A fresh start to the new year and an even fresher project to go with it. Our first project of of 2021 is tilted The Case for a Nation. This one was led by the Driving question: How can an understanding of nationalism in the past, help us make sense of today? As you can see from the DQ, this project is all about Nationalism and all that comes with it. Living in the time that we currently experiencing, this topic could not be more relevant. With multiple examples around the world, especially the current event happening in the U.S.A., learning about this global symptom is more important than ever.
The learning journey for this project began with a thorough explanation of Nationalism and how we will apply what we learn into our work pieces. Since this project consists of a whopping 10 milestones, I decided that it would be best to reflect on each weeks learning, instead of a final post where I may forget some of the learning. With three solid milestones in the books, I have a fresh POV on how I will get to my end product, both physically and mentally.
Although milestone one was our first big piece of work, when I reflect on what most helped me through the learning process, I realized that our first activity of brainstorming what made up a nation, had really helped me understand the topic at hand. Since we couldn’t learn about nationalism if we didn’t know what a nation was, this activity was crucial in our leaning process. After discovering all of the the possible variables that could define a nation, we were asked to decide which variable could most describe the foundation of a nation. I decided that although most nations often have a common political view, geographical boarders define a nation.
After a personal finalized answer, it was time to gather a another point of view on the topic. For milestone one, we were asked to interview a parent on nationalism and what they think makes up a nation. This process was extremely interesting. To learn what a completely different generation’s point of view and opinion on the topic was quite interesting. I found that my interviewee tended to use examples of nationalism from their past, or from what they learned in school themselves. This exercise helped me understand nationalism in the past, which was a huge step forward to answering the final question.
By milestone two we had begun to dive into the twisted history of nationalism around the world. We were introduced to the topic by participating in a short activity. For it, we exhibited five different nations that where changed by nationalism. After briefly learning about all five nations, I decided that I would choose Italy. Since one of our previous projects was about The Renaissance, which I found very interesting, I thought that this country could hold some pretty fascinating information. We were then asked to create the KNOW YOUR STORY tab in this years FILM PLANNER. This was the milestone aspect of this step in the process. Other than more in-depth research on nationalism in Italy, we were asked to create a structured story on how nationalism changed Italy as a whole. For this part I was glad I picked Italy. I guess the teacher pick the country for a reason, but the amount nationalism changed Italy was transformative. In the KYS tab there were four questions we needed to answer. We were asked to find the purpose, message, and audience of the story. We were also asked to list our sources for info in MLA format at the bottom of the page, which ended up to be useful for our end of the week video.
This milestone was lead by three competencies:
Enlglish 9
Using Resources / Use Evidence from Various Sources: Have I found diverse sources and evaluated them for their relevance, accuracy, and reliability?
Social Studies 9
Identify Continuity and Change: How are lives and conditions alike over time and how have they changed?
Maker 9
Empowered Learner: How might I use technology to construct knowledge?
I exhibited the Identify continuity and change competency in this milestone by clearly writing what changed and stayed the same throughout the unification of Italy below my story mountain. For the empowered learner competency, I thought that I showed my understanding through a voice note to help deepen my message, which ended up greatly enhancing the piece of work. I also thought that I showed my understanding of the Using Resources competency with the diversity of websites that I used to find the needed information.
Milestone 3 came faster than expected. After a completed Screenplay, and storyboard, our knowledge and extended research was put the test. Although I hadn’t mentioned it, we knew exactly what we were going to be asked to do for our final product right from the get go. For the milestone we used our story or ding and digital skills, as well as the knowledge about our story, to create an animatic. This would answer the question; How significant was nationalism around the world? My answer to this question lay in the many hours of ongoing research as well as the the story. planning process. In Italy, nationalism not only changed the way the country was governed, but united a nation that is still relevant to this day. People are powerful when the unite, and in this example, the love of their nation changed the world.
https://youtu.be/CMxcYP1aLT4
The competencies for milestone three were a smidge different than last’s. The competencies included:
Designing Texts: Have I used writing and design processes to plan, develop, create, and refine engaging and meaningful texts considering purpose, audience, and message?
Social Studies 9
Identify Continuity and Change: How are lives and conditions alike over time and how have they changed?
Maker 9
Empowered Learner: How might I use technology to construct knowledge?
For the designing texts competency, we were assessed on our story and the message it bestowed. Since the Italian confederation holds such a complex history, I needed to extract the most important events and weave them together to create a compelling story. This was an incredibly useful skill to have not only for future projects, but for the rest of my life. Incorporating continuity and change was much easier since I had already planned my main points of focus in our second milestone. I creatively incorporated a modern day historian to reflect on the two questions which made this aspect of the milestone very clear and easy to follow. Using keynote’s full capabilities I used all of my animations to portray movement and to enhance the story as a whole. Although the artwork wasn’t a top priority due to the fact that they were only there to represent an image, I thought that a more detailed drawing would help the director, or cinematographer when shooting each shot. My whole process consisted of many other apps such as iMovie and images to help organize and curate my final video.
Overall this week was a great start to the project. Although, I have created exceptionally good work so far, there is always room to improve and learn. I am exited to fill my head with more knowledge and to learn new things that may just blow me away. Thanks for reading.