Lesson Plans Lesson 1: Introduction to unit Purpose: Students will consider instances of racial hatred and prejudice in preparation for the studies they are about to undertake. In addition, this activity encourages the students to draw upon their prior knowledge of WWII from their history classes and it also highlights the fact that the French are still coming to terms with their actions during WWII. Time needed: One day Materials needed: Song (Comme Toi from Jean-Jacques Goldman), cloze activity based on the song, supplies for scrapbooking. 1. Play song twice. The first time the students listen. The second time they complete a cloze activity. 2. Following a debrief of the cloze activity and a discussion of the song lyrics, students create a scrapbook of Sarah s life. They finish the scrapbook for homework. Lesson 2: WWII Basics Objectives: After conducting research on several aspects of WWII France, students will generate a poster session presentation for their peers (in French) in which they share info about assigned topic. Time needed: 2-3 days Materials needed: Reference material on WWII France, access to a computer lab with internet access, student note-taking pages, rubric for the poster-session presentation.
1. Students will engage in inquiry-based lessons. After receiving the poster-session presentation rubric, provide them with the directions that follow. 2. In groups of four, they will research one of the topics below to answer the questions provided. Note-taking sheets are at the end of the instructor s manual and on the CD-Rom. 3. The teacher will provide some resources acquired in France. Students will seek out additional information in the library (using both print and electronic media). 4. The teacher should circulate with both groups of students to facilitate grading. For larger classes, the topics can be broken down to make more than four groups. 5. They will present their research in a poster session: each group prepares a large poster in which they graphically organize the information they have acquired. On the assigned day, the posters are set up at stations around the room. Two students stay with the poster to present their information. The other students circulate from station to station listening to the presentation, taking notes, and asking clarifying questions. All material is in the target language. Once they have visited each station, the students switch roles, with the presenters now circulating from station to station as the other students present. Group topics: Group 1. What was life like between WWI and WWII? What political parties were active and what were their beliefs? Were there any new political parties? What drove their formation? How was the economy? When and how did France get involved in WWII? Who was the head of the French government at the time? What were their plans for winning the war? What aspects were successful? What aspects were
unsuccessful? How did the French public respond to the French involvement in the war? Describe all viewpoints and those who held them (such as their political affiliation). Describe the Exodus. Group 2. When and why did Maréchal Pétain assume control of the French government? When was the armistice signed? How was France divided? Why? When did Hitler and the German forces arrive in Paris? What had the French done to prepare for their arrival and protect their national treasures and their resources? How did the French public respond to the armistice? Remember that the public was made up of several groups address all of their viewpoints. When and why did Général degaulle leave France and where did he go? How did he maintain contact with the French people? How was he regarded by the various groups in French society during WWII? How was he regarded by Pétain, Churchill and Roosevelt? Group 3. Describe daily life in France during WWII for the following groups: French citizens living in the occupied zone; those living in the free zone (rationing of food and other goods and materials, education, social activities, effects of the presence of German soldiers); armed and civil resistance fighters (activities, dangers, living conditions, personal stories); members of the milice and other collaborators (rights or privileges, typical activities, testimonials regarding their actions) Group 4. How did the Jews lose their rights as French citizens after the armistice? What laws were enacted to identify, control, and finally remove the Jews? Who was responsible for enacting these laws? How did these laws compare with the requirements set forth by the Nazi Party regarding the Jews? Why were these laws accepted by some of the French people (not of Jewish faith)? What were rafles and what
was life like for Jews who were caught during the rafle du Vel d hiv? What was life like for Jews who went into hiding? Who tried to save the Jews? What were their reasons? What role did the Resistance play in helping the Jews? Describe some of the experiences of Jewish children who were hidden during the war.
Lesson 3: Pétain vs. DeGaulle; Collaborators vs. Resistors Objectives: Given film clips, war-time propaganda, speeches, and songs from WWII France (both collaborationist and anti-collaborationist perspectives), students will generate an effective anti-collaboration print ad. Time needed: 2 days Materials needed: Film clips from Le Chagrin et la Pitié; access to computer lab with internet accesss; film activities handout 1. Teacher opens instruction with the film clips of Pétain s visits to villages and schools. Instruct students to watch closely for what images are selected for use in these films. Have them complete the first two rows on the table in the handout. 2. After the viewings, discuss the clips and their responses on the handout. What exactly is filmed? How do the people look? What activities are people doing? Instruct them to keep the handout; they will finish it during lesson 5. 3. Proceed to the computer lab to compare the messages of those for and against collaboration. Transcripts, documents, and student activities are located by clicking on Collabo ou résistant? on the unit web site (http://www.flagsteacher.com/contentunit). Students must answer the questions on each document on their own paper or the instructor can provide a copy of the questions for the students to write on. 4. Upon returning to the classroom, have students complete the Venn diagram (at the end of the manual and on the web site) on the two speeches they studied in the lab.
5. If time allows, play the two songs whose lyrics the students studied on the internet. As they listen to the songs, they should continue the analysis of the lyrics they started in the computer lab. How does the arrangement of the music contribute to the message? Lesson 4: One member of the resistance shares her journal Objectives: Given excerpts from the journal of a female teen-age member of the civil resistance, student will generate a letter and a newspaper article in response to the situations presented in those journal entries. Time needed: 2 days Materials needed: copies of the excerpts from Demain il fera beau; paper for the activities, literature activities guidelines (end of the instructor s manual and on the web site). 1. Begin with the excerpt from page 97. Have students complete the following prereading activity: Note the year; it is 1942. The girl who is writing this journal is a high school student living in the Free Zone. In your opinion, what does she think about often? Which aspects of the war affect her? 2. Read the excerpt as a class. As students are reading, have them note the vocabulary and try to determine definitions based on context. Have them also make a list of the precise references to the war and find information from the text to justify their answers to the following question: Is she Gaulliste or Pétainiste? 3. After the reading, discuss student responses to number 2 above as a class. 4. Give students the following assignment: Imagine that this journal entry was a letter she wrote to you. Answer her letter.
5. (Day 2) Prepare to read the second excerpt (pages 113-114). Instruct students to brainstorm their response to the following scenario: the principal arrives in class to tell everyone that they must immediately leave and return home because there is something bad going on in town. What would you do? Where would you go? With whom? 6. Read the second excerpt (pages 105-106). As they are reading, have students complete the character analysis graphic organizer (at the end of the instructor s manual and on the CD-ROM). 7. After the reading, discuss their character analyses and have them complete the following assignment: write an article for the newspaper announcing the arrival of the Germans in Lyon. Try to express yourself in journalistic style. Lesson 5: The Jewish Question several perspectives on film Objectives: Given numerous resources about the Holocaust in France and the rescue of Jewish children, students will be able to: 1. summarize restrictions placed on Jews by the Vichy regime; 2. identify methods used by the Vichy regime to legitimize their treatment of Jews living in France; 3. generate descriptions of life inside the transit camps and extermination camps. Time needed: 1 day Materials needed: Au revoir les enfants clip; clips from Le chagrin et la pitié; clips from Nuit et Bouillard; note-taking pages for all three sets of clips. NOTE: you may also want to create and send home a permission slip for viewing these clips. Some clips contain content that may be objectionable to some parents due to its graphic nature.
1. Begin with the clip from Au revoir les enfants. Have them complete the activity at the top of the film activities worksheet (list all of the elements of the war that are visible or referred to in this scene). 2. After discussing the responses to number one above, proceed to the clip from the exposition Le juif et la France. Have them complete this last line on their film chart (same page from above) by noting images and language used to communicate their message. 3. Finally, view the clips from Nuit et Bouillard. As students are viewing have them create a T-chart showing on the right-hand side the objects used at the internment camps and on the left-hand side, the activities that took place at the camps. 4. Allow plenty of time for discussing these clips. 5. Assign students a journal-write or a quick-write about what they saw in clips. Lesson 6: The Jewish Question: Le Grenier de Sarah Objectives: Given numerous resources about the Holocaust in France and the rescue of Jewish children, students will be able to generate descriptions of the life of hidden children. Time needed: 1 day Materials needed: A computer with access to the internet; an LCD projector; the two graphic organizers that accompany this presentation. 1. Prior to class starting, set your browser to http://www.grenierdesarah.org, or go to the unit web site (http://www.flagsteacher.com/contentunit) and click on le Grenier de Sarah. Click on the photo album. Students will watch two of the testimonials during this
lesson: Rachel (whose dad was interned and never returned) and Albert (who was highschool age during the war and joined the maquis). Instructors will want to familiarize themselves with both of these presentations before doing them with the class. 2. Distribute the graphic organizers. 3. Play Rachel s presentation. Allow students to listen and watch the first time. 4. Play it again and have them take notes on the graphic organizer this time. 5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for Albert s presentation. 6. Have students compare their charts with their partners. Invite them to add more details as they come up in the conversations. 7. Instruct students to choose one of the two children and write three different diary entries from that child s point of view. Lesson 7: The Jewish Question internet research Objectives: Given numerous resources about the Holocaust in France and the rescue of Jewish children, students will be able to: 1. summarize restrictions placed on Jews by the Vichy regime; and 2. identify methods used by the Vichy regime to legitimize their treatment of Jews living in France. Time needed: 2 days Materials needed: Access to a computer lab with internet access
1. In order to view the web worksheet on the Shoah where this activity is located, instruct students to go to the unit web site (http://www.flagsteacher.com/contentunit) and click on Shoah. 2. The web worksheet asks students to address several questions. Students will need to do this on their own papers as they explore the links included. 3. Ultimately, students are looking for the information in the objectives above. You may have them present this information in the format of your choosing. Suggested formats include class discussion, written essay, historical fiction writing, theatrical simulations, etc. Lesson 8: The Jewish Question Perspectives in Literature Objectives: Given numerous resources about the Holocaust in France and the rescue of Jewish children, students will be able to generate descriptions of life inside the transit camps and extermination camps and descriptions of the lives of hidden children. Time needed: 3 days some of the activities may be done at home. Materials needed: Readings from Aucun de nous ne reviendra, Les enfants d Izieu, and Je ne lui ai pas dit au revoir; literature activities to accompany those readings (see the literature activities pages in the instructor manual or on the web site); access to the computer lab with internet (day two of this lesson). 1. Start with the excerpt from Je ne lui ai pas dit au revoir. Have students complete the following pre-writing activity in their journals: Imagine you have to abandon your house and your family and you can t even take anything with you. Who would you miss the
most? What personal belongings would you miss the most? Why? If you had to hide from the authorities, where would you go? Whom would you trust? 2. Instruct students to read the excerpt (or do a whole class reading popcorn style works well). As they are reading, instruct them to make a T-chart. On the left are the people who helped Jean and his sister, and on the right are the specific actions those individuals did to help the children. 3. Give students the following assignment after discussing the reading and their lists: Imagine that you are Jean or his sister. Write a letter to your parents to talk about what you ve experienced since the German soldiers arrived at school. 4. As a pre-reading to Les enfants d Izieu, students will visit the official web site of the school at Izieu and answer questions about the events there. Go to the computer lab (or instruct them to do this at home). Have them log onto the unit home page (http://www.flagsteacher.com/contentunit) and then click on Izieu. 5. Have them answer the following questions based on the web site on another piece of paper: A. Where is Izieu? B. Izieu was a boarding school. How many students were at Izieu in 1944? How old were they? What did they have in common? C. Who arrived at the school on April 6, 1944? D. What happened to the children and their teachers? How many escaped? E. What was their final destination? F. How many survived the war?
6. After doing this research, assign roles to students and read the excerpts in Readers Theatre style. 7. After the reading, ask students to skim the reading again, and create a list of adjectives used in the reading. 8. Have students work in pairs to categorize their list of adjectives using any system they choose. 9. Discuss adjectives, how they were categorized and why the students chose to categorize them that way. 10. Write a letter to the editor to explain how you feel about the events at Izieu. 11. Finish this lesson with the selections from Aucun de nous ne reviendra. There are three selections choose them as time allows. Some may be done at home. Pre-reading, during reading and post-reading activities for all three selections appear at the end of the instructor s manual and on the web site. Lesson 9: Contemporary views of the war Objectives: Given contemporary music exploring historic examples of racial hatred, students will generate a poetic/artistic analysis of the themes common to both songs. Time needed: 1 day Materials needed: Audio copies of Né en 17 à Leidenstadt from Jean-Jacques Goldman and L avenir est un long passé from Manau; copies of the cloze activities for both songs; art supplies for the poetic/artistic analysis.
1. Begin with the Jean-Jacques Goldman song. Distribute copies of the cloze activity (at the end of the manual and on the web site) and play the song two or three times to allow students to fill in the blanks. 2. Have students share their responses with a partner (and make any corrections) 3. Debrief cloze activity as a class. 4. Have them highlight or circle the words in the song that best represent the song s theme. Invite them to write any additional words that come to mind if they are not in the song. 5. Repeat steps 1-4 with the song from Manau. 6. Have students create a Venn diagram with the words they selected from both songs. 7. Provide instructions for the concrete collage: a. Select at least four words from each song b. Write those words such that the way the letters are formed clarifies the meaning of the word for a non-french speaker. Choose colors, size, style of lettering, background, symbols, etc., that will help the reader understand the word. BUT, they cannot just write the word and then put a picture next to it. The point is to somehow write the letters themselves in such a way that the (Example = meaning becomes evident. means cat ) c. Organize those words into a collage. Students should take care in organizing the words on the page, selecting colors and layouts that will enhance their message. d. Put finished collages up around the room.
e. Have students do a gallery walk activity, visiting each collage with a partner and discussing the words selected, their layout, design, color, and the overall message they feel the student was going for. f. Debrief with a discussion. Invite students to ask each other questions about their collages. Lesson 10: Culiminating Unit Assessment Objectives: Given numerous historical, literary, musical and cinematic documents from and about WWII, students will generate an analytical multi-media presentation in French in which they evaluate the perspectives and actions and actions of collaborators, resistance fighters and Jewish citizens during the war and their continuing effects on contemporary French society. Time needed: 1 day to explain. Teachers determine due date and how much time will be spent in class. Materials needed: All materials are student-provided. Teacher may want to have unit materials available for students to review. 1. Distribute the rubric to the students. The rubric includes the directions. Explain the project to the class. Be sure to clarify for the students that the accompanying explication de texte must provide concrete evidence that the students understand the events of WWII France and the implications of those events on citizens of the time as well as its ongoing effects today. Their job in the explication de texte is to explain their creative work and highlight the connections between their project and the information studied throughout the unit.