Grade 8 students at Voorheesville Middle School used graffiti to express their emotions in an English lesson that included readings on the Holocaust, the Cuban rafters crisis of 1994 and the Syrian Civil War.
In addition to reading the historical fiction book Refugee by Alan Gratz, which tells the stories of three young refugees, students read articles, watched interviews and documentaries and viewed photos of refugees living in different periods and places. They learned that the Syrian Civil War began when teenage boys graffitied the word “Freedom” on a school wall. As part of the assignments, students created their own graffiti wall with the emotions they felt after reading the stories of the refugee children. Each student chose one word that resonated with them the most and added it to the graffiti wall bulletin board.