Recently, we completed our last humanities project, entitled Cat and MAUS. This project had a focus on the Holocaust and using various forms of media to learn about it.
We began with a free write exercise on why we think stories are an effective way to learn. In this, we began to think about substantiating our writing and using MLA citations. Next, we read through a sheet about the history of Antisemitism. It ended with a short reflection about the importance of learning the history of Antisemitism.
To continue our Holocaust studies, we read an article called “The Holocaust in Pictures.” This article had original pictures from the Holocaust, depicting the harsh and harrowing realities of our history. After reading the article, we wrote a reflection paragraph. Mine was responding to the prompt, “why did the creator of this text choose to include so many pictures?”
To further our understanding, we watched videos of testimonies of Holocaust survivors. We wrote some key takeaways, which I already had covered a bit in my Zettlekasten system, learned in Fear Factor. To help continue our substantiating activities, we wrote another reflection paragraph.
We had Esther Clarke come in to talk about her family’s experience in the Holocaust, which was extremely impactful to hear about in person.
Our investigation 1 was an essay reflection on all the multi-media learning we did. We had to write about the importance of learning about Antisemitism alongside reflecting about what learning impacted you the most. I wrote about the in-person storytelling and testimonies we watched.
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Our class had a field trip to the Holocaust symposium at UBC, which featured several speakers, including a history professor, a filmmaker, and a Holocaust survivor. I think it was extremely important and impactful to hear the actual spoken testimony of someone who lived through such a horrific event, especially considering we are the last generation to do so.
Another big part of the project was in the title itself. We read the Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel, Maus. The goal was to write a literary criticism essay on a certain aspect of the book. I wanted to challenge myself, so I picked the compare/contrast aspect with another book. The second book was called Belonging by Nora Krug. It was a multi-media, autobiographical, style book written by a German author, about her experience discovering her family’s history. This was a similar theme to Maus, as both authors were recording their family’s history and involvement in the Holocaust.
Reading these two perspectives was extremely eye-opening to the issues of the Holocaust. I feel as I got a more holistic understanding of the family effects of such a horrific event as compared to my peers who only read Maus.
I was able to compare and contrast these two book together, and create a literary critique essay. After several revisions, I wrote this:
Conclusion
In this project, we had a driving question of, “How can multi-modal communication enhance our ability to humanize and understand complex issues?”
I believe that using many forms of media to create my understanding of the Holocaust was very important. With a combination of stories, videos, testimony, articles, and more, I was able to consider different perspectives and see just some of the faces affected by the Holocaust. This was extremely helpful in humanizing such a massive number, that I otherwise couldn’t comprehend.
Thank you for reading my post, and stay tuned for the exhibition post coming shortly!
Sincerely,
Me
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