Holocaust Simulations

We are currently reading The Devil's Arithmetic. It is fictional novel about a girl is transported back in time to the time of the Holocaust. Naturally, we have done a lot of historical front-loading so that my students can better understand the context and culture within the book. I have loved every minute of it, and I think my students are still very enthusiastic about this book. Yesterday we did a Holocaust gallery walk. I posted pictures with small captions, pamphlets, and artifacts about the Holocaust around the room and had my students walk around and view the various artifacts as if they were in a museum. One of the exhibits was a pile of pennies my students have brought in during the previous weeks. We had collected 10,730 pennies, and each penny represented a Jew who died in the Holocaust. I wanted my students to be able to visually see what an astonishingly large number of deaths occurred during the Holocaust (it is estimated that 6 million Jews were killed). Here is a picture of the penny pile.

The day before (Thursday), I did another activity with them that related to the Holocaust; I set up an experience similar to that of the Jews being removed from their homes, having their possessions taken, and being shoved into boxcars for deportation. Of course, this school experience couldn't ever be even a fraction of what the Jews really felt and experienced, but I felt that the activity was very affective in bringing more understanding to my students. 

         As my students approached the classroom, I stood unsmiling and stern at the door and informed them that there would be absolutely no talking. The entered the room and began working silently on the bellwork. Suddenly, in a very commanding and mean voice, I instructed them to line up at the door. I found every reason to yell at them ("You're not moving fast enough", "Dont look at your neighbor", "No talking", etc.). I told them that they needed to give me their jewelry, watches, phones, and anything else of value that they had on their persons. They looked at me with shock but obeyed and put their stuff in a small container I had. Then I marched them single file-quickly-still yelling at them to the front office and inside a small time-out room. After I had shoved all 30 of my kids into a small corner of the room, I began to read from the book. The chapter I read from described the experience of traveling in a boxcar, and soon our little time-out room also felt hot and muggy. Once I had read part of the chapter, we returned to the room and discussed the experience. Most of my students talked about the feelings of fear and confusion they had felt during this experience. I heard from the math teacher that my students were still talking about this experience the next day. Mission accomplished.

My professor later informed me that this teaching strategy is called simulation. She warned me about how some teachers have taken these kinds of activities too far, but she also explained how simulation can be very affective in bringing the text to life for some of my more hands-on learners.