Moral Decision Making: A Curriculum for Middle Schools

Developed by professional educators, "You can Make a Difference" is a three-lesson, integrated Social Studies/Language Arts curriculum, based on lessons from the Holocaust. It provides practice in individual moral decision-making. The program, complete with videos, discussion materials and bibliography, comes ready for use and is available to public, private and parochial schools.

You Can Make A Difference Curriculum

How the curriculum works:

The program is designed for three 45-minute class periods and is easily adapted to a variety of time frames. It contains teacher directions, two videotapes and reproducible materials to stimulate discussion on moral decision-making. The materials are multi-ethnic, including quotations from the Qu'ran, the Torah, the Talmud, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, and men and women rescuers from World War II.

The lessons include directions for opening the presentation, presentation for each video, group work, questions for discussion, and activities to close the lesson by relating the material to the student's academic and social world.

The curriculum was written by:

Roger LaRaus, Ph.D., Curriculum Coordinator for Evanston Schools, District #65

Joyce Witt, MS, Mandel Fellow from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Barbara Litwin, MS

Download the materials here:

The 27-page curriculum is divided into six sections to facilitate downloading a memory intensive document. The curriculum is offered as a PDF (Portable Document Format) for printing.

If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the application, download a free copy by clicking the Adobe icon above and go to www.adobe.com.

"A Rock in the Road" can be obtained from The Phoenix Learning Group, 2349 Chaffee Dr., St. Louis, MO 63146, (314) 569-0211.

"The Courage to Care" by Sister Carol Rittner, R.S.M. and Sondra Myers, Executive Producers, can be obtained by calling (708) 835-4800.