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Bold Expectations Challenge Students
March 21, 2016

We’re living in a pivotal time in history. For those of us in St. Louis, we often feel like we’re in the epicenter. Our children, our families, and our community have been and continue to be directly affected by events in our region from the past nineteen months.

This semester, sixth grade students have studied a pivotal time in world history, World War II. For many elementary school teachers, it’s often easier to gloss over the infractions, events, and deaths that occurred during this time rather than teach about this chapter in history to young students. However, City Academy teachers have bold expectations for our students and do not often take the easy road.

The sixth grade class began their World War II unit in January. Our social studies teacher, Ms. Erin McDonough, had students learn about major events and turning points during WWII, as well as propaganda used during the war, key figures, Pearl Harbor, dictators and types of dictatorships (Nazism, fascism, militarism), the Allies and Axis powers, and locating these countries on the map. As a way to tie the social studies unit into the classroom, sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Martha Altvater, incorporated World War II into the students’ English and art assignments during January and February.

The English assignment consisted of students reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, a historical fiction novel that narrates how a German community survived World War II and the Holocaust. This young adult novel may be at an eighth or ninth grade reading level, but keeping her expectations high, Ms. Altvater knew that the sixth grade class could handle reading the book. “The protagonist in the book thief is someone the same age of most of my sixth grade students,” Ms. Altvater says. “Plus, I knew no one in the class had read the book. Even though the reading level is elevated, I knew my students would do well reading The Book Thief.”

The Book Thief tells the story of a fictional community, Molching, Germany. This town is on the way to the concentration camp of Dachau near Munich, Germany. The story revolves around one young inhabitant of the town, as well as events that occur as people are marched through the town on the way to Dachau. The setting of the book is the heart of the story and is as important as many of the historical mentions in the book.

One such mention is Jesse Owens. One of the young inhabitants of Molching desires to run track like the four-time Olympic gold medalist. What luck for our students that the movie, Race, was released during this unit! Sixth graders went on a field trip to the theater to see this important movie. As one of the students said, “It was cool to see what really happened to Jesse Owens. He was fearless. He was a firecracker!”

The World War II unit wrapped up in the classroom with a colossal undertaking- sixth graders worked on a large scale diorama of the town of Molching. Mrs. Altvater and our art teacher, Ms. Julie Bugnitz, were certain that students left no stone unturned and each area of town was represented in the diorama. The magnificent art creation included ten areas that played a significant role in the book- the apple orchard, the Knoller (a local pub), the wealthy section of the town, the mayor’s house, the town square, “Heaven Street” (Himmel Strasse), Frau Diller’s town store, Mamer’s grocery store, the “Road of Yellow Stars” (Shiller Strasse), and the Hubert Oval (the running track).

The culmination of the unit occurred after all the assignments were completed in the classroom. Sixth grade students had the great opportunity to visit the Holocaust Museum in St. Louis and meet Holocaust survivor, Miriam Raskin. Many of Ms. Raskin’s family members were sent to concentration camps during WWII, and she told sixth graders what she witnessed during the Holocaust. She shared stories about Nazi soldiers, concentration camps, and how some of her family members had been provided aid during the Holocaust. Ms. Raskin was one of her family members who was able to escape Germany during WWII. However, not all of her relatives were so fortunate.

The World War II unit has already made an impact on our sixth graders. Many of them recognize the importance of learning history, how it shapes our future, and how we can learn from our past. “It may sound cheesy,” one sixth grade student remarked, “but we learn about history so it doesn’t repeat itself. A lot of people wanted to cover up the Holocaust, but it couldn’t be covered up. It was too big and too many people died. I was really sad to learn about it, but I was also happy to hear from a Holocaust survivor that she and other people were able to overcome it.”

Because of the bold expectations our teachers place on students, our young scholars are able to have an empathetic view of others, read books beyond their grade level, and learn history from first-person accounts. Although some teachers shy away from having elementary students read a book about the Holocaust, our teachers want to challenge City Academy scholars and prepare them for the next chapter in their lives.

And as for how the students felt about reading The Book Thief, one sixth grade student said it best: “I would be a different person if I hadn’t read this book.”

Written by Lindsey Willard, Communications Coordinator