In my sophomore world literature courses, we look at a variety of texts through the lens of the roles we ALL play individually and collectively on a daily basis: victim, perpetrator, bystander and upstander or hero. We read Elie Wiesels' Holocaust memoir Night as part of an extensive unit that culminates in a trip to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC. Students research and look at other acts of genocide historical and contemporary as a launching pad to service learning. With the Syrian Refugee Crisis, my students research the roles different countries play and participate in an unofficial Model UN type hearing addressing the complex situation. With the release of Joukhadar's novel The Map of Salt and Stars, they have the opportunity to read a work that will scaffold what they know about the crisis with cartography, history, and cultural context at a much deeper level. When reading narratives based on historical genocides, it's very easy to lose sight of individuals, instead focusing on data and numbers.
Reading a novel based on two young girls' journeys, one 12th century and one in 2010, my students will see not only a loss of a "country" but rather the loss of culture that is one of the oldest in our world; a culture rich in arts, history, cartography, foodways, architecture, landscapes, economies and much more. The intertwining narratives in Joukhadar's novel will help my students understand in a personal way that just as in the Jewish Holocaust, the contemporary Syrian crisis is losing cultural artifacts and history that is as ancient as our world is old. By studying the world map of Muslim cartographer Muhammed al-Idrisi, students will develop understanding of some of the varied and multiple contributions Muslims have made throughout history to cartography, arts, astronomy, geography and others.
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In my sophomore world literature courses, we look at a variety of texts through the lens of the roles we ALL play individually and collectively on a daily basis: victim, perpetrator, bystander and upstander or hero. We read Elie Wiesels' Holocaust memoir Night as part of an extensive unit that culminates in a trip to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC. Students research and look at other acts of genocide historical and contemporary as a launching pad to service learning. With the Syrian Refugee Crisis, my students research the roles different countries play and participate in an unofficial Model UN type hearing addressing the complex situation. With the release of Joukhadar's novel The Map of Salt and Stars, they have the opportunity to read a work that will scaffold what they know about the crisis with cartography, history, and cultural context at a much deeper level. When reading narratives based on historical genocides, it's very easy to lose sight of individuals, instead focusing on data and numbers.
Reading a novel based on two young girls' journeys, one 12th century and one in 2010, my students will see not only a loss of a "country" but rather the loss of culture that is one of the oldest in our world; a culture rich in arts, history, cartography, foodways, architecture, landscapes, economies and much more. The intertwining narratives in Joukhadar's novel will help my students understand in a personal way that just as in the Jewish Holocaust, the contemporary Syrian crisis is losing cultural artifacts and history that is as ancient as our world is old. By studying the world map of Muslim cartographer Muhammed al-Idrisi, students will develop understanding of some of the varied and multiple contributions Muslims have made throughout history to cartography, arts, astronomy, geography and others.
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