Save Juno Beach (Reflection)

Cover Art By Sylas K
Greetings and welcome! World War II was an incredibly deadly conflict that claimed the lives of approximately 50-56 million people. But why did it happen, and why is it still important to us today, especially for Canadians? While there are many reasons, let’s begin by discussing our project and the steps we took to complete it.

In short, our project was centred on Juno Beach and Canada’s contributions to World War II. Our final product required a thesis and an argument that related to our thesis, which focused on answering our driving question: “Why is it so important to preserve the Juno Beach Centre?” I find this question meaningful because it asks us to consider why we should preserve a site that belonged to such a tragic part of our history. Why not simply move on and focus on the present? To answer this, bringing these types of things to light, and reflecting on our past can provide valuable lessons that can help shape and secure our future. By learning from our past, we can prevent the mistakes of the past from happening again.

Now that we’ve established our driving question, let’s turn our attention to the Milestones.

 

Milestone 1:
Now this first Milestone, wasn’t technically a Milestone but I am including it as one as it is particularly important. The Battle Of The Atlantic. During our study time, we watched a number of videos and movies regarding World War II, that brought light to the Canadian contributions to war. For this Milestone we needed a topic, evidence, and explanation that was related to the topic. This was almost like a first thesis but not entirely. Here is what I came up with:

Point: The Battle of the Atlantic was a crucial naval campaign during World War II.

Evidence: The Battle of the Atlantic lasted from 1939 to 1945 and was fought between the allied and axis powers in the Atlantic Ocean. The campaign was fought mainly by German U-boats, which targeted allied merchant ships carrying essential supplies and reinforcements. The battle resulted in the sinking of over 3,500 merchant ships, and 175 warships. This resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 allied seamen.

Explanation: The Battle of the Atlantic was very important to the outcome of World War II because it determined the ability of the allied forces to support themselves and keep their supply lines open. The German U-boats were able to sink large amounts of allied merchant shipping, which put a lot of pressure on the allied war effort and the allies were able to gain the upper hand in the battle through technological achievements such as radar and sonar. The victory in the Battle of the Atlantic allowed the allies to continue to receive essential supplies and reinforcements, which played a significant role in their victory.

Now personally, I am proud of what I made. I feel that I could have made my evidence even more specific, but ultimately I am overall happy with what I created.

Milestone 2:
Now Milestone 2 was our first (I would say) difficult Milestone. For this Milestone we were given two points that we could use to construct our argument:

– Can be why WWII was significant to Canada
– Can by why Canada’s impact was significant elsewhere

This Milestone in short, was all about historical significance. Here is my argument:

Personally I am happy with what I have created. I feel like I could’ve (And wanted to) extend on this Milestone, and I feel I was fully capable of doing so. I feel I could’ve used a better format for my argument, for example: We have recently started using this magical program called Craft which has professional templates available, connecting to what I said earlier, I feel I could’ve used programs like these to help me construct a better more solid response. (Not only that but it also looks a lot cooler).

Milestone 3:
Milestone 3 was all about Rhetorical Analysis. For this we were given an article, where we had to consider Pathos and Logos to help us create a concrete Rhetorical Analysis. The article in question was “Thanks for not killing my son.” I won’t tell you too much about the article as my Rhetorical Analysis gives an accurate description of the article:

In the article “Thanks for Not Killing My Son,” Rita Schindler uses various rhetorical strategies to show her message effectively. Here are some specifics:

Emotional appeal: Schindler appeals to the reader’s emotions by describing the brutal attack on her son in detail, such as “his head covered and crusted with dried blood.” This description encourages sympathy and concern from the reader, making them more interested in Schindler’s argument.

Ethical appeal: Schindler also uses an ethical appeal by showing the value of human life and the harm that was done to her son. She notes that her son was a talented musician with a bright future ahead of him and that he held her hand for six hours as he lay in the hospital. These details showcase the desperateness of the situation.

Logical appeal: Schindler uses logical arguments to make her case, for example she quotes; that her son’s hands are “the most intricately beautiful and complex instruments of incredible mechanism,” explaining the damage that could have been done to them. This argument highlights the ridiculousness of the attackers’ actions and reinforces Schindler’s point that their behavior was senseless.

Overall, Schindler’s use of emotional, ethical, and logical appeals effectively broadcasts her message of gratitude to the strangers who did not cause the worst possible outcome for her son.

Milestone 4:
For Milestone 4, we had to finally, construct our thesis we chose, and revise our argument via peer feedback. I had about 3 copies throughout this process, all of which improved with each copy. My thesis was, “The importance of maintaining the Juno Beach Centre as a tribute to the bravery and sacrifices of Canadian soldiers during the D-Day landings.” Now I wont show you all my copies, but I will discuss what I improved on each copy. For the first copy, I will 100% confidently say I used AI for the majority of the writing. It was blatantly obvious. But I learned from that, and during peer feedback I found the drive to create something original that I myself am proud of. Here is my first and 2nd copy:

First:

Second:

Personally I am proud of how I revised, the main change/revise was when I created my 2nd copy. After I had my second copy I focused on concreting my points, and extending the overall argument by giving more evidence and by exaggerating key points.

Final Argument/Thesis:

And now finally we are done the project. Overall I would say this project wasn’t the most fun, as I am not a very big fan of history in general. But overall I think I showed an accomplished understanding of this project, and I think that is clearly shown with my final Argument:

Conclusion:

In conclusion, this project was a love hate relationship. I have always been motivated to work by how interested I am with the topics we are given. Overall this project brought up some valid points, and I feel my learning reflects an accomplished understand of this project and driving question demonstrated by the evidence displayed above. Thank you for checking out todays blog, and I’ll have another one out soon regarding a PGP project we are just wrapping up. See you in the next one.