Lesson Plans

"Visiting The Artifacts Drawings Exhibit: Preparation, Visit, and Follow-up." (PDF)  7^th and 8^th grade.

"Artifact Activity." (PDF)  7^th and 8^th grade.

"Every Artifact has a Story." (PDF) 7^th through 12^th grade.

"Teaching Artifacts: People, Not Numbers." (PDF)  8^th and 9^th grade.

"Artifacts: Giving Prisoners the Strength to Survive." (PDF) 8^th through 10^th grade.

"Artifacts and Active Learning." (PDF) 8^th through 10^th grade.

"Using Modern Objects, Photos, and Poetry to Connect to Historical Artifacts." (PDF)  8^th through 12^th grade.

"Artifacts and Jewish Spiritual Resistance during the Holocaust." (PDF)  9^th through 12^th grade.

"From Museum to Classroom: Using Artifacts to Enrich Learning." (PDF) 11^th and 12^th grade.

"Incorporating an Artifact into a History Lesson." (PDF) 11^th grade.

"Using Artifacts to Enhance Learning about the 'S.S. St. Louis.'" (PDF) 12^th grade.

Additional Enrichment Material

"The Watch" by Elie Wiesel (PDF)

"The Poetry of Artifacts" (PDF) activity  

"Inside the Sewing Machine Drawer," (PDF) a short story from PRISM, spring 2014

"Sites, Sights, and Insights: Using Artifacts in Museum Education," (PDF) an essay from PRISM, spring 2014   

Artifact Testimonials (PDF) are four short testimonies from survivors and one from the son of Catholic parents who survived in a labor camp. Each writer talks about the importance of one or more artifacts from the Holocaust. The first four testimonies are reprinted with permission from the book In the Aftermath of the Holocaust: Three Generations Speak (1996, K. Shawn, Ed., The Moriah School: Englewood, NJ). The fifth is cited on its page.

Use them as suggested in some of the lesson plans posted here, or as a model to encourage local survivors you may to know to focus on one object that was important to them during the Holocaust as they share their testimony with your students. You may pair them with the poetry posted here and encourage students to make these narratives into "found" poetry. These short pieces may also serve as a model for narrowing and deepening students' writing.

Acknowledgments

The first plan, an overview for 7th and 8th grade teachers to plan for and follow up on a visit to the exhibit, was created by Jessica Payne, Goucher College class of 2014.

The additional 10 plans were created by students of Yeshiva University's Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration under the guidance of their professor, Dr. Karen Shawn, editor of PRISM: An Interdisciplinary Journal for Holocaust Educators (http://yu.edu/azrieli/research/prism-journal/).  The enrichment materials are courtsey of Yeshiva University, as well.