Echoes and Reflections 

Echoes and Reflections aims to enhance the content knowledge and pedagogical skills of teachers who include Holocaust and genocide studies as part of their curriculum. The program models active learning and practical instructional strategies. The standards-based print and digital resources equip teachers with the tools they need to help today’s students study the Holocaust as a significant event in human history, to recognize the complexity of choices made by individuals, and to define the role and responsibility of the individual to uphold the principles of a democracy  and moral and ethical behavior.

The goals of Echoes and Reflections are:

• To enhance educators’ content knowledge on major topics about the Holocaust, including anti-Semitism, Nazi ideology, ghettos, the “Final Solution,” and resistance.
• To provide secondary educators with access to superior, research-based professional development with a focus on modeling sound pedagogy and instructional strategies for teaching about the Holocaust.
• To develop standards-based, interdisciplinary print and digital resources that foster knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust and its relevance to contemporary society.
• To promote critical thinking through the study of the Holocaust.
• To support students’ development of the skills to examine the effects of prejudice, bigotry, and anti-Semitism.
• To encourage the use of visual history testimony in the classroom, thereby exposing students to the narratives of those who were witnesses to history and providing opportunities for them to examine their own personal narratives.
• To support educators across disciplines as they integrate Holocaust and genocide education into their course of study.

This program is brought to you through a collaborative effort between: Northeast Regional Readiness Center, SSU Center for Education and Community and The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS) at Salem State University,Anti-Defamation League and Yad Vashem, Shoah Foundation, and USC.