Take+A+Walk+in+My+Shoes

Take a Walk in My Shoes
"Art imposes order on the world." --Bob Dylan

Essential Questions for Unit
1. What does it mean to be a human being? 2. What propels human beings to respond to trauma in a creative format? 3. How does the historical context of the Holocaust and Jewish Resistance relate to contemporary societal issues and attitudes? 4. What leads to genocide and what are the implications? 5. What value as a society do we place upon artworks (visual, literary, theatrical and musical) that are descriptive of genocide? 6. What does it mean to "survive"? What does it mean to "resist?" What does resistance look like in all its forms? (Anita, I think "surviving" is a form of resistance. Resistance took many forms: physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, etc. What about if we rephrase this question to say what is resistance and bring surviving as a sub question under that? We can also combine this with question #2 as producing art was and can be viewed as a form of Jewish resistance. Valerie, I think that "surviving" would be great as a sub question under "resistance". It is the ultimate resistance in a sense because it defies the objective) 7. What role does "culture" have in genocide?

Unit Vocabulary
abyss aesthetics anti-semitism bystander collective memory culture ethnocentrism genocide hegemony hero holocaust (shoah) indifference inhumanity perpetrator pogrom resistance symbolism victim


[|Take a Walk in My Shoes Unit Blog]

(Valerie- I am going to assign two blog entries by Monday Dec. 16th for the Art II students )


Students will fill out a learning style survey to determine their right and left brain dominance, their learning style preference as well as the mutliple intelligence of strength and weakness. Mrs. Rubino and Miss Person will make up the small groups based on the results of these surveys.


Each student will individually define the terms perpetrator, victim, bystander and hero and reflect in writing on times when he/she has played all four roles. Students will view a clip from the Seinfeld finale which examines these roles. Then, students will look at how these roles are seen in selected pieces of art. Students will reflect individually upon the artworks and how they visually represent each role. Then students will discuss their thoughts and reflections in their small groups and make visual journals they will utlize throughout the unit. Small groups will be assigned one artwork to critique and analyze in order to create a format for presentation to class. Whole class will participate in dialogue regarding connections between visual and literary representations of perpetrator, victim, bystander and hero.

Here's the powerpoint with the art examples:


Students will be introduced to an introduction on "culture." Then pairs of students will research basic Judaic terms and present their findings to the class. Next, students will complete a survey that overviews history of anti-semitism. Students will actively read an article on the History of Anti-Semitism and then complete a Force Field Analysis that addresses the question. Students will then complete a four square graphic organizer on the word //**Holocaust**// (the Hebrew word is shoah).

(Valerie- do we want to include a visual journal response to the organizer for **//Holocaust//** in the form of the cover of their visual journals? If so, we can move to my classroom and students may begin to assemble their visual journals)

Groups will begin to explore the process of genocide. Mrs. Rubino will give a brief presentation regarding the use of art in the process of genocide. Each group will create "propaganda" posters that depict an ethnocentric viewpoint. Groups must include information from research on history of Anti-Semitism.
 * Activity 4: The Process of Genocide**