In the world we are living in today, we are more susceptible to only hearing single stories than ever before. Social media is literally feeding us the version of a story we most want to hear and it is being reinforced again and again.

As Chmamanda Nigozi Adichie explains in her Ted Talk, The Danger of a Single Story, “That is how to create a single story. Show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.” She goes on to say that, “It is impossible to talk about the single story without talking about power...How they are told, who tells them, when they are told, how many stories are told, are really dependent on power. Power is the ability to not just tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person.

One place in history where this can be seen so clearly is in looking at the propaganda campaign that led to the rise of Hitler and to the state sponsored mass murder of millions of Jews. In “Mein Kampf,” Hitler wrote that propaganda “must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.”

We all have stereotypes. Those stereotypes lead us to tell a single story about a group of people or an event. When given choices to take action, we then act on this single story that is built on stereotyping. The structure of media in the 21st century is such that media bias and confirmation bias make it likely that our single story will continue to get reinforced through our media consumption. Learning to challenge our stereotypes and our single story helps all of us to engage with more empathy and to search for a common truth.

This studio will give us an opportunity to learn about the danger of a single story as it unfolded in the lives of the Jewish people before and during the Holocaust.

In this studio we will work to develop competencies in literacy, which is the comprehension of written, spoken, and watched mediums of communication. We will also develop writing and communicating skills.

Use the competency guide to direct your learning.

ELA 1 - Critical Reading

ELA 2 - Writing Effectively

ELA 3 - Collaborative Discussion

ELA 4 - Research

Summary

Assignment #1, #2, #3

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Assignment #4, Discussion Performance Task #1 and #2

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Assignment #5 and Reading Performance Task #1

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Assignment #6, #7, #8, #9 and Reading Performance Task #2

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Assignment #10 and #11, Research Performance Task. Assignment #12, #13, #14, Writing Performance Task Assignment #15 and #16