The Quest for Human Decency A Project-Based Learning Unit

Unit Summary In this unit, students will investigate how different groups of people responded to the Holocaust. The essential question for the unit is: “How do the choices I make affect others?” In order for students to answer this question, we will reflect on history and what we can learn about ourselves from the decisions and choices people who experienced life in the past made.

Unit Questions Unit Questions: How are we dependent on other people to survive? How are we independent or responsible for our own survival? Are we responsible to help other people survive? Why or why not?

Content Questions Define aggressor, victim, bystander, and resistors. Explain how those groups were involved in the Holocaust. Give a specific example from the novel of a character who represents each group.

This project will help my students develop 21 st century skills by: Collaborating with peers Analyzing information gathered from Internet sources about the Holocaust Integrating information gathered into a multimedia presentation Reflecting on how the choices made in the past influence our lives today Communicating with others in a blog.

Gauging Student Needs Assessment Purpose of the Assessment To determine what students already know about the Holocaust and if there are any misconceptions. What I want to learn from my students? I want to find out what they already know about the Unit Questions. How I have tried to promote higher-order thinking? I ask students to find relationships between then and now. How the assessment information helps me and my students plan for upcoming activities in the unit? If students have misconceptions about how to set up experiments, I can provide scaffolds. If students have different levels of understanding about the importance of plants, I can provide various resources. We will revisit this assessment throughout the unit for students to add their knowledge. What feedback or additional ideas I’d like? I would like help on my assessment. I think I need to elicit more higher- order thinking, but I’m not sure how.