The Book Thief Persuasive Essay-Hitler's Germany

Teacher____Stephanie Karabaic________________Class ____grade 7/8 Reading Support Class______Date ______Writing genre_____persuasive essay________

CENTRAL IDEAS

Content: Hitler created an atmosphere of hate against the Jews that forced otherwise peaceful Germans to support or be forced to show allegiance to the Nazi ways.
Reading: The Book Thief, Social Studies Text, handouts-from students’ 7th grade year.
Writing: A persuasive essay will demonstrate students’ understanding of the life during World War II for Jews and non Jews, and the how Hitler and the Nazis spun a web of hate and death against the Jews.

FOCUSING QUESTION		Focus (answer to focusing question)
How Did Hitler convince the Germans through intimidation and false reporting that the Jews were evil and had to die.		When Hitler got into power he slowly launched a campaign against the Jews that became the Holocaust. How did he do that? Hitler blamed the Jews for all the problems that happened in Germany. He blamed the Jews for the loss of the First World War. He also blamed the horrible economy and the the hyperinflation of 1923 on the Jews stating that it was result of an international Jewish attempt to destroy Germany. Hitler intimidated the Germans into not buying from Jewish businesses convincing them that the Jewish businesses would take away non Jewish businesses and work.

Building Content Knowledge, Understanding of Writer’s Craft





Content: Life in Hitler’s Germany during World War II was horrible. People had little as a result of World War I reparations, and the economy lagged. Hitler blamed the Jews for this and spun a web of hate against the Jews. He pulled the non Jewish Germans into the web through manipulation, fear, and force. If a German did not follow Hitler’s and the Nazi ways, they were themselves in danger.

Reading: The Book Thief, Social Studies Text, handouts-from students’ 7th grade year.

Writing: A Persuasive essay will demonstrate students’ understanding of the content of life during World War II for Jews and non Jews, and how Hitler’s methods induced otherwise normal people to adopt and follow Hitler’s ways.


• vocabulary
• guided reading
• text mapping
• paraphrasing
• googlechat-google video / guided conversation / Share in chat sessions on googlechat
reading notes (graphic
organizers, T-charts, 2 column
notes, etc that I provide to students due to the nature of the summer reading program-engagement without a huge commitment of “work” to do-my promise)
• craft lessons (intro, transitions, conclusions, etc)

Vocabulary-from The Book Thief-is pulled out-placed in the context where it was found. I look up the word-offer a definition, and the link for listening to the word pronounced in Merriam Webster.

Guided Reading-using teacher developed reading guide to guide their independent reading of this challenging text-as the book chat will also offer further explanation, discussion, clarification of words, thoughts, character ideas, motives, descriptions etc.

Guided conversation-Book Chat-prompt to discuss on the day of the book chat-in googlechat- as a way to frame the discussion.

Notetaking-notemaking-I offer students a extensive reading guide-page by page-and students are encouraged to use post it notes on pages as needed, and then if they can, add their ideas to my notes-add their ideas in color and with their name and share on googledocs.

Structures How will students know how to organize their ideas and construct a piece of writing?

I will provide a teacher model. of a persuasive essay that students will review with me as well as book content-reading from the summer. We will go over all the notes, the model I present of a typical persuasive essay., review notes, have students organize my notes/their notes into a graphic organizer and then they will write their essay.

Writing / Write/ Revising How will students draft / revise so that their final writing is clearly focused, organized, and developed to show understanding of the central ideas?

• group write, fully or in part • write section at a time • write full piece independently • revise /share full group • revise /share partners • proofreading in partners • proofread w/tubaloos

Students will use my reading guide/notes/their additions to my notes, chat logs-where key ideas are highlighted-explored for persuasive structure. Student and teacher will write/interact/ in real time as a guide to write/revise/support student’s work. They will post on our e-site-Sakai, Google, or Haiku. Students will also write blog posts in response to other students’ work, with comments that highlight student’s ideas.

Lesson Sequence What steps will I follow so that students are able to effectively show their understanding in writing?

Students are reading The Book Thief at home for the Karabaic Summer Reading Club. Students have read on their own or ideally read and joined the rest of the summer readers on googlechat. We have discussed at the end of school-in an overview-The Holocaust and referenced back to their SS curriculum of this past year. I read along with the students, and slightly ahead of them, pulling out the essential vocabulary. I pull the vocabulary word within the context of the sentence where it is found. Since the reading portion of this lesson, is being completed in the summer as part of Karabaic’s Summer Reading Book Chat Club, and I promised my students that they wouldn’t have a great deal of work to do, I do that work for them.I use merriamwebster.com to define the essential vocabulary, type it in the my Reader’s Guide within the context of the sentence on the page, and post the link so they can hear the word pronounced. My Reader’s Guide is broken down by chapter and page. I also write questions to ponder while reading each page and pose ideas that I don't’ want them to miss. We meet in googlechat and googlevideo to discuss the section that they read from the previous week. Each session is between 30-45 minutes. I review and pre-read anticipating anything that might have confused them. We discuss the issues under the surface as it relates to the story and the overall content of Hitler’s Germany, trying to make the connections, pondering “why” and “what will happen next”. Once we are back in school in the fall, we will review the notes from the Reading Guide, my model of a persuasive essay, and the essentials of a persuasive Essay. I will assist them in brainstorming the introduction with the thesis, the body and the conclusion. The format will be a 3 paragraph essay.