The annual Elie Wiesel Writing and Visuals Arts Competition is open to students in grades 6 through 12 and serves to inspire middle and high school students and teachers to learn more about the Holocaust, racism, bigotry, and the dangers of prejudice. The questions posed each year guide students to explore the lessons of the Holocaust while examining contemporary issues such as bullying, peer pressure, unthinking obedience to authority, and indifference.

This lesson reimagines an existing instructional resource, "The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck" created by Franky Abbott, Digital Public Library of America.

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In this remix, "The Grapes of Wrath" and the related primary source documents are exchanged for "Farewell to Manzanar" and related primary sources accessed through secondary open-source databases.

Discussion questions ask students to consider the memoir in light of its historical context and students gain experience reading and evaluating visual sources including political cartoons and propaganda posters to understand how elements of rhetorical can shape and/or reflect cultural values.

This lesson uses Panic at the Disco's song, "Hey Look Ma, I Made It" to explore specific literary elements: metaphor, inversion, irony, and tone in order to consider how these devices help shape meaning. Students will work in pairs to employ close-reading skills for specific analytical tasks. They will reflect on their learning continuously throughout the lesson. The lesson will culminate with a brief analytical paragraph that asks them to consider how the figurative devices employed by the songwriters shapes meaning. Finally, they will reflect on the process of close-reading to consider how this process informed their understanding of the text and how they can transfer this skill to other analytical tasks.

This lesson uses Panic at the Disco's song, "Hey Look Ma, I Made It" to explore specific literary elements: metaphor, inversion, irony, and tone in order to consider how these devices help shape meaning. Students will work in pairs to employ close-reading skills for specific analytical tasks. They will reflect on their learning continuously throughout the lesson. The lesson will culminate with a brief analytical paragraph that asks them to consider how the figurative devices employed by the songwriters shapes meaning. Finally, they will reflect on the process of close-reading to consider how this process informed their understanding of the text and how they can transfer this skill to other analytical tasks.