Lesson Overview:

Throughout history, in times of peace and in times of conflict, there has always been a multitude of human perspectives. Within the cast of The Sound of Music, the audience observes passive, opposing, and positive reactions to Hitler's impending invasion of Austria. Students will explore the facts, the reactions, and the human perspectives of people in Austria and around the world at this time. Students will then compare and contrast the reactions of the film characters with the reactions of those who lived through this event in history.

Length of Lesson:

Three 45-minute class periods

Instructional Objectives:

Students will:

• explore the various human perspectives regarding Hitler's invasion of Austria.
• compare those perspectives to the reactions of the characters in the film, The Sound of Music.

Supplies:

• TV and VCR/DVD player
• Video/DVD: The Sound of Music
• Paper
• Pencils

Instructional Plan:

Warm Up

Distribute the Vocabulary Handout. It will benefit students to research the following websites prior to viewing the film on Hitler and the German occupation of Austria. These websites offer comprehensive biographical sketches of Hitler's life, his early years in Austria and influences on his beliefs.

Grolier Interactive's Information Center: Hitler
http://www.grolier.com/wwii/wwii_hitler.html

The Holocaust: A Guide for Teachers: Hitler
http://www.remember.org/guide/Facts.root.hitler.html

A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust focuses on the takeover of Austria. The guide explains this event as relatively calm because many Austrians already believed in Hitler's doctrine.

Read the essay entitled A Letter To My Children: Historical Memory and the Silences of Childhood to the students. It references many of the underlying aspects of the Nazi occupation in the film. It will give you great points from which to lead a discussion with the students.

Students must view the film, The Sound of Music. (Note: If this lesson is not being taught within the Exploring the Sound of Music unit, this will add an additional two hours to the time needed to teach this lesson.)

The Sound of Music mixes fact and fiction. The Trapp Family Lodge website gives a wonderful account of the musical's origin. It began as a story that Maria told when they performed. It then became a German book publication, a Broadway production, and finally a theatrical film. Some discrepancies from the real story occur, especially concerning the story of Baron Von Trapp's escape. Have students participate in the Introductory Activity as they watch the film.

Introductory Activity

As students watch the film, they will fill in the Character Perspective Chart.

Students will want to consider the reaction and possible emotions of each character regarding the impending invasion of Austria by Hitler and his troops.

Establish a hand signal each student may use to notify you to pause the film so that he/she can fill in the chart. Although most students will be able to continue watching/listening to the film as they write, accommodations should be made for those who cannot.

Guided Practice: Venn Diagram Completion

As a class, fill out a Venn Diagram Handout comparing and contrasting the perspectives of two Sound of Music characters regarding the impending invasion of Austria. Captain von Trapp and Herr Zellar are a good example of two contrasting characters.

Discuss the two different perspectives and attempt to determine a rationale for each. Consider each character's possible emotions and the reactions to the impending invasion.

Review the practice and individual school guidelines for Internet research and introduce the websites suggested in this lesson.

• Explain the search process for the home web-site.
• Review directions for typing in web addresses.
• Enforce access limitations.

Distribute and review the Essay Format Guide at this time.

• Read through the prompt.
• Discuss the procedures, the required pre-write, and rough draft.
• Review the essay format and requirements.

Independent Practice: Research

Students should begin the Internet research process. Individual students should read and document at least three articles before choosing an article/perspective they can use in their compare and contrast essay.

Students should create a Venn Diagram following the procedure used in the Guided Activity. Students are comparing and contrasting two perspectives: one of a character from The Sound of Music, and one from a person discovered through research.

Do not discourage students from using the character perspective created by the class. The challenge is to compare and contrast that perspective of their chosen character with the perspective of an outside source.

Guided Practice: Comparing Venn Diagrams

Students should pair-and-share their Venn Diagram with a classmate. As students review their partners' Venn Diagrams, they should look for enough contrasting details on both sides and common details in the middle to provide ample writing material for the assigned essay.

Remind students that in a pair-and-share activity, they are not to re-write another's work. The role of the "critic" is to ask questions that will lead to discovery.

Examples of questions might be:

Since Captain von Trapp and Herr Zellar do not agree on anything regarding the impending invasion, could there common emotion be "passion?" Aren't they both passionate about the opposite viewpoint?

Any questions should be referred to the teacher.

Independent Practice: Essay Development

Using the Venn Diagram as the pre-write, students should develop their essays comparing and contrasting the two perspectives.

Refer students to the Essay Format Guide

Guided Practice: Rough Draft Review and Final Copy

Review rough drafts before students begin their final copy. Because students will complete each step at a different times, you may choose to do individual conferences as students finish the rough draft process.

Refer to the Essay Format Guide during this conference.

Closure

Students should discuss current events where there is evidence of varying perspectives or viewpoints. They should discuss the causes and influences that could affect an individual's perspective.

Examples:

• Prior knowledge
• Prior experience
• Shared experiences of others
• Loyalty
• Location
• Gender
• Race
• Religion

Assessment:

Use the Assessment Rubric to assess the students’ work.

Extensions:

Students could do interviews to discuss the verifying perspectives of people in their family/community on a current event affecting their lives.

Students could explore other media productions: plays, musicals, films, television shows, that portray conflicting perspectives/viewpoints on events that shape society.

Sources:

Print:

• A Letter To My Children: Historical Memory and the Silences of Childhood, by Timothy J. Stanley, University of Ottawa

Media:

• The Sound of Music (The Five Star Collection) Directed by Robert Wise. 175 min. Twentieth Century Home Video, 2000. DVD

Authors:

• Leslie A. Thomas, Suzuki String Teacher
  Thomas Pullen Arts Magnet
  Landover, MD United States