Back to School: Building Community for Connection and Learning
These back-to-school activities and teacher resources will help you lay a foundation for a reflective and caring community at the start of the school year.
![Students move around the classroom in conversation with each other. One student looks directly into the camera with a smile on their face.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/LA_ClassroomImage_2018_FH287148.jpg?h=a141e9ea&itok=lbbZPe6H)
Power, Agency, and Voice
Designed for students in grades 11-12, this text set includes lesson plans and multi-genre texts for a 1–2 week unit exploring the essential question, "How do I empower myself to speak up and take action on behalf of myself and others?”
![Four students at their desks, working in a group.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-07/Chicago_Classroom_2019_FH2101383.jpg?h=56d0ca2e&itok=spLBW7yj)
The Complexity of Identity
Students explore the relationship between the individual and society by creating identity charts for a contemporary novelist, a children's book character, and themselves.
![Blurred crowd used to illustrate "individual and society" in Holocaust and Human Behavior.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/HHB_Chapter_1_Medium_res.jpg?h=c9f93661&itok=oyKNRFjB)
Analyzing the Effects of World War I
Students use maps of the world before and after World War I to make inferences and predictions about the ways the war changed the world.
![Painting title Gassed by John Singer Sargent. Shows World War I soldiers with bandaged eyes being led by other soldiers. Many dead and injured soldiers laying at the base of the painting.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Ch3_Image05_Medium_res.jpg?h=fe25bc16&itok=_3yOA5E-)
New Holocaust and Human Behavior Lessons for Experienced Educators in Jewish Settings
On-Demand
Virtual
Developed specifically for educators in Jewish settings, the webinar will explore five new lessons from Teaching Holocaust and Human Behavior which are designed to help you lead middle or high school students through an examination of the catastrophic period of the Holocaust from a historical perspective.
![Hand on cover of Holocaust and Human Behavior.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-08/5-1-17FacH08949_for_Web_or_Office_Use.jpg?h=735f7c84&itok=RPXNM3l4)
Analyzing and Creating Memorials
Students learn about several Holocaust memorials around the world in preparation to design their own memorial.
![The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, or Holocaust Memorial, is a memorial in Berlin, Germany to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/HHB_Chapter_11_Medium_res.jpg?h=7fb2964e&itok=i4K2A5Oo)
Transcending Single Stories
Students reflect on how stereotypes and "single stories" influence our identities, how we view others, and the choices we make.
![Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie poses for a portrait in a red shirt.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/2017_ChimamandaNgoziAdichie_FH2173820.jpg?h=48bd8eff&itok=5aHBnh0R)
Analyzing Nazi Propaganda
Students define propaganda and practice an image-analysis activity on a piece of propaganda from Nazi Germany.
![A crowd salutes Nazi Leader Adolf Hitler outside the Reich Chancellery in Berlin after a plebiscite, which gave Hitler absolute power as German Fuhrer. August 19, 1934.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Holocaust_1934_SalutingHitler_FH229692.jpg?h=33252b2e&itok=wqtpArcL)
Understanding Identity
Students consider the question "Who am I?" and identify social and cultural factors that shape identity by reading a short story and creating personal identity charts.
![An illustration from Fred Tashlin's The Bear That Wasn't.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Bear_04_Medium_res.jpg?h=e234a08a&itok=1oJczY0C)
When Differences Matter
Students consider what happens when one aspect of our identity is privileged above others by society.
![A Black student looks up while speaking into a microphone wearing a shirt that reads, "Black History: Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future."](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/2020_studentevent_FH2123247.jpg?h=56d0ca2e&itok=hOJqWk6N)