6. What was the author's message in this book? pg. 317
7. How did the character's grow throughout their own journeys? pg. 317

Write a speech to persuade people around the world to be and Upstander not a Bystander when it comes to injustices.

1.  Allies

2. Code of Honor

3. Grenade

4. Ground Zero

2. What is the difference between migration and refugees? What does the word asylum mean? Show them an example of an asylum form. 

3. Learn about the three dictators, Adolf Hitler, Fidel Castro, and Bashar al-Assad, and discuss their policies.  

2. When Josef told the soldiers that he “Will be a man soon enough” on page 4 what did he mean by that and is it connected to the bar mitzvah? What is a bar mitzvah and what does it mean?

3.  If you were in Isabel was forced to give up and trade her trumpet and cat to get gasoline for the boat? What did she lose and what did she gain? 

4. If your house was bombed like Mahmoud’s house and you had to take one thing with you what would that one thing be and why? 

5. How would you describe the similarities between the main three characters even though these stories happened at different times and regions? 

6. How does the book make you feel? And what does it make you want to offer to refugees? 

7. What was the connection between the three stories in the book? 

1.     Lesbos, Greece the mountain of life jackets! According to the United Nations refugee agency 3,400 refugees and migrants land each day. 

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2015/12/29/life-jacket-mountain-a-metaphor-for-greeces-refugees#:~:text=Lesbos%2C%20Greece%20%E2%80%93%20At%20the%20end,search%20for%20safety%20in%20Europe.


2.    Escape routes of Jews fleeting Germany 1933-1939.

 https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/go-in-depth/impossibilities-escaping-1933-1942/

3.   Who's Taking Their Fair Share of Syrian Refugees 

https://www.statista.com/chart/7270/whos-taking-their-fair-share-of-syrian-refugees/

4.  Syria: The World's Largest Refugee 
Crisis documentary 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEQdVSWvWWA

5.  A song about Syrian refugees.
Subtitles in English will be used to
understand lyrics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xVPdOnbdcg&list=RDOxyDo3rcGT4&index=19 

Write a poem that captures the big idea of the book Refugee.

Students will learn about refugees, who have been forced to leave their homes to escape war, fear, and violence.  They have fled their homes and crossed a border to seek shelter outside of their homelands. Students will have to fill out an asylum form, choose an escape route from one of the stories, and create a boat that will float on water to demonstrate how refugees strive to escape the danger of the oceans using all kinds of boats. 

The project will take about 2 weeks

 

·       In pairs, students will research what is asylum? Look for the form and fill it out? 

·       Students will look up refugee escape routes from the story (Refugee book) and draw them on a poster. 

·       Students will construct wooden paddleboards that is powered by an elastic band. Students will need popsicles (craft) wooden sticks, a glue gun, a craft knife, a rubber band, a ruler, a drill, sandpaper, a screwdriver, a safety pin, 2 bottle caps, and paddles for the boat

·       Students will need to apply mathematical skills using angles, shapes, and measurements.

·       Students will experiment with their boats in the water.

-Authors make conscious choices about the point of view and perspective from which they tell their stories. Sometimes stories are told from the perspectives of multiple characters. Why do authors do this? What are some elements to look for in narratives told from multiple perspectives? How can reading multiple perspectives change the way we think about the story?

2. Character arc

-Refugee is a plot-driven book that is made stronger by realistic characters who must make difficult decisions with lasting consequences, who face harsh challenges and through them grow and change. What is a character arc? Why is it important to a story?

3. Immigration policy

-In Refugee, Isabella talks about the Wet Foot/Dry Foot policy of Cuba-US immigration in the 90s. In this mini lesson, the class discusses the question, what is an immigration policy? Who decides immigration policies? What are some examples of historic immigration policies of the United States? What is an illegal immigrant and how are they different from legal immigrants?

-The story of White Sox’ Jose Abreu’s defection from Cuba, including details about other Cuban players’ paths to the MLB. Great potential for discussions on ethics of migration.

Night by Elie Wiesel

-Elie Wiesel was a prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps during the Holocaust. Night is his memoir, a first-hand account of his experiences in the camps with his father. In Refugee, Josef’s father survived his imprisonment in Dachau, but it made him into a shell of the person he was before. Readers see the effect the camp had on Josef’s father, but the horrors that changed him are touched on only briefly. To better understand Josef’s father’s pain, students could read excerpts from Elie Wiesel’s Night.

Do refugees watch TV? Do they play Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja on their smartphones? When students imagine countries that are depicted as “war-torn” in the national media, they often imagine bleak places where people live in huts, camps, and bombed-out buildings. When they hear “refugee,” they might imagine someone wearing tattered traditional clothing with nothing to their name but despair.

Yet in Refugee, Mahmoud and his family rely on their smartphone for navigation, and Mahmoud’s younger brother’s favorite toys are Marvel action figures, perhaps just like some students who may read this novel in an American school. Mahmoud's father is a persistent optimist who cracks jokes even in the dire times, a very relatable dad. At the end of their journey, Mahmoud and his family may end up with hardly anything in their possession, but who were they before the war? 

This activity could start with a thought experiment wherein students discuss their perceptions (and possible misconceptions) of refugees, and could lead into an activity where students read first-hand accounts of refugees who had to give up professional careers and regular lives to escape conflict in their homeland.

2. Shiendick and Captain Schroeder have clear differences in their political view of Hitler and the direction of Germany. Do you think this will cause a significant conflict in the story? How? (p113-115)

3. Why does Mahmoud’s father seem to be disappointed when Mahmoud accepts help from the taxi driver? (p127)

4. Do you think Josef did the right thing when he slapped his father? Why or why not? Do you think there will be consequences for this action? What kind? (p133-134)

5. Do you think giving Hana to the people on the other dinghy was the right decision? Why or why not? (p162)

6. On page 214, Mahmoud describes, to paraphrase, how people ignore refugees until they feel uncomfortable with their presence. Are there other people that society ignores until they “make problems?” Who are they? What are the consequences of ignoring people in need, a.k.a. being a bystander? (p214)

7. By the end of the book, we come to understand how each story is connected. Frau Rosenberg, a.k.a. Ruthie, once again lives in Germany, and is now assisting Syrian refugees in need. Is there an experience in your life or your family’s lives that have driven you to ‘give back’ in a way? (p315-317)

-Final speech from The Great Dictator, performed by Charlie Chaplin as the persecuted Jewish barber. In the famous ending mix-up, the ruthless dictator Adenoid Hynkel (also played by Chaplin) ends up in a prison camp, and the lookalike barber, impersonating Hynkel, performs this speech.

War Through Syrian Eyes - TIME Magazine

-Syrian photographers reflect on photos they have taken through the conflict.

Virtual Museum - Illinois Holocaust Museum

Students can visit virtual exhibitions and access informational resources to learn about the Holocaust and the persecution faced by people like Josef and his family.

Holocaust Encycolpedia - United States Holocaust Museum

Students can search key terms related to the Holocaust and browse articles and media collections.

Photographs from concentration camps: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/gallery/concentration-camps-1942-45-photographs

Interview with Bashar al-Assad - BBC

BBC interview with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from 2015 in the midst of the civil war in which he defends his actions and decisions.