Introducing The Unit

About This Lesson

The purpose of this first lesson is to help the class develop an environment that is conducive to learning and sharing: a reflective classroom community.

Throughout this unit, students will be talking about sensitive topics, such as prejudice and discrimination, and how those concepts have impacted historical events and students’ own lives. When students feel empowered to contribute honestly and wrestle with multiple perspectives besides their own, such discussions can be positive and even life-changing.

Prior to exploring the historical case study of this unit—the collapse of democracy in Germany and the steps leading up to the Holocaust—it is important that students and teachers spend some time establishing and nurturing classroom rules and expectations of respect and open-mindedness. These “habits of behavior” will equip students with the skills to engage with each other in important and sometimes uncomfortable conversations.

In this lesson you will review the classroom rules you may have already established, as well as create new norms and expectations generated by the students themselves. While we urge you to consider the language and expectations that are most appropriate for your classroom context, the handout Sample Facing History Classroom Expectations provides examples of the kinds of classroom norms Facing History teachers have used to support a reflective classroom community.

Essential Questions

Unit Essential Question: What does learning about the choices people made during the Weimar Republic, the rise of the Nazi Party, and the Holocaust teach us about the power and impact of our choices today?

Guiding Questions

How can we create a class that is both safe and challenging? How can we create an environment in which everyone is willing to take risks, test ideas, and ask questions?

Learning Objectives

Students will come together as a community of learners to develop a contract that establishes a safe but challenging environment in their classroom.

Lesson Plan

Activity 1: Introduce the Unit

Begin by explaining to students that they are about to begin a unit called Holocaust and Human Behavior. Write this title on the board.

Pass out the reading Letter to Students. You might choose to adapt this letter to become your own version instead of using the one we have provided. Either way, read aloud the letter as a group, as students highlight any words or phrases that stand out to them.

Pass out a journal to each student. This is an appropriate time to establish the expectation that journal responses do not have to be shared publicly. Ask students to react to the Letter to Students (or your own letter) in their journals. Specific questions you can use to prompt students’ writing and prepare them for the contracting activity include:

• What does it mean to have to use both your head and your heart while learning?
• What does it mean for a classroom to be a “community of learners”? In what ways does your classroom feel like a community of learners?
• What might help it feel more like a community of learners?

​Debrief the journal prompts. To help students understand the idea of using both head and heart while learning, draw a blank head and blank heart on the board. Ask students to brainstorm what words might fill the diagram for “head learning” and the one for “heart learning.” For example, students might suggest words like events, facts, or vocabulary for head learning and relationships, morals, or connections for heart learning.

Transition to the class contract by explaining that in this class, you will ask students to think about history both from an intellectual ("head") angle and from a more emotional or ethical ("heart") angle.

Activity 2: Create a Class Contract

Explain that before students begin exploring new material, the class needs to agree on some rules, norms, or expectations. You can strengthen students’ vocabulary by spending a few moments asking them to define one or more of these terms. Students can record definitions in their journals.

When a community agrees on norms or expectations for behavior, these are often articulated in a contract. Students can define the term contract in their journals. A contract implies that all parties have a responsibility in upholding the agreement.

To prepare students to develop a class contract, ask them to reflect on their experiences as students in a classroom community. Pass out the handout Classroom Experience Checklist, and ask students to complete it individually.

Ask small groups of students to work together to write rules or expectations for the classroom community. Distribute handout Sample Facing History Classroom Expectations to help them get started. Students will discuss each of the sample items on the handout and decide whether they should adopt it in their class contract, modify it, or omit it. Have each group select three items from the list (or create their own) to share with the class.

We suggest keeping the final list brief (e.g., three to five items) so that the norms can be easily published in a visible place in the classroom and remembered. As groups present, organize their ideas by theme. If there are any tensions or contradictions in the expectations that have been suggested, discuss them as a class. While the process is inclusive of students’ ideas, ultimately it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure that the ideas that make it into the final contract are those that will best nurture a safe learning environment.

Finally, discuss with students what they think should happen when someone violates one of the norms in the contract. It may be useful to help students distinguish between school and classroom rules and the community norms outlined in the class contract. When rules are broken, adults will often need to respond. But the students themselves should outline potential responses for rebuilding the community after an individual breaks with the norms in the class contract.

After the class has completed its contract, reaching consensus about rules, norms, and expectations, it is important for each student to signal their agreement. Students can do so by copying the contract into their journals and signing the page. If there is no time, the teacher can create printed contracts or a poster to be signed in the next class period.