I found the original idea for this lesson on a teaching website and now I can't find it anywhere. When I do, I will give credit! I did tweak it to make it work for my 6th graders, as well as make my own supplemental pages, but the premise of the lesson is the same as whatever website I found it on.
We used the story Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story.
We used the story Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story.
Lesson 1-
To begin this lesson series we started off discussing HEROES. We made a list of heroes and then we made a list of descriptions of heroes. Next, we completed a web where we answered 4 questions about heroes.
To begin this lesson series we started off discussing HEROES. We made a list of heroes and then we made a list of descriptions of heroes. Next, we completed a web where we answered 4 questions about heroes.
hero_web.docx |
hero_intro_ques.docx |
I had to provide some background but along with what they already knew, they understood. Using our three main vocabulary words
1. diplomat
2. refugee
3. visa
we recalled what we knew about Hitler and his awful treatment of Jewish people. Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who the Jewish people came to for help. They were desperate to receive a visa from him in order to leave and go to Japan. The Japanese officials denied Sugihara's requests to provide the visas, but he wrote them anyway. These people became refugees fleeing their homes in order to be safe and Sugihara helped them be able to do that.
1. diplomat
2. refugee
3. visa
we recalled what we knew about Hitler and his awful treatment of Jewish people. Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who the Jewish people came to for help. They were desperate to receive a visa from him in order to leave and go to Japan. The Japanese officials denied Sugihara's requests to provide the visas, but he wrote them anyway. These people became refugees fleeing their homes in order to be safe and Sugihara helped them be able to do that.
We used this as a vocabulary foldable in order to make notes of context clues and definitions for the three words. I've attached it below.
vocab_foldable_sugihara.docx |
We read the first three paragraphs silently after our discussion of the background information. On a sticky note, each student wrote what they learned about Sugihara (the narrator's father) within these first three paragraphs (both text-level and inferential information). I had students highlight the word diplomat since that appeared within these first three paragraphs. On our foldable we wrote the context clues that described diplomat.
Below are pictures of my stickies/thoughts for each page.
We also highlighted the words refugees and visas on page 6 and discussed how when authors use a dash, they are often giving you the definition or huge clues to the meaning of the word before the dash. We highlighted how the author had done that with both of these words on this page.
Finally, I read page 7 aloud. We added the main event to a sticky note and then discussed the word telegraph and what that meant in terms of communication. For this story, it meant TIME which was very precious to the people waiting. We talked about the differences in communication between then and now.
Finally, I read page 7 aloud. We added the main event to a sticky note and then discussed the word telegraph and what that meant in terms of communication. For this story, it meant TIME which was very precious to the people waiting. We talked about the differences in communication between then and now.