Teaching True Stories of Teens in the Holocaust

Keith Schoch, noted educator and blogger, has written an excellent post about using "True Stories of Teens in the Holocaust" in the classroom along with a review of the series.  Check out Keith's blog post here: http://howtoteachanovel.blogspot.com/2014/03/destruction-disruption-and-defiance.html

Visit http://www.enslow.com/series/True_Stories_of_Teens_in_the_Holocaust to find Common Core correlations and other information on the series.

Using Nonfiction with Common Core Standards

Looking for ways to use nonfiction in your classroom that can be tied with the Common Core Standards? Here's an idea on how to use our series Amazing Working Dogs with American Humane series for ELA - W.K.3 which reads as follows:

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred and provide a reaction to what happened.

The first chapter of each book in this series includes a true story about a dog and his or her handler. The author tells the story of an event in the order  in which it happened. Teachers can read the story aloud to the students pointing out key phrases like, "The next day..." and "before bed."


In Fire Dog Heroes, the author includes the handler's reaction to the dog's first accelerant find by praising the dog. "Good girl, Ashly. Very good girl!"

After using the story as an example, teachers can then have students choose an event in their lives that they wish to draw and write about. Ideas might include their trip to the beach or bringing home a new pet. They can create something as simple as filling in boxes drawn on a large piece of paper, similar to a comic strip format or something more elaborate like making a book from folded pieces of paper. 


One thing for sure is kids never seem to lack stories to tell, especially about themselves. They will probably enjoy sharing their illustrated stories with their classmates as well.