Lesson Planning

Michael Foy

Assumption St. Bridge School

Just some initial ideas…

Terrible Things by Eve Bunting (picture book)

This lesson could be integrated in the following areas:

History/civics:

· Holocaust

· Civil Rights

· Internment

Literature:

· Allegory

· Personification

Language Arts:

· Word choice

· Sentence fluency

Resources:

• “For Goodness Sake” (video)
• Selected quotes from Margaret Mead, Eleanor Roosevelt and Pastor Martin Niemoller.

Purpose: Using this allegory of the Holocaust, the teacher can help students distinguish between being good persons and choosing to act ethically/morally. Whether the approach is to introduce an historical series of events like the Holocaust or Japanese Internment; to contrast those times with the Civil Rights movement; or to teach literary devices this book provides a strong framework for highlighting ethical thinking.

Guiding Questions:

• What does it mean to make an ethical decision?
• Why do people choose not to get involved?
• How is the community impacted when groups or individuals are targets of discrimination or injustice?
• What happens when people put self-interest above the common good?
• Why is it often difficult to do what is right?

Key terms and concepts:

Literary device

Allegory

Metaphor

Simile

Personification

Sentence fluency

Allusion (illusion)

Contrast

Courage

Demonize

Common good

Genocide

Convictions

Bystander

Commission

Omission

Divide and conquer