Week Eleven - Beginning the study of conflict and genocide

This Week

On Monday most students presented their creative projects for the greatest achievements of the 20th century. Many of the presentations were very engaging and presented the information in a creative way. Special shout-outs go to Maddie and Starr for their creative writing pieces, which were very well-written. Nice work!

This week we also began our next unit on the study of conflicts and genocides of the 20th century. This is obviously a difficult topic, so I would ask that you please communicate with your son or daughter at home and ask them how they're processing the subject matter and alert me of any issues or concerns I should know about. We study the 8 Stages of Genocide as a way to systematically study the process of how and why genocides happen. If you're interested in learning more about this framework for understanding genocide, please click here for a PDF of the 8 Stages of Genocide and discuss this subject with your son or daughter. Right now we are in the middle of studying the Armenian Genocide.

One video we started in class on Tuesday (but didn't have time to watch as much of it as I would have liked) was the reproduction of Stanley Milgram's classic experiments on obedience. We discussed how these experiments helped show that genocide can happen anywhere and be carried out by people everywhere in the world if it is not stopped in its early stages. You can watch more about these experiments below:

 

Upcoming Week

Next week we will be continuing our study of the Armenian Genocide and then moving on to studying the Holocaust. Students are creating Prezis that track their journey through understanding genocide from a societal perspective as well as its legal evolution over the course of the 20th century, so you can ask them to show you their Prezis at home, which they should be working on this weekend (if they did not finish the assignment today in class).

We will also have our second Western European countries quiz, which students can practice for here. 

Since this is a new unit, we also have a new Conflict and Genocide Assignments Tracker.

Things to put on the calendar

Field trip to the USAF Museum is on Tuesday, November 25th. Students who are on free or reduced lunch will pay whatever they normally pay (or do not pay) for a boxed lunch. Others should pay $4.75. Please turn in this money by next Friday, October 31st. I'm still looking for about 3 parents chaperone volunteers, so if you're interested please email me at arch.grieve@wright.edu.

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve