D97-Julian 8th Grade Social Studies with Mr. Kannan: Exploring the Holocaust Through the Online Learning Environment: The Ultimate Validation of Voice

The question that has always plagued me in teaching the Holocaust is where to find hope. It's a rare and precious quality, in general. Yet, in the Holocaust, it's so very difficult to find. One answer has come in the form of what we are undertaking this week.
There are so many implications in the Holocaust. It embodies "interdisciplinary" study. Inquiry into the field of literature, poetry, art, philosophy, religion, writing, communication, as well as cinematic and lexical understandings are all a part of the unit. It is so difficult to devote one day to each topic. Even then, not everything will be covered and more voice goes away. It is in this light where I have decided to explore the Holocaust with the students through the Edmodo learning environment. Below is a letter that is going home to all parents and guardians about what we are doing. I invite you to communicate with me if you have any further questions. Many thanks for all of your (hopeful) support in the validation of voice in the Holocaust, the ultimate act of resistance.

April_____, 2014

To the Parents/ Guardians of _______________________:

I hope this message finds you well. The purpose of this letter is to inform you of a component in our study of the Holocaust. As students have received their final packet of the year, we will be approaching this unit a bit differently than previous units.

Our study of the Holocaust will be driven through an online learning environment. We are going to engage our discussion of Holocaust concepts using the Edmodo social learning platform. There were several reasons behind this. The first was that the month of May finds us losing instructional time due to various activities. MAP Testing, Field Trip obligations, as well as other items that traditionally emerge in May make it difficult to plan on an entire month of pure instruction time. Our topic of study in the Holocaust will take on different forms, embracing the fields of history, art, cinema, philosophy, poetry, and sociology. Seeking to address all of these varied fields in a traditional lecture format will be difficult, to say the least. The challenge that we find in traditional format is that not everyone gets the chance to speak and articulate voice on so many intense topics. At the same time, in seeking to cover so much ground, I fear we will lose the voice of the students, which should be the most important element in this topic. It is the maximizing of voice that should drive all learning experiences, especially one with so much importance in it.

Using Edmodo to facilitate the course of study in our unit will help address these arduous demands. Students have been instructed on the log in process and have seen (or will experience) the edmodo online learning forum. I have constructed 30 discussion topics on different aspects of the Holocaust. I am asking students to have posted 45 comments by May 14. There should be at least one comment in every topic featured. This will ensure student voice substantiated with thoughtful analysis. Each comment must include some type of support that clearly expresses individual thought. It will also enable students to differentiate their own learning experience. Students can pick what they wish to comment on and can design their own learning experience in the edmodo forum. For each comment they post, I am asking students to keep a hard copy log of when they posted their comment and in what forum they posted it. On this log will be a quick reflective analysis of their post. I envision this experience as akin to voyaging to a museum of the Holocaust. We will let the silence speak, and allow our voices to be integrated in it.

We will be using iPads in the classroom to facilitate the posting process. Using the edmodo app might prove to be a bit more efficient and the hope in using the iPads will be a quicker response and posting time in comments. Naturally, we are prepared if “the technology does not work.” Should this be the case, we will revert to our packets and engage in a specific analysis. Students are reminded to be diligent and responsible with the technology, as it will play a critical role in facilitating both their intellectual production and academic product of a letter grade for this unit.

The topics selected provide an intellectual and emotional understanding of the Holocaust and implications that extend from it. I designed each topic with our students in mind. There are some close reading passages from Elie Wiesel’s Night, something that students should have experienced in their Language Arts classes. Additionally, some of the topics ask students to analyze different settings in which themes from the Holocaust are evident. I concede that the subject matter is difficult. Yet, I pledge that each topic in the Edmodo learning environment is crafted with a sensitivity that will guide our students to get them to post insights into their understanding of the significance of the Holocaust on political and personal levels. I am fully aware that some of our students are not comfortable with the topic matter. Very few human beings are. Yet, I would ask your help in assisting our students to confront the very worst of human action in order to recognize how to make the future better. We have sojourned through so many fields of sadness this year. The mournful procession that is the human predicament in American History has been one very long and sad parade. Students have faced these sad realities with a sense of honor and strength throughout the year. I ask for one last moment in which they are able to confront that which happened in the hopes of being active agents in preventing it from happening again on personal and social levels. I ask that you ask your student, your emerging scholar, about their posts and what they felt about what was featured.

Students will not have any additional work other than making sure they are able to generate their 45 posts over the two- week period. Students can post outside of class, as well. We have discussed the rules of online posting and etiquette. I have also told students that I will be monitoring discussions and will communicate with them privately if their comments need reorientation. I will try my best to facilitate discussion and not add too much to it. I shall fight this temptation because the subject matter always generates more questions than answers. It is my deepest of hopes that the use of the online learning environment can be about the kids and their voices. I will do my best to pledge such loyalty towards that end.

As this will be the last time I write to both you and them this year, I wanted to thank all of you for the opportunity to teach your students. It has been a singular privilege to guide them through the portal of joy, pain, hurt, and elation that is American History. I don’t think a teacher could have been happier with much of the work and commitment that your children showed towards Social Studies this year. I know that I have been made better with their presence and that Julian will miss them as they leave. For many of our students, these hallways and this classroom were made better with them in it. As we engage in our last course of study, please encourage me one last time to help your students advance further along the path of scholarship. As nostalgia is meant to cause a twinge in one’s heart, I anticipate experiencing this sweet pain one more time in seeing our students post their thoughts about the time period of the Holocaust.

If I can be of any further help or assistance, please initiate contact with me.

All best.

Ashley A. Kannan

Email: akannan@op97.org

Assignments for this week:

Monday: