Recently in humanities we have been looking at Vancouver’s history. And not only the dates type history but how it got to where it is today and the differing experiences that people had along the way. And what a better way to start of this unit then going to the Museum of Vancouver where an exhibition on the emergence of Vancouver was going on. Going to the museum I found it very interesting and got lots of inspiration from it since their was a project that was soon to be revealed.

The following day we found out that we were creating Podcasts. This would be over a seven week time period and we would be in groups assigned to a certain topic. I was in a group with  Robbie, Ruby and Hannah. We were given Human rights as our topic. As soon as I found this out I was super excited to do Human Rights because I have always been interested in people, having strong opinions about this topic.

We were then assigned books to help us understand our topics more. My group read Persepolis, a graphic novel about a girl in Iran and her life. This was a very interesting story and it made me see just how diverse people are. To show that we understood all of this we had to write Reading Responses, here are mine:

At this point we then finished Persepolis before the assigned time, so we started a new book. It is called the Bite of the Mango and is absolutely amazing. It is about a girl living in Sierra Leone and her experience. I found this book very moving and it made me great full for what I have.

All whilst we were reading these great books we were also looking at the roaring twenties. In our previous unit we had been looking at World War One, so it was interesting to see the similarities and differences between the two. Especially since so much happened in the 20’s whether it was good or bad.

The Great Depression, some women being able to vote and much more. But since we live in Vancouver and this whole unit was about Vancouver we were assigned to find a popular area or place in Vancouver and make a video about it. You can read all about this in my previous blog post.

#history week 2017

This was all leading up to and helping us learn about Vancouver and creating our podcasts. That’s when we (my group) decided that we wanted our human rights/ Vancouver podcast to be about homelessness. The reason for that is I heard on the radio that their was an issue going on in Marlowe Vancouver where there was a homeless shelter being built across the street from an elementary school. I thought that this wasn’t right and that it shouldn’t be an issue, so my group got talking and that’s how we ended up with homelessness.

As as a class we had previously been listening to podcast because throughout the hole school year we will be doing podcasts, so we all felt that we could succeed doing this assignment. We started off with a script that was then critiqued by our teacher.

 

Once that was revised it was then time to start recording! Hannah got an interview with a nurse who volunteers at a shelter. We decided to kind of revolve our podcast around that in a round table discussion. Here is our first draft:

We then knew that we had somethings that needed fixing and so it was time for our second draft.

Revision comments:

‘Hannah, Isobel, Robbie, Ruby
-such a cool intro – after the different voices, I suggest more of an introduction of what you will be talking about, who you are, instead of just going into the numbers, you lose the listener slightly at that point etc.
-Good music in the background in the beginning
-good introduction of an issue that you will be talking about – need to mention quickly though the connection between homelessness and the shelter that is being built “one way the city of Vancouver is trying to solve our Homelessness issue ….etc.
-Hannah’s voice at 1:34 needs to be turned up
-Introduce debate, rather than just going into Robbie’s voice, introduce as well why this is controversial and then go into it
-I want to know who’s voices these are – “even we have varying opinions on this issue – just like the people in the neighborhood”
-Ruby – great voice in this, conversational, natural
-good round table discussion skills
– “ is this risk as great as the need” line
-good introduction to interviewee
-Hannah – re record questions, you sound very awkward – you’re talking too slowly
-great interview – talks about housing, issues, etc. I like this
-you could potentially break up this interview a bit – interact with it, engage with what she’s saying. Talk about each issue that she talks about
-weird silence at 7 min 50 sec.
-doesn’t work to go right back into debate …
-I like your concluding statements, but we need more of a conclusion – wrap up – restatement of thesis etc.’

We then took all of those comments into account and made our second draft:

Finally it was time for our third and final draft!

Overall we were all proud of the podcast that we managed to create in the end. And though their are a few things we could have done better (time management) as group we did work fairly well together by the end.

That’s not the end of this unit though because we then individually had to write a 500 word essay to Terry Beech, the MP of North Vancouver. We each had two classes to finish and hand in this later which had to do with our main idea from the podcast group.

Than the final step to this entire unit was within our groups to create one individual letter that we will then send to Terry Beech.

During this whole project we were also taking pictures and recording so that we could show what we put into the project. So here is my video:

 

Overall this has been a really interesting topic to learn about. A lot of the things that I was taught I didn’t know before this point. This unit also taught me how important it is to simply not judge people. And as for the work that we completed I am proud of both the letter and the podcast.

So until next time, bye for now!