Finding Connection Through Graphic Novels: DP1 MAUS Learning Experience
Dani Usher, MYP DP Language and Literature Educator
Sometimes a book becomes more than a book. It becomes a doorway into conversations we might never otherwise have. Over several weeks, the students stepped into MAUS, a story that does not just teach about the Holocaust but invites readers to understand the people behind the history: fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, families trying to survive, and memories that linger long after the danger has passed.
As we read, students were faced with big and complex questions:
How do families hold onto their stories?
Why does trauma shape people long after the worst moments are over?
What does survival really mean?
While many of these questions do not have simple answers, the discussions that followed were thoughtful, emotional, and at times remarkably brave.
Projects with Purpose
At the end of the unit, students chose a project that allowed them to express what MAUS meant to them personally and creatively.
Some students designed their own comic strips, using panels and images to tell meaningful family stories or explore history visually. Others mapped the journeys of Holocaust survivors, tracing real lives through places marked by both fear and resilience.
Another group explored the emotional aftermath of survival, including issues like anxiety, trauma, and rebuilding a life when the world feels uncertain. And some students created newspapers that examined other genocides of the past century, recognizing that injustice and hatred have appeared in many times and places and still require us to speak out.
The Bigger Picture
Through each project, students connected history to humanity. They saw that behind every date and fact are real people. People who loved, feared, dreamed, and persevered, despite their circumstances.
There were moments when the classroom fell silent. There were moments filled with curiosity and even laughter. Again, and again, students showed compassion and empathy for the people in the graphic novel and for one another.
This project was not about perfection. It was about understanding. It was about remembering. It was about honoring stories that must never be forgotten.
I am incredibly proud of our students: their courage, kindness, and the way they listened to voices from history with open hearts and open minds.