Lesson #1

Grade: 12th

Subject: WWII

Topic: Germany

Strategy: Brainstorming and Reflective Journaling

Lesson fulfills Standard 41, L-IV, #4 www.mcrel.org

Before Reading

I. Motivation: (Distribute book). "Today we will be reading the 7th chapter from our book The Racail State. This chapter is titled Youth in the Third Reich. Why do we care about the young people of the Nazi Party?" We care because we don't want something like that to happen again. We care because it could happen here. We care because this chapter relates to Nazi members of our age group. "We care for many reasons. First, the youth moevement was one principle driving force behind the Third Reich. Second, it is valuable and interesting to you because the people you will be reading about in this chapter are your age. They were energetic, impressionable young people just like yourselves, who followed along with the norms and trends in their culture, leading them down a terrible path. Finally, this chapter is interesting because these young people were the future of the Nazi party. By examining the Nazi's use and plans of their young people, we can get a good look at the Third Reich's future plans for the next generation Nazis."

II. Prior Knowledge: "WWII is one of the pivotal events in human history. It engulfed much of the globe and is accepted as the largest and deadliest war in history. We have discussed the events that transpired at the end of WWI, and how damaged
Germany was as a nation. Now we will look at Germany from 1933 to 1945. This time is important to us because WWII begins in Germany, with the rise of the Nazi party which happened during the early half of the 1930's. Lets brainstorm some ideas about Nazi youth. I am goinng to ask some questions to draw out some facts or ideas we already know about the youth in the Nazi party. I will write down your responses on the board and if we read something from the text they we have on the board that holds true I will cirlce the true parts we wrote down. If we come across something that contradicts what we wrote down I will put and X through it. So lets start brainstorming. What do you already know about young people in the Nazi Party?" They were trained to be future soldiers for the Nazi party. "What do you think they would be like?" They would probably be racist toward Jews and others. They wouldn't be similar to us in any fashion. "What do you think this book is going to say about them?" It will probably talk about how bad they were. It could talk about the roles the youth played in the Nazi party. "I can see from what we have brainstormed that we will be learning a great deal from this chapter. On our board we have that the Nazi youth's purpose was to be future soldiers, but later we have that the youth has many roles. I am particularly interested in the comment that the Nazi youth are not similar to American youth. As you read I want you to be thinking about the idea this idea. I want you to ask yourself as you read, "Are these people who are my age, lived in Germany decades ago, and members of the Nazi party dramatically different from myslef and American youths in general?" No. "Are there any American organizations that share similarities with Nazi youth groups." Perhaps Boy Scouts. Both are nationalist youth movements that carry out specified governmental functions. Both are exclusive groups (gays and females) that teach following orders, physical and mental development, and citizenship.

III. Purpose: "The setting of the book is Germany between 1933 and 1945. This book focusses on Germany as a racial state. The purpose of today's reading is to inform you about the Nazi youth. After today you will be able to identify 5 characteristics of Nazi youth, 2 Nazi youth groups and 3 expectations of young people in the Nazi party."

During Reading

Citation: Burleigh, M., Wippermann W. (1991). The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.

Chapter 7: Youth in the Third Reich

Readability: The Flesch-Kincaid readability scale rates the seventh chapter at 12.0 grade level. The readability for this book is right where it should be for this class. In the text there are several challenging words for the reader. There are two types of words that are going to be challenging. These types are large words that are not in the 12th grade vernacular such as "endeavored, vehement, totalitarian, blandishments," and "circumscribed." When these words are replaced with common synonyms that are smaller, the readability decreases such as changing "vehement" to "heated" can reduce the readability to 10.4, depending on what synonyms are used. The second type of words that increase the readability is the foreign words in the text. These include "bourgeois, bundisch, Schirach, Wandervogel, volkisch, Bunde," and "Jungmadel." These words inflate the readability to a higher degree than it woul be otherwise. When the volume and extensive use of are considered, the readability could be reduced rurther. Most of the graphics in the book are black and white authentic photographs from the period. The photographs are cited, with explanations and related to the specific text. Also, the volume of photographs should be considered. In chapter 7, there is an average of one photograph per page. These photographs can be a large as a full page, sometimes full page photographs are on sequential pages reducing the amount of reading dramatically. The weaknesses and disadvantages of using readablility should always be considered, however the readability of 12.0 is defensable when considering the complexity of the content, the use of large words and the use of foreign balance out the heavy amount of photographs.

IV. Text Structure: The text in this book is mostly expository beacuse it is a history book and follows a chronological order, but includes brief sections of narration in the form of quotation.

V. Vocabulary: In this chapter there are going to be a few words which may be unknown to us. We are going to look at some words we will come across that are very important to understanding what we are going to read."

"By contrast, the youth organisations of the bourgeois praties more or les voluntarily dissolved themselves and merged with the Hitler Youth." p. 204

n. pl. bourgeois
A person belonging to the middle class.
A person whose attitudes and behavior are marked by conformity to the standards and conventions of the middle class.
In Marxist theory, a member of the property-owning class; a capitalist.

"This left the independent, bundisch youth groups, as well as confessional, professional, and sprting organisations." p.204

n.bundisch
Nationalist of German decent

"In this way Schirach usurped the leadership of these organisations." p.204

n.Schirach
The leading Nazi youth group

After Reading: Strategy: Reflective Journaling

VI. Content: "What was the function of German youth groups?" To assist the Nazi party, to develop physically, and become mentally strong leaders of the party. "What specific jobs did youth organizations fulfill?" They organized themselves into productive members of the part. They assisted the war effort through labor, expanded the party, and even spied. "Why was were young people so important to the Nazi party?" They were the party's future. The Nazis understood that the youth would eventually become leaders of the party and be vital in attaining the party's future goals. " Why were so many German youth involved in the party?" The Nazis actively isolated and violently attacked their opposition, intimidated others, and effectively used propoganda. They also had complete control of the German state which made them a formitable force to oppose. Opposing the party was a good way to get killed and many were willing to conform. "How are those characteristics any different than those that adults faced?" Children are impressionable and easily manipulated in certain situations than adults.

VII. Modeling: "After you finish the chapter, we will do a reflective journal which I will distribute. (Distribute black chart). Reflective journaling helps us record significant experiences with corisponding thoughts and feelings, search questions of interest. Reflection is an ongoing process. This is something that will help you grow as a reader and a student. The first section titled "What Happened?" is where you write down a brief summary of a section of the reading. This section can refers to the reading. You should summarize what happened in the text, identifying people, places or events. The next section is "How do I feel about it?" In this section you should write a summary of how the reading made you feel. Each response you write in the "What Happened" column should correspond to what you write next to your response in the "How do I feel about it" column, and so on. The last section is "What did I learn?" This is where you tell me something new you learned from what we read. Your reflections can be very simple. These are general outlines of what happened in the text, how it made you feel and what you learned from what you read and how it made you feel. This is an example of one I filled out." Show journal to class and explain what I wrote.

source for reflective journaling chart - http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/treflect.htm

VIII. Independent Practice: Students will fill out the Reflective Journaling log. They will write down three or four items for each column. This activity should twenty minutes or less.

IX. Closure: How does reflective journaling help you as you read?" Reflective journaling helped me focus mythoughts, feelings and ideas into a neat format that is easy to understand and reference. "Did it help you draw connections between what you read, how it made you feel and what you learned from the reading?" Yes, I was able to explain my feelings as a reaction to what I was reading. I was also able to identify specific things I learned from the text. "Why do you think I chose this chapter for us to read?" This chapter discusses the Nazi youth in Germany. This chapter demonstrates how young people just like us can get involved in something that seems innocent and beneficial, but turns into something evil and terrifying."Correct. One of the perceptions people have today is that genocide, extreme racism, exclusion, gang-mentality, and nationalism are awful things. This is true. But people today also believe that the genocide, extreme racism, exclusion, gang-mentality, and nationalism that happened in far away Germany, years ago, to evil people, who are not like us in any way, could never happen here. This is a dangerously incorrect assumption. From this reading you have examined young people just like you, and the dangerous situation they found themselves in, and surely it has made you realize that we are not exempt from the same fate."