USC Shoah Foundation Unveils New Educational Programs Tailored to Upcoming Historical Commemorations

LOS ANGELES, July 22, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The world will commemorate several important events during the 2014-15 school year that will provide teachers an opportunity to explore these milestones in ways that will impact and engage students.

• 70^th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
• 40^th Anniversary of the start of the Cambodian Genocide
• 100^th Anniversary of the beginning of the Armenian Genocide

To help plan curriculum, USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education is offering free, back-to-school resources to help teachers bring the voices of history into their classroom by incorporating interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides that are housed in its Visual History Archive. These resources span disciplines from English to economics, history to ethics.

Learning can sometimes seem like an exercise in memorization. Research has proven that testimony is a much more powerful teaching tool than printed words in textbooks as testimony connects students with the past, engages them in the present and motivates them to build a better future. By engaging with testimony, students can hear the survivor's own voice and see the emotions on their faces as they tell the stories of their lives.

"We have invested years of study and research into finding the best ways to bring testimony into the classroom in an age-appropriate ways," said Dr. Claudia Wiedeman, USC Shoah Foundation's associate director of educational technologies and training. "By engaging students, both intellectually and morally, these resources can change the lives of students for the better. Our rigorous follow-up research shows that our assets not only work, but continue to have an impact long afterwards."

USC Shoah Foundation offers a suite of resources designed specifically for secondary school teachers and their students:

• IWitness: The Institute's award-winning educational website that brings the human stories of the Institute's Visual History Archive to secondary school teachers and their students via engaging multimedia-learning activities. IWitness was designed to be participatory, academic and student-driven.  IWitness addresses education standards from the Common Core State Standards Initiative (United States) and the International Society for Technology in Education, among others.
• Echoes and Reflections: A multimedia program that provides the most comprehensive Holocaust education platforms available. It combines the resources of USC Shoah Foundation, the Anti-Defamation League and Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to Holocaust victims. Professional development programs are held around the country, usually at no fee to participating educators, who also receive a complimentary copy of our Teacher's Resource Guide (valued at $100.00) with training. 
• Lessons: Working closely with educator experts in the field of genocide studies, USC Shoah Foundation has produced numerous online lessons and student activities that incorporate footage of testimonies from the Visual History Archive. Some of the most popular lessons include Pyramid of Hate, Living Histories: Seven Stories from the Holocaust and One Man, Two Voices: Peter Feigl's Diary and Testimony.
• Online Exhibits: The Institute offers several multimedia exhibits on its website that explore different themes and historical events as told from the perspective of survivors and other witnesses whose testimony is in the Visual History Archive.  These include Remembering Kristallnacht, Witnesses for Change: Stories of Liberation and Born In The City That Become Auschwitz (available in 13 languages).  

"These resources are designed to do more than teach history," said Dr. Kori Street, USC Shoah Foundation's director of education. "They connect young people with the past in ways that help prepare them to create a better future. We are committed to sharing the voices of history so today's students can understand that while there is great evil in the world, they can be more than bystanders when it appears."

To find out more, visit sfi.usc.edu and click on the "Teach and Learn" tab.

USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education is dedicated to making audiovisual interviews with survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides, a compelling voice for education and action. The Institute's current collection of nearly 52,000 eyewitness testimonies contained within its Visual History Archive preserves history as told by the people who lived it, and lived through it. Housed at the University of Southern California, within the Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the Institute works with partners around the world to advance scholarship and research, to provide resources and online tools for educators, and to disseminate the testimonies for educational purposes.

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SOURCE USC Shoah Foundation