The Hamas Israeli War

Anne Koschmider , are you looking for something more focused that what you asked? I thought asking the open-ended question -- What role did nationalism play in the Hamas-Israeli conflict? -- would allow students without prejudicing the response.  

John Vidoli I think you're right - keeping the prompt simple is the way to go. I want to be sure students consider historical context as well as the events unfolding day by day, so maybe I'll go with something like:

What role does nationalism play in the Hamas-Israeli conflict? Be sure to consider current and historical events in your answer. 

Additionally, I'll throw one more article in the mix with this option from Newsela:

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 Curtis Greeley this topic is in itself very complex and my 9th grade students in Big History don't have much background knowledge. I am however selecting articles, chronologies, and videos for AP Human Geography because this is a topic I cover in the curriculum when we discuss nationalism and its role in territorial conflicts.

Wow, nobody can really fathom how tough a topic can be unless they are there.  I can't imagine having taboo topics.  My state (Washington) and district in eastern Washington give me the freedom to tackle anything relevant.  

In New York our world history essays are called Enduring Issues Essays.  Students are given five documents and have to determine an enduring issue (conflict, war, power, technology, impact of ideas, human right violations, etc.) that connect any three of the documents.  After that they are basically writing a modified version of a DBQ where they use the documents to support their ideas.  We were actually worked on one this week in my WHP1750.  Since it was the first one, I gave them the topic that they had to write about which was conflict.  The conclusion is typically where they include a CCOT component.  I was pleased to see that students were actually using current events (Israel - Hamas, Russia - Ukraine, etc.) to expand upon their ideas.  Naturally, it's upsetting that there are events that related to the topic, but from a teacher's perspective, I know how important it is for students to be able to related what we're learning about in history to the world they live in today. Thanks for starting this thread Curt. 

I appreciate you bringing it up, Curtis Greeley 

It's a sensitive subject, of course. And one that teachers and students alike (including myself) in my school community have deep connections to. And not only that. Feel free to disagree with me but I have my doubts that the nuances and context can be adequately covered in a high school lesson, or a week of lessons, or even a unit.

And for all these reasons I'm pretty much leaving it alone. The only way I'm really addressing it - perhaps very inadvertently - is just to check-in with students and ask how they're doing, and how they're families are doing. Sometimes just breaking that silence and checking in, I think, can help. I know it's definitely helped me with colleagues and others just to ask how I'm doing with all of this.

I will say that I think most of the resources folks have posted here seem to do a very good job at avoiding some of the very unfortunate and inflammatory rhetoric we've seen as of late in online spaces and in the news. I'd be very eager to hear more as you go.

It's a tough think to relate what's going on and keep things balanced.  We can't avoid our opinion 100%, but we have to remember kids have to be in school.  They are a captured audience and our free speech isn't the right to preach to a captured audience who can't just walk away.  But with that said, facts are facts and the truth has to be recognized.  A major issues has many truths though and we have to look at the angles and be sure not to take our on feelings too far.  You check in approach is very wise Adam Esrig 

Thinking about this conflict and how to approach it with students, I've leaned on two OER resources -- The Danger of a Single Story and Benedict Anderson's concept of the nation being an "imagined community" -- as a way of understanding the conflict. I'm wondering if other teachers had success using these concepts as a way to frame the discussion and develop student thinking of a complex issue.

 Curtis Greeley Anne Koschmider Bryan Dibble Todd Nussen Adam Esrig 

Hi John Vidoli  I'm certainly not touching it the war in my classroom. If anything I try to subtly discuss this in the context of the human story - in BHP and WHP that we're all homo sapiens made up of the same genetic and biological material - and that the differences between us are conceived by humans making choices to construct national identities. I hope in some small ways this brings more students together rather than driving us apart. It sounds like with the Danger of the Single Story and Imagined Communities you  are taking a similar angle and I  think that's the right one. 

There have been some assertions in my school community that the conflict is "not that complicated" and that we should be "teaching Palestine by just presenting the facts. " I couldn't disagree more. For me, there are too many competing narratives at play here, and they're all fraught with emotion and speak to our very identities. This is not just the case for my students - many of whom are Palestinian and come from other Arab countries - but also for me as I have a lot of family in Israel. For that reason I am very much continuing on with Origins Era 4. I hope that by simply sticking to great social studies instruction that my students will aquire the skills they need to accurately and thoughtfully analyze world events like this for themselves. 

Adam Esrig , I am fortunate, in a way, that discussions around this conflict is a lot less fraught at my school. This gives me some more latitude in having discussions. I agree with the approach you are taking. Helping students see the humanity of those on the other side would seem to be a prime responsibility. Maybe it's a way for students to examine those many competing narratives without planting a flag, as it were, on a position.