Author: Kelly Sutton

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Holocaust Memorial Reflection

This semester, we were fortunate enough to collaborate on a project with the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education. As part of Ed Methods 533E at the University of Portland, we created a site dedicated to the Oregon Holocaust Memorial located in Washington Park, Portland, Oregon.

This project was designed for teachers and students to experience the Oregon Holocaust Memorial from the perspective of instructors and learners. Other visitors can also use the tools and resources this site provides to enhance their experience.

For my contribution, I helped design a timeline using knightlab that describes the events leading up to the Holocaust to the end of WWII. The timeline was corroborated by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and correlates with the events found on the memorial wall. All events were placed into two categories: the rise and fall of Hitler and the targeting of groups. This timeline can be used as a pre-visit tool for teachers to explain to students the events surrounding the Holocaust. I also put together a lesson that is compatible with the timeline (can be found on the time page).

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Transatlantic Slave Trade

Today’s lesson will be on theTransatlantic slave trade. The lesson will start with a warm-up question in order to get students focused on the subject.  We will then watch a short video that explains what the Transatlantic slave trade was, how it work, and who was involved. Students will be given a graphic organizer to go along with an interactive map that catalogues slave ships from the 1500’s to the 1800’s.  Students will pick two ships to investigate (see graphic organizer).  We will then hypothesize why there were less enslaved people arriving at the final destinations than there were before leaving.  A short video detailing enslaved peoples experiences will follow after this and students will gain a better understanding of conditions aboard slave ships.  Students will then read a passage from abolition campaigner and former enslaved African Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography (1789) where he will describe his voyage as a captive on a slave ship. ​​  The lesson will end with an exit slip that is relevant to student learning.

Next Lesson(s): Discuss more in depth the economic, political, and social reasons behind the Transatlantic slave trade.

Extension Activity: Students will work with a partner or in groups of 3 to create a political cartoon depicting the Transatlantic slave trade.  They will present their cartoon to the class and explain their reasoning behind it.

Essential Question(s): How did the Atlantic triangular slave trade effect enslaved peoples? How did it effect the countries that used slave labor?

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Women’s Suffrage Lesson/ U.S. News Map

The U.S. News Map site is a great tool for searching through news articles on U.S. events up to 1922.  This is also a great site for students to develop their skills of analyzing primary source documents.  I would design a lesson for students using U.S. News Map by having students search for articles about a specific event.  For instance, students can search for articles about the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the U.S.  I would require students to find 3 articles and give them a series of scaffolded questions to answer for each article:

  1. When was the article written? Who wrote it? Where was it written?
  2. How is the event being written about?
  3. Summarize the article and give specific details.

After students find 3 articles and answer the subsequent questions, I would have students write a short answer essay about women’s suffrage that includes specific detail from the articles.

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Screencast:Interactive Ellis Island Tour

The following video shows students how to complete an interactive tour of Ellis Island.  This activity is part of our immigration unit.  Students will be completing this tour as if they immigrating into the United states.  They will be given a worksheet that will help guide them along the tour.  At each of the 10 stops, students will read a passage, analyze primary documents, and record their reflection of their time spent at that stop.