reactions to individual testimony videos

MAIN ACTIVITY: For part of the math portion of this unit, students will be learning how to
construct box plots. They will be given data that tells them estimates of
peoples ages who died in the death camps. Using this data, we will have
a class discussion about what we notice. Students can point out if they are
seeing any groups of ages that seem to experience more deaths than
others.
 Once we have had a discussion about what students are noticing about the
data, we will move into the concept of box plots. The teacher will show an
example of a box plot and ask students if they have seen it before. We will
go on to identify the different parts of a box plot. For the previous unit in
math, students have learned about measures of center. The concept of box
plots will be connected to the idea of measures of center when we talk
about the median of the box plot. The median of a box plot can also be
called quartile two. Students will take the data that they have about the
ages of people when they died and arrange them from least to greatest.
Then, they will find the median of the data and place that as the middle of
their box in the box plot. Students will find quartile one by finding the
median between the minimum and quartile two. They will find quartile
three by finding the median between quartile two and the maximum.

We will discuss how, even though we are splitting the data up into
fourths, that the fourths are not equal. This will allow for a discussion
about the shape and spread of the data, noticing that some of the data may
be clustered more to one area than another. Students will be able to use
this data to analyze the average age of people who died during the
Holocaust.

Since we want students to understand that these people in the Holocaust

were individuals and not just numbers to be examined, we will be taking a
day in math class to do an activity that does not involve calculating
numbers. We will watch a collection of testimonies in which individuals
share their stories, in order to bring the event down to a more personal
level.

Students may need some assistance in processing material such as this, so

we will end the activity by having a class discussion about the hardships
of these people. We will discuss how statistics can sometimes take events
and simplify them down more than they should. The individuals deserve
to be remembered beyond just being a number.

We will connect this back to our book, discussing how Leon Leyson and
his family are also examples of stories that take our thinking beyond the
statistics.

Students are using disciplinary literacy in mathematics when finding

averages and constructing graphs. They can use their knowledge of graphs
to help them interpret data or get data and create graphs from there. This
is specific to the discipline of mathematics because in other classes
students would not have to calculate quartiles and find averages. They are
also pulling in other literacy skills when watching the testimony videos.
They must interpret facial expressions and tone of voice while listening to
the peoples stories.

ASSESSMENT: A formative assessment for the class discussion will be for the students to
write their reactions about the comparison of statistics to individuals. This
 is so that the teacher can see their thinking about the activity, but it will
not be assessed for a standard.

Students will be assessed on constructing box plots by each of them

receiving a set of data. They must construct box plots from the given data.
I am looking for the box plots to have identified the minimum value,
quartile one, the median, quartile three, and the maximum.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.SP.B.4
FOCUS CCSS:
Display numerical data in plots on a number line, including dot plots,
histograms, and box plots.

MATERIALS: A collection of testimonies from Holocaust survivors

http://web.library.yale.edu/testimonies/excerpts/index.html

TECHNOLOGY: Students will need to use their Chromebooks to access the videos. Or, we
could watch the videos as a class on the Smartboard.