We’ve just finished our unit on World War 1, which is a topic I knew almost nothing about before this past couple months. There were several stages to this project, and it ended with this video I created about Franz Ferdinand. But, before I explain that, I’ll have to go back and explain the process it took for me to create this video. 

One of the first things we did was do some preliminary research, looking at some quotes, newspapers, and research documents, including the projects that last year’s Grade 9s created. They were really interesting, especially since we would be repeating some of the topics. 

However, after a little more research, I had a different topic in mind. The topic of Franz Ferdinand is incredibly interesting, and I thought that I could show and explain how the death of Franz Ferdinand led to WW1. 

Once I had chosen my topic, I had to do even more research on it. Once I had completed my research, the next step was to choose what my video would look like.

Originally, I wanted to have my video be completely animation, but when I started to write the screenplay (my favourite part!) I decided I could do the story more justice by using a Crash Course format. This meant that I would film myself sitting down and talking, then cut to animations I had created. This was all included in the screenplay, which featured lots of directions about what animations I would be seeing. 

After I had written the screenplay, it was time for the storyboard. I decided to include multiple angles for my sitting down scenes, and several images and animations that I created in Keynote. 

Then, it was time to film. I created a set inspired by the set in the Crash Course videos. I used several props, such as a globe, set of books, and a world map. I made sure that I had plenty of lights facing my set, so that my lighting looked great. 

The next step in the process was editing. I created two drafts. In the first one, my audio was inconsistent, which is the main thing I changed for my second draft, which was the video at the top of this blog post. 

After I completed the final draft, it was time for the presentation! We visited Cove Cliff Elementary, the local elementary school. We showed groups of 2-5 Grade 7 and 6 students our videos.

 

 

 

We also gave them quizzes that asked simple comprehension questions about our videos, such as ‘What country was Franz Ferdinand from?’ (Answer: Austria-Hungary!) Feel free to answer the quiz questions in this blog post’s comments! 

I really enjoyed creating this video, and I think it is one of the best I’ve done all year. The challenge of creating a video that 11 and 12 year olds would enjoy, and also learn something from, was a really fun thing to structure a video around. 

However, creating this video wasn’t the only thing we did this unit. We also completed a Novel Study. I chose to read Generals Die In Bed, a book written about WW1 in 1930 by someone who served in WW1. We split it into four parts, and after reading a part of it, we did a reflection. We also did a creative reflection after reading the whole book. I created a set of photos that I thought would be important to the main character of Generals Die In Bed. Spoilers! 

I think that this unit helped me learn a lot about WW1, especially since I knew almost nothing about it before, and I hope that I helped some Grade 7s learn about it as well!

Thanks for reading my blog post!