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Virtual Teaching Trunks

Our virtual trunks offer resources to educators who are teaching virtually or who prefer digital materials. Virtual teaching trunks include access to e-books and digital texts, Illinois Holocaust Museum developed films, lessons and activities for remote teaching, and digital “artefacts” to help students explore the stories of local Holocaust Survivors. The trunks are designed for K-12 classrooms and explore themes including the Holocaust, genocide, human and civil rights, as well as character education, social-emotional learning, and more.

Identity and Building a Positive Community (Grades K – 4)

In this virtual teaching trunk, students explore personal and cultural identity, empathy, family, and friendship through the lens of character education.

Themes:

  • How to be a contributing part of the local and global community
  • What it takes to care of one’s self and others
  • How and why to speak up for what is right
  • How to speak up for those being bullied
  • How to understand core values of respect, compassion, justice, civic virtue, and citizenship

Materials:

Themes explored include: family, community, identity, standing up for what’s right

Memory, History, Culture: An Age-Appropriate Introduction to the Holocaust (Grades 5-6)

In this virtual teaching trunk, students examine how the lessons of the Holocaust and genocide can influence how we view the past and whether we choose to take a stand for positive change in the future.

Themes:

  • How themes of memory, history, and culture intersect in the study of the Holocaust
  • What influences the way history is remembered and retold
  • What encourages people to stand up for others

Materials:

  • Ready-made lesson plans for teachers to use synchronously or asynchronously
  • Read-aloud books and corresponding activities & questions
    • Hidden Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women who Helped Launch Our Nation Into Space
    • Granddaddy’s Gift
    • The Sneetches and Other Stories
    • The Night Journey
  • Video clips and extension activity ideas from Make A Difference! The Harvey L. Miller Family Youth Exhibition
  • Artwork and activities from the Museum’s Act of Art gallery
  • Virtual “artefact” explorations featuring inspiring stories of local Chicago Holocaust Survivors
Holocaust: Historical Perspectives through Different Voices (Grades 7 -12)

In this virtual teaching trunk, students will focus on the historical impact of the Holocaust on individuals, such as life in hiding, the ghettos, and camps.

Themes:

  • Human and moral implications of individual choice, responsibility, and memory
  • Influences on decisions to become a bystander
  • Actions that encourage becoming an Upstander

Materials:

  • Ready-made lesson plans for teachers to use synchronously or asynchronously
  • Rentable e-books and corresponding activities & questions
    • Survival in Auschwitz
    • All But My Life
    • The Cage
    • The Christmas Menorahs
  • Access to our online exhibition on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, including extension activities
  • Artwork and activities from the Museum’s Act of Art gallery
  • Virtual “artefact” explorations featuring the amazing survival stories of local Chicago Holocaust Survivors
  • Documentaries of local Survivors’ Holocaust experiences and corresponding teachers’ guide
On Our Watch: Genocide and Human Rights (Grades 7-12)

This virtual teaching trunk provides educators and students with the tools necessary to explore the precarious nature of human and civil rights and delves into the dynamics and relationships that make up our diverse communities.

Materials:

  • Ready-made lesson plans for teachers to use synchronously or asynchronously
  • Rentable e-books and corresponding activities & questions
    • We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda
    • Black Dog of Fate
    • First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
  • Presentations on the genocides in Rwanda, Armenia, Cambodia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina
  • Presentation focused on Upstanders and resistance during genocides
  • Artwork and activities from the Museum’s Act of Art gallery

Request a Virtual Teaching Trunk

Schools that participate in our trunk program are required to provide the Museum with three forms of feedback:

  1. Letter of thanks to trunk sponsor
  2. Student Evaluation Form
  3. Online Teacher Evaluation Form

Instructions and materials, including evaluation forms, are included with your trunk.

Photo credits: Scott Edwards

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