The+Champion+of+Children+Reinforcing+Activity

Lesson Plan Author: **__Dr. Blythe Hinitz__**
 * NCSS Notable Trade Book Lesson Plan 2010 **

**__ The Story of Janusz Korczak __**
 * **Title of NCSS Notable Trade Book:** || **__ The Champion of Children: __**

** By Tomek Bogacki ** ||
 * **Book Summary:** || As a young boy growing up in Warsaw, Poland in the late 1880s Henryk Goldszmit imagined that if he were king he could help all the poor hungry children he saw on the streets. He became a well-known physician and writer. Later, under his pen name Janusz Korczak, he opened an orphanage for Jewish children that became a caring community, with its own parliament to create rules that were followed by children and staff alike, and a children’s court to decide on the consequences if a rule was broken. There was a weekly newspaper to which adults and children contributed, and discussions of the week’s events and problems. The children lived in a building that was designed and built to meet their needs, The Orphans Home, //Dom Sierot,// Warszawa, Krochmalna Street 92. The main hall was used as a dining room, as well as for doing homework, reading, and playing games. There were dormitories for girls and boys. Each summer the children and staff went to Rozyczka camp at Goclawek for hiking, swimming, gardening and playing sports. That all changed drastically when the Nazis invaded Poland and decreed that Dr. Korczak, the children, and staff had to move into the crowded ghetto and wear armbands and symbols on their clothing that identified them as Jews. Dr. Korczak wrote //Ghetto Diary// to tell the story of ghetto life. Although his friends and the Zegota [Relief Council for Jews] underground organization offered to help him escape, Dr. Korczak refused to leave the children, and in 1942 he led them to the train and went with them to the Treblinka extermination camp, where he was killed. However, Korczak’s stated and lived beliefs, that children should be loved, educated, and protected inspire many to the present day, including those who facilitated the United Nations International Year of the Child (1979), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, that celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2009. ||
 * **NCSS Standards:**

|| **//II. Time, Continuity, & Change//**//:// Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the ways human

beings view themselves in and over time. [Early Grades] The learner can: demonstrate an understanding that different people may describe the same event or situation in diverse ways, citing reasons for the differences in views; compare and contrast different stories or accounts about past events, people, places, or situations, identifying how they contribute to our understanding of the past; and identify and use various sources for reconstructing the past, such as documents, letters, diaries, maps, textbooks, and photos. [Early and Middle Grades] The learner can use knowledge of facts and concepts drawn from history, along with elements of historical inquiry, to inform decision-making about and action-taking on public issues. [Middle Grades] The learner can: identify and describe selected historical periods and patterns of change, within and across cultures; and identify and use processes important to reconstructing and reinterpreting the past.


 * //III. People, Places & Environments://** Social studies programs should include: descriptions of how people create places that reflect ideas, personality, culture, and wants and needs; examination of the interaction between human beings and their physical environment, and observation and speculation about the social and economic effects of environmental changes. [Early Grades] The learner can describe how people create places that reflect cultural values and ideals; and can examine, interpret, and analyze physical and cultural patterns and their interactions.

à Composition paper and writing utensils. à Copies of primary source documents, including photographs, from sources listed below. à Computers with Internet access. à SmartBoard or similar equipment or Whiteboard or chart paper or chalkboard. à A flexible classroom physical environment. ||
 * //X. Civic Ideals & Practices//**//:// Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the ideals, principles, and practices of citizenship in a democratic republic. [Early Grades] The learner can identify key ideals, such as equality, and the rule of law; identify and interpret sources and examples of the rights and responsibilities of citizens; practice forms of civic discussion and participation consistent with the ideals of citizenship; recognize that a variety of people formally and informally shape public opinion and public policy; and recognize and interpret how the “common good” can be strengthened through various forms of citizen action. ||
 * **Materials:** || à Copies of //The Champion of Children: The Story of Janusz Korczak// by Tomek Bogacki.
 * **Objectives:** || # After listening to the reading of the book //The Champion of Children: The Story of Janusz Korczak//, students can describe ways people get along in a community.
 * 1) Students express empathy for the characters in the story.
 * 2) Students describe what happened to the members of the community living in the orphanage [adults and children taken to Treblinka, children who survived] using details from the story to help support their ideas.
 * 3) Students offer explanations about why they think Dr. Korczak chose to live and work in the orphanage rather than work at a hospital or become a full time writer.
 * 4) Students state the reasons that they think Dr. Korczak chose to go to the Warsaw Ghetto with his orphanage community.
 * 5) Students discuss whether they think Dr. Korczak should have gone with the children and staff to the train and use passages from the book and ancillary study to support their position. Students utilize the ReadWriteThink Webbing Tool to illustrate the options.
 * 6) Students offer explanations about why they think Dr. Korczak chose to lead the children and staff to the train and to Treblinka.
 * 7) Students share their ideas by inviting others to view the results of their book-related and Holocaust-related activities – book reports, bulletin board, computer activities, etc. ||
 * **Procedures:**

//Exploration/ Introduction://

//Development://

//Expansion:// || # Seat the students in the meeting or circle area or rug area of the classroom.
 * 1) When everyone is seated, begin the story of Janusz Korczak by showing the book cover and asking the students to discuss what they see on it.
 * 2) Read the story, pausing to permit everyone to see the illustrations clearly.
 * 3) At the conclusion of the reading, ask critical thinking questions related to higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, for example, “Why do you think Dr. Korczak chose to live and work in the orphanage rather than work at a hospital or become a full time writer?”
 * 4) At the conclusion of the discussion, provide the students with an explanation of the assignments.
 * 5) Assignment 1: After doing additional research, in hard copy

texts and/or online, students write a journal entry as a child who lived in the orphanage before they went to the Warsaw Ghetto, or while they were in the Warsaw Ghetto, or the journal of a boy who escaped deportation after the others were taken to the train.
 * 1) Assignment 2: Students use the Thinkfinity ReadWriteThink Webbing Tool to illustrate the options open to Dr. Korczak when he made his decision to go with the children and staff to the train and to Treblinka.
 * 2) Using the prompts in Thinkfinity ReadWriteThink Bio Cube, the students develop an outline including Dr. Korczak’s life story, his personality, and his historical significance.
 * 3) Have several copies of the book available in the classroom library. ||
 * **Assessment:** || # Students listen to the book and observe the pictures.
 * 1) Students respond to questions by sharing their views and ideas using details from the story to help support their ideas.
 * 2) After re-reading the book, students respond by citing specific passages from the book text.
 * 3) Students respond to the questions with correct and logical responses.
 * 4) Students provide descriptions based on the illustrations in the book and offer comments and answers related to details in the pictures.
 * 5) Students can describe ways people get along in a community.
 * 6) Students are able to use the Thinkfinity ReadWriteThink Webbing Tool to illustrate the options open to Dr. Korczak when he made his decision to go with the children and staff to the train and to Treblinka. **ReadWriteThink Webbing Tool** []
 * 7) Students offer their ideas and listen to those of other students and the teacher.
 * 8) Students use the Thinkfinity ReadWriteThink Bio Cube to synthesize the information in the biography of Dr. Janusz Korczak. **Bio Cube**: []
 * 9) Using the prompts in Thinkfinity ReadWriteThink Bio Cube, students develop an outline including Dr. Korczak’s life story, his personality, and his historical significance.
 * 10) Students write a journal entry as a child who lived in the orphanage before they went to the Warsaw Ghetto, or while they were in the Warsaw Ghetto, or the journal of a boy who escaped deportation after the others were taken to the train. ||

* Nalkowska, Zofia. (nd). //From the Pages of Polish History: Nazi German Camps on Occupied Polish Soil During World War II.// Poland: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Department of Promotion. ISBN 83-86426-45-4. * The Polish Society for the Righteous Among Nations & The Main Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against the Polish Nation: The Institute of National Memory. (1997). //Those Who Helped: Polish Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust.// Part III. Warszawa, Poland: Author.
 * **Suggested**
 * Extension**
 * Activities:** || # Set up a museum exhibit of the students’ writing, art work and computer work. Invite other classes, parents, and school personnel to view the products of the students’ research and writing. The students will provide explanations during these visits.
 * 1) Utilize materials from the **Windows to Memory** project of the State of Israel Ministry of Education Tel-Aviv District Inspectorate of Art Education about **Yitzhak Belfer**, an artist who was educated at Korczak's orphanage for ten years, to make curriculum connections among the fine arts, social studies and language arts and literacy. ||
 * **Additional**
 * References & Web Links** || * Leiter, Robert. (2007, September 6). King of the Children. //Philadelphia Jewish Exponent//, p. 38. Available online at [|www.jewishexponent.com]

* Rotter, Sy. (nd). //Zegota: The Council for Aid to Jews in Occupied Poland 1942-1945.// Tucson, AZ: Foundation for Moral Courage. A film. ISBN 1-56082-231-7. Tomaszewski, Irene. //Teachers Discussion Guide//. * Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive at USHMM [] * State of Israel Ministry of Education Tel-Aviv District Inspectorate of Art Education [Dr. Naomi Jaffe; Sarah Cohen- Bonen]. //Windows to Memory//. //Janush Korczak and the Children:// //The Memories of a Child// - Yitzhak Belfer

* Janusz Korczak []

* A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust [] * Remember.org - A Cybrary of the Holocaust [] * Lesson plans Gr 4-12 [] ||