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was to navigate through discrepancies and incon sistencies, especially those related to the number of victims of the Great Famine. Resolving these dis crepancies often required making decisions that proved controversial. Pedagogical challenges included selection of accurate and age-related materials for high school students and utilizing these materials to create activities and exercises that would involve higher order thinking skills that met specific Pennsylvania standards in reading, writing, and mathematics as well as federally mandated standards dictated by No Child Left Behind legislation. Logistical challenges included time con straints and geographic constraints. Ms. Shwed and Mr. Mirchuk live 150 miles away from project leader Vera Bej and all three hold full-time jobs, a situation that necessitated all three to commit themselves to many hours of travel. Most of the project meetings took place at Ms. Bej’s home in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania; a few meetings were held at Philadelphia’s Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center, which houses the Ukrainian Heritage School. Despite these challenges, the project was completed, shaped and chiseled to accommodate historical fact, pedagogical standards, art, tech nology, and the age of the target student audience. The infrastructure of the completed work is interdisciplinary—content and activities encompass not only social studies but geography, literature, art, and mathematics. The project content, which begins with general explanations of the concept of genocide by scholars Lemkin and Huttenbach, is followed by a concise history of the 1932-1933 Holodomor with a more detailed explanation of the tragedy through a series of most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and answers. The entire work, from introductory materials to student exercises and activities, follows Bloom’s Taxonomy, a peda gogical model that subdivides learning into a complex multilevel experience ranging from basic informational questions through a progression of five levels of higher order critical thinking skills, a fundamental component of PDE’s educational approach. The work includes first-hand accounts of the Holodomor, maps, art, a poem, statistical data, and extracts from official documents and literary works. There is a glossary, a list of reference sources, a bibliography, and a CD that includes a PowerPoint presentation (prepared by Ms. Shwed) that provides data on other genocides and also includes a sampling of Ukrainian music. Although the main thrust of the project was to familiarize the end user with the Genocide Famine in Ukraine, there are references and comparisons to other 20th- century genocides. The book’s cover, for example (by political cartoonist Ed Stein), depicts a graveyard filled with tombstones—each labeled with the name of ethnic or national groups that were the victims of genocide and the dates of the atrocities. Once UCCA had solicited and obtained the funds needed for publication, the project was ready for distribution. PDE Director of Social Studies Jeff Zeiders wrote a supportive cover letter addressed to each school district superintendent in Pennsylvania, and copies of the book were mailed to all 500 school districts at the end of November 2007. To date, 12 districts have responded with praise for the project or requests for permission to duplicate books for individual students. There are tentative plans to distribute the book to Pennsylvania charter and diocesan schools. While the success of this project is not predetermined or guaranteed, the initial response from school district superintendents in the Com monwealth of Pennsylvania is auspicious. So is an unanticipated communique from a retired science teacher from North Carolina. Although not of Ukrainian descent, this gentleman became inter ested in the Holodomor through a circuitous route, and has made it his personal mission to ensure that the project created for inclusion in the curriculum of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania becomes a part of the curriculum of the North Carolina system of education. He and Vera Bej have already joined forces and are working to make this happen. —Tamara Stadnychenko
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