Cat vs. Maus: Horrific History of the Holocaust

Funded Apr 22, 2018

I cannot begin to explain how thankful I am for your support this year. Throughout the 2017-2018 school year I was faced with many challenges but the biggest one was differentiating learning for my students. Many of them were English language learners and many of them had disabilities. My honors class also kept me on my toes. I often had to jump from one end of the learning spectrum to the other when preparing my lessons. Regardless, it was a FABULOUS year. Part of the reason why it was so special was because of your support. I was truly touched by the donation.

Maus was a great learning tool for us this year. It had something for everyone which is why I fell in love with it in the first place. Regardless of whether my students were honors or special education, they understood the content and were deeply engaged. The kids were so intrigued with the fact that Art Spiegelman had chosen to portray the Jews as mice and the Germans as cats. We talked about stereotype and German propaganda depicting Jews as rats during WWII. They thought Spiegelman was so clever in creating this visual metaphor. As a result, looking for visual metaphor in the novel became this intriguing scavenger hunt. More than once, did a student call out "Ms., I found another metaphor" in an enthusiastic voice. It became a game for us, which made learning so easy and natural. Lastly, I felt that my students developed a deep attachment to the characters. As ELA educators, one of our primary goals is to help students put themselves in the shoes of our literature characters. We want to help them understand that the human condition is universal.

The last thing that made a huge impression on me was my students' eagerness to devour the book whole. We started analyzing Maus mid June (time was a big issue this year) and because 8th grade students are pulled out for weekly graduation practices, events, and trips , I was anxious about finishing the book on time. About 80% of my students asked me to take the book home and read ahead. Many of them purchased the other 2 volumes on their own and were ecstatic about continuing the visual story. It has always been a dream to work with graphic novels in my classroom. This has been my first experience and it was an overwhelmingly positive one. However, next year, I will definitely like to spend more time on this book. There's so much to do in terms of analysis, discussion, and creative projects. I believe that the 3 weeks I had planned for the book were certainly not enough and I hated feeling rushed. But I suppose teaching is about consistent improvement and constant tweaking.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Kozarska