Holocaust Poetry: Part 2

Painting from an anonymous child-prisoner at Terezin
camp who was hopeful of seeing butterflies again

Aim:
IWBAT analyze poetry written by children during the Holocaust, in order to better understand what it was like to live in the Terezin concentration camp as a child.








Tasks:

1. We will use a discussion board to view how students described the theme of the poem analyzed for homework ("At Terezin" by Michael Flack, 1944):

• After you log on to your computer and open our class website, you will go to a discussion board on Google moderator.
• Enter just your first name as your nickname and CA as your location. What we write here is public on the web, so we must protect our identities!
• Click Submit an idea.
• Then, type your answer to #10 on your homework, Holocaust Poetry #1, to describe the theme of the poem: Why do you think the author wrote this poem? What is his message to you, the reader? (the THEME)
• You should write at least two complete sentences. Check to make sure you use capital letters and periods in your writing. Once you have checked it over, click Submit.
• Now, you can review other students' responses. Plus, you can vote whether students have really great responses, poor responses, or skip if they have okay responses.

2. Today, we will analyze several poems written by children living in the Terezin concentration camp. You will read these poems on your classwork sheet, and you will type your response to analysis questions into this Google form. You should try to complete all questions. You may work with teammates to answer these questions, but each person must submit their own responses.

3. You will complete an exit slip, in which you analyze one more poem written by a child imprisoned at Terezin and answer the 8 multiple choice questions about it. You will read the poem and the questions on your computer and bubble them on an answer sheet.

4. If you finish early, you have three options:

• turn your computer off and read silently
• read this article from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial and Museum website about the Red Cross visit to Terezin
• post a comment on this lesson blog post (click the Comments link below) to describe how reading the children's poetry informed you about what it was like for them to live at Terezin

Homework: Holocaust Poetry #2