A matter like Commemoration Day is not always easy to approach, especially with younger students.
Here are some ways to engage your students with this matter:
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Discuss with the students the meaning of home and home country.
Especially in such a multicultural society like the UAE, the concept of home offers a perfect hook for engagement. So called ‘third culture’ kids that you find here in almost every classroom can bring really new perspectives to the matter. How do we define ‘home’? What or who makes us feel at home? Why is somebody proud on his home country? What means home country for children of immigrants or expats?
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Do an activity under the headline: “what can we do for our country”:
In presentations or through acted plays students can think about ways on how THEY can actually do something by themselves. Think about bigger social engagement, charity or environmental actions, but also smaller tasks by reminding them on the very person next to them. How is their neighbor, the old aunty they did not talk to for quite long, or their former class mate who left the school last year? These are ways to help the students understand that they live in a network of connections with other people, that this is what society builds and can make us feel at home anywhere.
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With older students you may consider talking about peace and war.
In a project they could learn more, on how conflicts in our daily life start, how we can prevent them or how to solve them. Talk about forgiveness, about how we can explore other people’s point of view in certain a matter and how to practice tolerance.
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Also with older students one might find a way to talk about what it means to lose a loved one.
How one can one deal with emotions like lost, loneliness, sadness or anger. How do emotions come up? How do we control them or express them, when and with whom?
There are many ways an educator can use a memorial day like the commemoration day and turn them into a lesson for life. Let me know about your experience in addressing such matters!