Canada, a nation of pride and acceptance. A country looked upon by the world as a safe haven of stability, peace, and a powerful identity. However, Canada wasn’t always this way. There was a time when we didn’t have our own identity, when we were merely an extension of Britain. This was how things were for many years, until one fateful event that changed everything, one fateful event that made us Canadians. Of course, I’m talking about World War One. Over the past 5 months, we have been working on a unit that has taken us across Canada (literally) to learn about our history in the Great War and how our independence grew from it. If you want to learn the answer to our driving question, “How did World War One Impact Canadian Identity?” then read on.
So What Happened?
Before getting into what we did during our unit, it would be a good idea to explain what exactly happened during the First World War. It all began when Austria-Hungary and Serbia went to war when the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a Serbian terrorist group. During this time many countries around them had made alliances which obligated them to help in a war effort, which was what caused so many other nations to be brought into the conflict. Although the assassination was the spark which lit the war’s fire, it had been building up for several years due to weak governments and economic pressures. Later countries such as France and Britain joined as the conflict became more heated. At first mobile invasion was common, but soon the effort devolved into trench warfare and a bloody standoff began. The war went on for over 4 years and claimed over 37 million casualties overall, ending with no true winners.
Map I Drew Outlining the Alliances of the War
Canada first entered the war when Britain did, for it was part of the Commonwealth and was still loyal to the Crown. Although the response was mixed as the French didn’t feel they were loyal to Britain, many British men decided to sign up seeing it as a call for adventure. This lead to 32,665 men arriving in Valcartier Training camp in Quebec a month after the war broke out which is labeled as “Canada’s Answer”. Now in the beginning, Canada was a mere extension of Britain; their abilities widely unknown. However, the Canadians soon proved themselves to be a fierce force that could endure what other armies couldn’t. They worked hard and struck harder, and became known as the Shock troops of the British Military. After first seeing action in the Second Battle of Ypres, the Canadians built up their reputation in bloody fights such as the Battle of the Somme and Passchendaele. However, the biggest Canadian victory was at Vimy Ridge, when the Canadians claimed a strategically important Ridge captured by the Germans which the French failed to capture multiple times.
The Canadian National War Memorial – Designed after the Canadian Vimy Ridge Monument
Throughout the war, Canadians became well known. They broke free from the shadow of Britain and waved our flag of independence and strength. Over 600,000 Canadians ended up serving throughout the conflict. They showed the world that we are hard workers, that we are our own nation. This conflict also brought forth the role of women in the workplace and politics, and changed the Government greatly. The role of Canada in WWI is not a small one, but sometimes forgotten. We would not be the open, thriving country we are today without this conflict. So if you were wondering how WWI shaped Canada’s Identity, well here is your answer.
A Video We Watched Explaining Canada’s Role in WW1
Our Unit
Our unit began shortly after winter break with the analysis of a political cartoon. It was of a line of figures, each threatening the one before him to not hurt the one after him. Upon examination, we saw that each figure represented a country who was fighting in the war. It began with Serbia and Austria-Hungary, the first countries to declare war on each other. After this came Russia and Germany, and later on France and Britain. This was a good way for us to understand who was fighting in the war, and what their involvement was. After this we looked at a map of pre-war Europe which shocked me for how different it was. This was when I got my first inclination of massive effect that WWI had. It also left me with quite a few questions such as who the main powers ended up being later in the war and how did the war affect the people who weren’t fighting?
The Political Cartoon – The Domino Effect
At this point spring break was right around the corner, so we had to put our unit on hold. However this didn’t mean we would forget about it, and were given the choice to read one of three World War One books on our iPads during the breaks. The choices were War Horse, a story from a horse’s perspective that explores perspectives from both allies and enemies, Generals Die in Bed, a realistic journal-like approach to explaining the events of WWI, and Private Peaceful, the story of a family affected by war and the relationships that ensue. I first chose to read Generals, but after liking it so much I decided to read the other two as well. Once we got back, we were tasked with creating a book report of choice style, and I chose to draw a picture (see below). It is a scene from Private Peaceful (click here if you want to plot description and are okay with spoilers) that depicts a moment that I felt was still, like time had stopped and would be perfect to translate to a picture.
My Picture
Soon after this however, our unit was interrupted once again but this time it was for educational purposes. It was time for us to embark on our second trip of the year, in which we would be going to Ottawa! Our class got an amazing opportunity to go with the program Encounters with Canada, a group giving Canadian youth amazing experiences to learn about their country. Each week they hold a different theme, and for when we went it was focused around the battle of Vimy Ridge. Because of this, we got great opportunities such as visiting the Canadian War Museum and talking to Canadian veterans. I even got to play the Last Post at Beechwood Cemetery, resting place of the fallen from WWI. If you are interested in learning more about this amazing trip, click here.
Visiting Ottawa
Once we got back, we hadn’t only learned about World War One in our minds, but also in our hearts. I don’t think we would have understood it to the extent we do now without going on that trip. At this point, we solidified our knowledge through a few videos and worksheets, and then moved onto a new task. We were given a graphic novel to read known as Shattered Ground, which followed four men from different walks of life as they navigated the turmoil of the war. It was accessed on a website, which also added some interesting features such as pictures of the real war you could toggle and hidden dog tags to find. We were asked after each chapter to record what had happened and what we had learned. Overall, I found the book to gloss over many important events, but it was still a good read. It was also important that we read this for it made an excellent segue into…
Our Comic Book
One thing I like about PLP is the opportunity to share our work with real audiences. So far we have gotten to present mainly to adults at our exhibitions and on our blogs, but now we were also given the unique opportunity to present to children. For our final project of this unit, it was our jobs to create a comic about a topic in WWI we found interesting, and create it in a format which we could present to grade six and seven students at Cove Cliff Elementary. Our project goal was to put all of our comics together to create a full book. We started off by choosing our topics, which could be battles, a field of technology, a social change, or other. I chose a topic that particularly interested me, which is a strange condition that emerged in WWI known as Shell Shock. This early diagnosis of PTSD was the first look into modern psychology, and still isn’t fully understood to this day.
The Documentary on Shell Shock
To begin my project, I first needed to research my topic. One thing I find can be a problem with self guided research is delving right in without understand the basics enough, so I thought a good way to start would be watching a documentary video on the condition. This was how I came to understand the facts on my topic as well as the timeline around it. After this I read some articles and talked to my parents (who are medical professionals), and took lots of notes. When it was time to hand in our first research check-in, I not only had lots to work with for notes, but also pictures and some sentences which would be good to use in my comic.
My Research
Once my research was complete, it was time to get to work constructing my comic. For our book, the class would be using the app Comic Life, but I chose to use Keynote as well to create the backgrounds. I decided it would be a good idea to create the backgrounds and title first because it would set up the feel for the rest of the book. I decided to give it a dark, broken feel with cracked foggy backgrounds and a shattered title. I extended this theme into the pictures in the comic giving them them a flashback comic book filter and stone frames. The next part to our books was to write a short story about a person who relates to your topic in some way. For this, I chose to write about a man I first heard about in the documentary I watched, Harry Farr. He was killed by firing squad for being charged of cowardice although he actually had Shell Shock. This story impacted me because it revealed the danger of this condition did not lie as much within it, but rather how other’s perceived it. Once I finished my story, my first comic draft was ready.
My Comic First Draft
Unfortunately my Comic Life app was not working when we had our first peer critique session, but later I was able to get some good feedback from our teacher Ms Maxwell. Overall my comic was good but it needed more consistency between pages. I fixed this by making all of the backdrops the same and the title more uniform with the rest of the theme. I also had to make sure the spacing of the boxes filled up the right amount of space. With these revisions I was able to move on to my final draft and prepare my book for the upcoming presentation.
My Comic Final Draft
On the day of our presentation, we left the school around 10:30 am and walked down towards Cove Cliff Elementary. Once we arrived, we were each given a group to work with made up of four kids. During the course of 10 minutes, we would present our comics along with answer questions and inform about our unit. We would then switch groups and repeat this process two more times. On paper, this seemed like an easy task, but in reality it was more complicated than imagined. For one holding a group of four kid’s attention in a topic they may or may not be interested in is a challenge. I was able to solve this by asking continuous questions about what I was saying to keep them engaged. Another issue is making sure you can meet, but not exceed the time limit for presenting. Most of the presentations were under, so a lot of quick thinking had to be done to come up with topics to focus on for the remaining minutes. Overall, I felt like my presentations were a success because not only did I do a good job presenting my learning, but was also able to teach it to others.
Me Presenting at Cove Cliff
What did I Learn?
Throughout the course of this unit, I learned a lot about Canadian Identity and how what was, impacts what is. Before we started, I was under the impression that Canada was rather uninvolved through many historical events, but I soon come to see this wasn’t the case. To this day, Canadians are remembered for their brave and tireless efforts in the war across the world and not just in Canada. As I mentioned earlier, I also now understand how World War One impacted Canada’s social structure, economics, and government. This was the time that we proved our worth in the world stage to begin the legacy of the nation we know today. As said by a veteran who fought at Vimy Ridge:
Now that we have finished the WWI unit, we are moving onto something new; the impact of Louis Riel. This unit will have many of the same aspects as our previous one, and I feel I could apply some of the things I learned to it. One is the importance of knowing your audience. When creating my comic, I always kept in mind I would presenting to children and kept what I was saying concise and easy to understand. Whoever we shall be sharing our next project with will influence how we create it. I also learned the importance of experiences that empower learning and how reading something is typically not enough to fully understand a topic. I will definitely remember this during Blue Sky where I plan to talk to more than one interview source and test my product in the outdoors. This also would tie into our exhibition which will be a lot more effective upon having interactive elements.