Speyer Eighth Graders Explore World War I with Research, Remarque, and Poetry

A few days before Winter Break, our eighth graders were joined on Zoom by their parents, teachers, and Speyer administration as they presented the final project for their World War I unit. During this unit of study, they explored World War I through three lenses: through the creation of extensive  study guides to discuss the historical events leading up to, during, and after the war; by reading the classic novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque; and via the reading and analysis of World War I poetry. 

The unit was condensed and concentrated, with the students only having  three weeks to accomplish all of this. During this immersion into the study of World War I, they considered which of these different assignments tells the story of war best and which tells the truth of war best...and what the difference of those two questions means. 

During the Zoom concert of poetry, our eighth graders presented  27 works that were selected and rehearsed by the students. Each was tasked to choose a poem that spoke the truth to them. From Spring Offensive by Wilfred Owen to Suicide in the Trenches by Siegfred Sassoon to Gethsemane by Rudyard Kipling, the poems were varied, intense, and heavy. You can read all of the poems they selected here.

It was evident that our eighth graders came out of this unit with a clearer understanding and a visceral sense of what war is, why it never should be, and how it is their job to lead the world to other ways of resolving difficulties.