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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Creating character: Responsibility

http://dornsife.usc.edu/vhi/creatingcharacter/lesson/responsibility/index.html

A lesson plan for grades 6–12 Guidance and Social Studies

Provider: USC Shoah Foundation Institute


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In this lesson, students identify people, organizations, and ideals for which they feel responsible. By viewing visual history testimonies from Bent Lerno, Marianne Cooper, and Hedy Epstein, who are Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, they explore examples of how people displayed the character trait of responsibility during the Holocaust. The activities in this lesson include guided discussion, collaboration in small groups, and the exploration of individual and communal responsibility.

In this lesson, students will:

  • Develop an understanding of the concept of responsibility
  • Identify people, organizations or ideals for which they feel responsible
  • Identify was in which they demonstrate responsibility
  • Work with visual history testimony
  • Use visual history testimony to identify examples of responsibility taken by individuals during the Holocaust
  • Relate their own experiences of responsibility to those presented in the visual history testimony accounts

Shoah provides a list of materials necessary for completing the lesson, discussion questions, links to the video archives, graphic organizers, handouts, and step-by-step instructions for how to complete the activities.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

Guidance (2001)

Grade 6–8

  • Goal 1: Acquire the attitudes, knowledge and skills that contribute to effective learning in school and across the life span.
  • Goal 7: Acquire the attitudes, knowledge, and interpersonal skills to help understand and respect self and others.
    • Objective 7.11: Respect alternative points of view.
    • Objective 7.12: Recognize, accept, respect, and appreciate ethnic, cultural, and individual diversity.
  • Goal 8: Make decisions, set goals, and take appropriate action to achieve goals.
    • Objective 8.06: Demonstrate a respect and appreciation for individual and cultural differences.
    • Objective 8.10: Use persistence and perseverance in acquiring knowledge and skills.

Grade 9–12

  • Goal 1: Acquire the attitudes, knowledge and skills that contribute to effective learning in school and across the life span.
  • Goal 7: Acquire the attitudes, knowledge and interpersonal skills to help understand and respect self and others.
    • Objective 7.15: Recognize, accept, respect, and appreciate individual differences.
    • Objective 7.16: Recognize, accept, and appreciate ethnic and cultural diversity.
  • Goal 8: Make decisions, set goals, and take appropriate action to achieve goals.
    • Objective 8.07: Demonstrate a respect and appreciation for individual and cultural differences.
    • Objective 8.11: Use persistence and perseverance in acquiring knowledge and skills.

Social Studies (2003)

Grade 8

  • Goal 6: The learner will analyze the immediate and long-term effects of the Great Depression and World War II on North Carolina.
    • Objective 6.03: Examine the significance of key ideas and individuals associated with World War II.

Grade 9

  • Goal 5: Global Wars - The learner will analyze the causes and results of twentieth century conflicts among nations.
    • Objective 5.03: Analyze the causes and course of World War II and evaluate it as the end of one era and the beginning of another.
  • Goal 6: Patterns of Social Order - The learner will investigate social and economic organization in various societies throughout time in order to understand the shifts in power and status that have occurred.
    • Objective 6.03: Trace the changing definitions of citizenship and the expansion of suffrage.
    • Objective 6.06: Trace the development of internal conflicts due to differences in religion, race, culture, and group loyalties in various areas of the world.

Grade 10

  • Goal 10: The learner will develop, defend, and evaluate positions on issues regarding the personal responsibilities of citizens in the American constitutional democracy.
    • Objective 10.01: Explain the distinction between personal and civic responsibilities and the tensions that may arise between them.