WWI, the comic
World War 1 was a brutal, tragic, bloody war. How did it even start? Why do we have to learn about it? Those were questions I had before learning about WWI. This war was very important to the world, and Canadians as well. But how did WWI impact Canada and it’s identity? That’s the question that is driving this project.
We started our project before spring break. Before we dove too deep into WWI before the break, we decided to take it slow, and start with an introduction to the war. We also chose a book tor read over spring break, and the book was about WWI. The book I read was Generals Die in Bed. This book was from the perspective of the author, who is a WWI veteran. It was very interesting to read this book, it was almost like a journal he had been writing was published, because this book was based on a true story with fictional characters.
After spending the break reading this book, we did a report on it. However, it wasn’t just a regular report where we write a paragraph about it. We got to choose what kind of report we would like to do. Although we only had to choose one type of book report, I chose to do two. I decided on the photograph essay and the book soundtrack. For the photo essay, we had to find pictures and link them to the book, with an explanation of why you think the picture represents a part of the book. The book soundtrack was my favourite part of the report. We needed to choose three songs that either represents a scene, or what you think would make the scene more emotional or powerful. This was my favourite because i really love music, and it was very fun to find songs that would represent scenes in the book.
Generals Die In Bed Book Report!
A week after spring break, and also after we completed the book report, we actually went to Ottawa! I have a whole post on the trip, but I will a brief explanation here. My class and i went to Ottawa, and learned baiting the Battle of Vimy Ridge. The Battle of Vimy Ridge was a battle during WWI, in France. In this battle, Canadians conquered all the land of the Ridge, and this battle was a huge part of Canadian history. They went into the battle as Albertans and Nova Scotians, and came out as proud Canadians. Ottawa was one if the best trips I have went on, and I’m very thankful, that I could experience it.
Once we were back from Ottawa, it was time to go heavy in learning about WWI. WWI started with the archduke of Austria-Hungary, Franz Ferdinand. He was assassinated in Sarajevo, which is what everyone believe started the war.
During WWI, there were two sides. The Triple Entente, and the Triple Alliance. Because Great Britain was on the Triple Entente, Canada was automatically on that side as well.
Now that you know a bit more about WWI, we can take a closer look at our project for this unit.
STEP ONE – ASSIGNMENTS
To start our project off, we first did some assignments. One of my favourites was out political drawing. We drew a picture that we think best represented the war, how it started, and the different sides.
Another assignment that we did,mwhuhc was also very fun, was reading a graphic novel called Shattered Ground. This graphic novel was about WWI, using fictional characters but real life events that took place. This book showed the reality of living in WWI, wether it be as a soldier, or a nurse, or any occupation. The reason we read this book was because it was preparing us for our project. This graphic novel was helping us with ideas for our project
STEP TWO – BRAINSTORMING
Before we got too far into the end of WWI, we brainstormed some questions that we had about the war. We came up with as many as we could, and put them all into one big document. We organized them into sections, and we had MANY questions.
We got to pick one question that we would answer. I chose the question ‘What different roles did the different genders have.’ The overall answer we got to that question was that the women became nurses, or worked in factories, and the men were the ones out fighting in the front lines.
STEP THREE – TOPIC
It was time to start the project! The project for this unit was to create a comic, about 4-5 pages long. This comics was on a specific topic, wether it be a battle, or a group of people. Each person did a different topic, and at the end, we put them all together into one big comic book. Now, before I get too ahead, I will start at the beginning.
We had to pick out topic four our comic. There were many different choices, including battle, people, events, and much more. I chose to do my comic on the role of women in WWI.
STEP FOUR – DRAFT
We started off with a first draft. In out images of the comic, there was a title page, which a has a short introduction, 3 pages of comic, and the last page was a story of a specific person that had to do with our topic. My first draft was actually very good. I had barely any feedback in it, which brings me to the next step.
STEP FIVE – CRITIQUE AND FINALIZE
After the first draft was completed, it was time to get critique, from the teacher and my peers. First I got some feedback from my teacher, and it was mostly small details, such as alignment or grammar. After wards, we went around to everyone’s comic, and wrote feedback to them as well. In the pat part of the critique, again, I mostly got small details to fix, and i was very proud of myself.
STEP SIX – PRESENTATION
This comic wasn’t just going to be handed in, we were presenting it to the grade 6’s and 7’s at our local elementary school! Because they know close to nothing about WWI, we had to make sure our comics were simple and easy to understand.
On the day of the presentation, we walked down to the elementary school. Once we got there, we sat down with our first group. The grade 6’s and 7’s were put into groups of 4-5, which meant we did t talk to all of them. We only presented to 3 groups each, so many if the little ones didn’t see everybody’s comic. To the groups that we presented to, we talked about our section of the comic, and some of other people’s comics as well. We also talked bout what they are doing in school, and many other things. After we presented out comic to the first group, we did the same thing to the second and third.
I 
It was so interesting to see these kids who are going into high school soon see what it’s like to be older. They look so excited for their next step in life!!
STEP SEVEN – COMPLETE AND REFLECT
The project is now complete! This project has taught me so many new things, and also strengthened some other skills. I really liked how for the whole project, we had a target audience in mind the whole time. We also got to really improve our presentation skills, and even our people skills. Learning about WWI really helps me see what Canada has done in history, and how we are a proud nation because of that. I am so glad I had the opportunity to learn about WWI, and I am stoked to learn about WWII next year!
laurenf • May 17, 2018