I Promised I Would Tell Unit
Facing History and Ourselves has released a collection of classroom activities to accompany Sonia Weitz's highly successful Holocaust memoir, I Promised I Would Tell. This series of 12 lessons, all of which focus on literacy, have been tested in both middle and high school classrooms across the Memphis region. This initiative was made possible through a generous grant from the Assisi Foundation.
Created in partnership with the Memphis Commercial Appeal's Newspapers in Education (NIE) Program, the activities were presented in conjunction with a six-week serialization of the book. The serialization subsequently won the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association of America NIE/Literacy contest for "Best Original In-Paper Content for NIE or Literacy."
Download these lessons available in PDF:
Lesson 1: Chapter 1 - Fragments of Light (1928-1939)
Lesson 2: Chapter 2 - Into the Darkness (1940-1941)
Lesson 3: Chapter 3 - The Ghetto (1941-1942)
Lesson 4: Chapter 3 - The Ghetto (1942-1943)
Lesson 5: Chapter 4 - Plaszów (1943)
Lesson 6: Chapter 4 - Plaszów (1943-1944)
Lesson 7: Chapter 5 - Auschwitz and Beyond (January 1945)
Lesson 8: Chapter 6 - Bergen-Belsen (Winter 1945)
Lesson 9: Chapter 6 - Venusberg (March-April 1945)
Lesson 10: Chapter 7 - Mauthausen (May 1945)
Lesson 11: Chapter 8 - Displaced Persons Camps (1945-1948)
Lesson 12: Chapter 9 - I Am Free
More about the lesson series
A one-day workshop introduced over 60
Memphis area educators and community partners including MidSouth Reads
to Facing History and Ourselves and I Promised I Would Tell. A
special focus was placed upon learning and utilizing literacy
strategies, which would allow students of all reading levels to access
the book. Other workshop sessions equipped the teachers with the
historical context they needed to use the installments, which included
survivor testimony of Weitz, her poetry and family photos, as well as
classroom activities created by two experienced Facing History
teachers, Nancy Parrish and LeAnne Fryman.
More than three hundred classrooms
utilized the serialized excerpts and activities. For many students,
this was their first introduction to the history of the Holocaust. Many
of the students' questions were about the historical background of this
period, and how a tragedy like the Holocaust could have happened. In
addition, all 172,000 Commercial Appeal subscribers received the
serialization. The excerpts became a topic of conversation in the
Memphis area, not just among teachers and students, but also among
parents, grandparents, and community members.
The culmination of the project was a
community event and school visit featuring author Sonia Weitz. Weitz
spoke to a diverse crowd of 400 people at the Benjamin Hooks Memphis
Public Library. The overwhelming response to the series meant that 200
guests unfortunately had to be turned away.
The next morning, Weitz spoke to 700 students and teachers at Ridgeway Middle School where the entire student body had read I Promised I Would Tell. Students from Fairview Middle School, Ridgeway High School and Correy Middle School were also present.
Read more about Sonia's presentation at Ridgeway
