Welcome back to my blog! Today I am going to be talking about the last grade 11 project that we just completed, Cat and Maus”. For this project we dove into the intense event of the Holocaust. 

We started this project by completing a free write on why stories were an effective way to learn. With this writing I was able to bring in some of the skills I made in the “The Great Debaters” project where we practiced persuasive writing and adding emotion to connect with the audience. This activity later on allowed us to integrate MLA citations and quotes from other sources to help support your thoughts and add to the story.

To continue building our understanding of the Holocaust we both read and watched a few different sources. One of the articles we read was “The Holocaust in Pictures”, which documented the harsh and unsettling story showcased throughout multiple images of the event. With this article we were each given a different writing prompt, I was tasked to write a paragraph that describes its impact on me as a reader. 

The next thing we did was watch a series of video testimonies from survivors. As I watched a took notes of my key takeaways. Some of the main topics I noticed was the need to educate others, trauma from the past has many affects on the present, and the idea of survival instincts that were formed. To extend my thinking I wrote a short reflection on each before writing an overall reflection on how testimonies can be used as a form of storytelling. 

One of the most significant parts of this project came next, this was when we had guest speaker Esther Clark in to tell about her families story in the Holocaust. I found her face to face explanation of her family’s personal experiences extremely impactful as it added a new level of emotion to the subject. 

This brings me to our first keystone which was a Holocaust Reflection on what we have learned, what was important about our learning, why it is significant, which learning activity resonates with you and why you selected the activity. I did get a little carried away when writing this and needed to make a few revisions on grammar and quotations however this was a good practice for our second piece of writing that we completed next.

For this next formal writing assignment, we first had the opportunity to read the graphic novel “Maus”. Throughout the time I was reading I made sure to take lots of notes as we would be completing a literary critique on it afterwards. I decided to focus my writing on the phycological component, allowing me to evaluate and find the hidden meaning into the events that took place. During this, I found it way easier to incorporate quotes from exterior sources as the practice we did prior helped a lot. Unfortunately I did feel my writing was a little rushed despite my attempts at getting it done ahead of time as I was away the week after which is when it was due. Due to this there were grammar mistakes, some places where I added unnecessary citations, and some awkwardly worded sentences. However, with some minor revisions I was able to create an insightful piece of writing. 

Our last task was for the 2024 Spring Exhibiton which you can read more about my visiting that post. However, long story short we presented two projects, one of which was for this humanities project. For the humanities side we were tasked with creating a project based around an upstander of our choice. I decided to make a children’s picture book on Audre Lorde as a way to introduce others to a powerful role model. You can learn more about her by checking out my final product down below!

Overall, I feel I created some very good work in this project. All of the work that I completed shows how we can use multi-modal communication to enhance our ability to humanize and understand complex issues. Throughout the project, we continuously explored storytelling and identified its different styles and impacts. We also utilized various sources to gather factual evidence. These efforts allowed us to witness and connect deeply to the Holocaust, gaining a understanding of its historical significance and the human experiences within it. 

-Makenna