The First Big European Drama
“In Flanders Feilds…”
World War One began in 1914 and ended in 1918.
I know this, because our most recent unit has been learning about the First World War.
We have been doing this unit since just before Spring Break, and have continued it until now (approximately 5 weeks before Summer Vacation).
We have done so many different parts of this unit leading up to our final project, a WWI Comic Book.
WW1, The Overview–
The first thing we did in this unit was learn about how WW1 began, and with that, who was included in The First Big European Drama.
We learnt about the two sides of the drama, the Allies vs the Central Powers. And there was the Neutral people too, but they aren’t as interesting in our story.
I’ll explain this really quickly for anyone who doesn’t know how WW1 started;
-Archduke of Austria-Hungary, Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated by some Serbs in June 1914
-Austria-Hungary felt personally attacked.
-Germany was allied with Austria-Hungary
-There was a domino effect with allied countries
-WARRRRR
-War closes off on Nov. 11, at 11:00am, 1917
The war ended on November 11th 1918 at 11:00am.
It was the end of the War To End All Wars.
…and then WW2 happened.
Our Driving Question–
As per all of our projects, we had a driving question to answer while doing this unit. The driving question for this unit was;
*HOW DID WW1 IMPACT CANADAS IDENTITY TODAY IMAGE*
The Beginning–
We learnt all about the people involved in WW1 in multiple ways,
Me made maps;
We watched videos by Indie Neidel;
And we took a lot of notes.
The first thing we did during this project was ask questions.
“What Questions Do You Have About World War One?”
It’s funny because later in this unit, I actually answered one of those questions, and didn’t even realize it until now. You’ll see what it is when it arrives.
War Horse–
Reading books seems to be a good way to learn about the theme of units for our class. And this unit, we had choices.
Our choices were;
And the one that I read… The Famous, The Heartbreaking (DRUMMMMMROLLLL PLEASEEE)
War Horse is a book about a horse named Joey.
At the start of the book, Joey is taken by his mother by a drunk man. The mans son, Albert, loves horses and looks after Joey. When the war starts, Alberts family is in need of money, so they sell Joey to the Army. Joey goes on many adventures as a war horse, including being on the front lines, in cavalry, an ambulance horse and more! At the end of the war, after many losses, Joey is reunited with his one and only Albert.
The Report™—
For our past books this years we have done reviews on all our books after certain chapters.
For this book however, we were reading it over spring break, and didn’t have classmates to do the reviews with, so we did a
We had choices for this book report, and I decided to do a music/art video mix. I forgot to add the music, but the songs I thought represented the story were;
–Oh Danny Boy
–See You Again
–Suggestions
And the video I made for it is as follows;
The video shows the characters in the book, in a form of drawings that I personally drew.
Shattered Ground–
Shattered Ground is a made up World War One story that talks about real events.
The story is of Kevin, who finds his great grandfathers journal from WW1 in the attic and stays up all night reading it. The book tells the story of Steve McKeown as he heads to war, finds and losses a lover, friends and nearly himself.
It’s a really interesting story, so if you’d like to read it, the link is below, however I think you have to be a student (or teacher) to read it.
Shattered Ground: Graphic Novel
After each chapter we read, we had to answer some questions. The questions were;
I learnt quite a bit about life in WW1 while looking at this graphic novel. The simple yet educational showing of the life in the trenches and on the frontline. Everything was easy to understand yet showing of how the life of a WW1 soldier would.
Ottawa–
There’s a once in a life time opportunity offered to Canadian students all over Canada. It’s called Encounters With Canada .
Our class went on a trip to participate in the EWC Program in Ottawa.
The theme of the week we participated in was Vimy Ridge and World War One.
We are all full of facts now. If you’re interested in that story and what we learnt there, the link is just below;
Ottawa taught us many things, all about World War One, all about battles and losses and things you wouldn’t learn unless you were right there and had the opportunity.
The Comic–
Our main project this unit was a WW1 comic book.
Each of us chose a topic about World War One, then we researched it and made a comic.
The comics we made were approximately 4 pages, and were put together to make a big WW1 class comic.
I chose the topic of “Flanders Fields”.
I chose this topic because I knew some of it, but it turned about to be more of a challenge then I expected to find information. The outcome of many days of research
And some class critique
Was this;
The Small Cove Cliff Children–
Once our comics were finished and put together, we headed down to Cove Cliff
The point of our little excursion was to present to the small children (grades 6 and 7) and teach them a bit about our comics and WW1.
We were split up and had about four Small Ones to a PLP student. We would show them our comic and explain our topics.
If we had time we would have a conversation, weather about WW1 or excitement for High School or even food, I think the Small Ones have some new facts to take away from our visit.
Conclusion–
Over a hundred years ago, WW1 broke out after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
Over a hundred years later, we’re sitting in a classroom learning about and analyzing all of it. We’re reading books and trying to understand what it could’ve been like.
And in our specific classroom, we were looking at how WW1 shaped Canadas identity today.
And I think I might have an answer.
Back before Vimy Ridge, Canada didn’t really consider itself Canada. It was still a more British community, and didn’t feel independent.
After Vimy Ridge, they say the people fighting came down Canadians.
So to answer the question;
WW1 caused Canada to come out as Canada, and not just Britain 2.0.
And that’s pretty amazing.
Thanks for reading!!!