In my upcoming practicum, I will be teaching Art Spiegleman’s graphic novel, Maus. Unlike many graphic novels which often focus on fantasy, Maus is a novel in which the author, Spiegleman, retells his father’s story as a Holocaust survivor. Given the delicate nature of the subject and the fact that it will be taught to a grade nine class with little prior knowledge of the Holocaust, it is of the utmost importance to teach the novel in a thoughtful and constructive manner. As such, my project aims to explore which methods and strategies are most effective for teaching the Holocaust so that students not only understand the social, political, and religious conditions which lead to the atrocity, but also the key themes of discrimination, survival, and family. (There are more themes, but for simplicity…) Additional issues that need to be explored include ways in which to present historical material: emotionally, or factually, as well as which supplementary materials to include.
In order to explore this issue, I intend to read and review a number of scholarly articles and book chapters which focus specifically on teaching Holocaust literature. Through this research I hope to create a theoretical and practical framework for a successful unit plan, which will include lesson examples to demonstrate the shift from theory to praxis. In all likelihood, the research will show that successful teaching of the Holocaust through literature requires incorporating additional first-person literary accounts, film, primary documents and artifacts, as well as survivor testimony, if available.
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