Objectives

Teaching with Testimony is an educational program designed for middle and high school students that unlocks the powerful classroom potential of testimony. Drawing upon USC Shoah Foundation's vast library of audiovisual testimony from survivors and witnesses of genocides, Teaching with Testimony empowers students to find their voices and take action for a better future and is rooted in the belief that one person can make a difference.

Teaching with Testimony invites educators, students, parents and communities to create positive action by viewing powerful testimony from survivors and witnesses of genocides to evoke of sense of shared global citizenship and a call to make the world a better place. As USC Shoah Foundation founder Steven Spielberg has said, “we show the power of random acts of kindness because the best way to teach empathy is by using the power of example.”

Strategy and Execution

Comprised of a series of standards-aligned digital curriculum for middle and high-school students, Teaching with Testimony challenges students to employ empathy, build critical-thinking skills and become inspired to create a brighter future after listening to first-hand accounts from survivors and witnesses of genocide. In addition to being deeply integrated into sections of Discovery Education’s Social Studies Techbook, Streaming Content Collections, and Professional Learning offerings, the program offers no-cost, digitally immersive resources, a video challenge, Virtual Field Trips and classroom activities online that provide educators with the tools they need to teach students to counter hate and respond to injustice.

• Testimony Library: The curated library is full of testimony from survivors and witnesses of genocide that will move and inspire students.
• Classroom Activities: Classroom activities for students in grades 5-12 equip them with the tools and knowledge to counter hate in the classroom and community.
  • Us Vs. Them: In these activities, students will examine the concept of othering and conduct a testimony-based inquiry that helps them answer the question: What creates an us vs them mentality?
  • Responding to Injustice: Students will explore justice and injustice by viewing powerful eye witness testimonies to inspire them to address a social injustice in their own community.
  • Rights and Responsibilities: Help students investigate the basic human rights of all people and the moral courage and actions necessary to protect the fundamental rights of all people through powerful stories of survivors and witness of genocide.
• Student Challenge: The Stronger Than Hate Challenge empowers students to create a community action project addressing an injustice in their community for the chance to win scholarships and grants up to $10,000.
  • In the Stronger Than Hate Challenge, students will listen to powerful testimonies of survivors and witnesses of genocide, and create opportunities to effect change in their schools and communities. Students are asked to complete research-based and standards-aligned activities, culminating in taking action against hate. The challenge also asks students to capture their journey in a video essay purposed to help them in sharing their message globally.
• Virtual Field Trip: This video resource will define hate and provide students with an understanding of its impact on individuals and communities. The VFT will present viewers with testimony and allow them to experience it first-hand—both archives, and more present-day storytelling—providing them the opportunity to explore emotions, consider questions, experience a shared humanity and develop thinking in new and nuanced ways.

By also tapping into Discovery Education’s vast network of teachers and students (its services are available in approximately half of U.S. classrooms and primary schools in the U.K. and reach over 5 million educators and 51 million students in more than 90 countries), the program was additionally marketed to key regions and audiences via a media campaign on DiscoveryEducation.com - a top teacher site with over 2.2 million monthly visitors - education trade press, social media, direct-to-teacher targeted e-blasts and e-newsletter callouts, Discovery Education community blog posts and grassroots outreach to Discovery Education’s influential teacher community.

Results

Since its launch in Fall 2018, Teaching with Testimony has now reached over 1.6 million students, with program resources being downloaded over 8,000 times and videos being watched over 37,000 times.  The 2019 U.S. Stronger Than Hate Challenge closed on May 16th, 2019. At close, there were 203 educators and 1,315 students involved, with 97 submitted entries. Compared to 2018, this year’s challenge saw a 174% increase in educator participation and a 41% increase in entries submitted.

Media