Oriana Packer teaches college prep freshman English and honors junior language and composition at Brockton High School in Brockton, Mass. Her junior class completed the IWitness Video Challenge, which asks students to create videos showing how they were inspired by testimony to create positive change in their communities.

What attracted you to IWitness? Why did you want to use it in your classroom?

I center my junior English class around the themes of social action and advocacy.  When I heard about the IWitness video challenge I was intrigued by the focus on social action it offered as well as the opportunity for students to interact with the online program and create their own videos.  The subject matter was a good fit with the objectives of my course, particularly as we transition from learning about social ills and unfair treatment to students taking an active step in solving specific problems in their communities.

How has IWitness influenced how you teach the Holocaust?

As an English teacher, I have never explicitly taught the Holocaust, although I often reference it as an extreme example of what can happen if we don’t take active roles in society by speaking up against unfair situations we encounter.  The IWitness program showed me just how powerful video testimony can be, and I plan to incorporate more firsthand accounts in my classes.

What are the reactions from your students?

Unfortunately, as time passes there is less of an opportunity for young people to learn about the Holocaust firsthand.  The IWitness program allowed students to learn about the Holocaust through video testimony, and many were able to understand the horrors of the Holocaust on a level they were not able to before.  Instead of viewing the Holocaust as a distant point in history or an anomaly which would never occur again, the program allowed my students to view the victims as human beings who had experienced great tragedy and see that this can and did happen, and we need to be proactive in order to make sure it never happens again.

Students really enjoyed creating their own videos, and came up with original links between modern day issues and the Holocaust.

 

Check back on Wednesday for a profile of three of Packer's students, who discuss the impact the IWitness Video Challenge had on them.