Hello! I’ve completed another project in my Humanities 9 year. This project is called “A War To End All Wars: Graphically Told”. We got to learn about events that happened throughout WW1 and turn this knowledge into a story. With this concept I strove to answer the driving question: “How might we use graphic novels to understand Canada’s involvement in WWI?”. In summary this driving question explains what we’ve done throughout this project, the integration of a specific WW1 topic into a graphic novel/comic. To create the final product there was an undergoing of multiple building knowledge assignments. I think this project definitely helped me improve on many different curricular competencies, such as ‘Create Effectively’ and  ‘Analyze Cause and Consequence’. Once again throughout this project I was really trying to improve on my critical and reflective thinking skill because I wanted to evaluate evidence to adjust my thinking. 

The first keystone I completed was centred around a curricular competency questions “what factors precipitated ‘the war to end all wars?”. The assignments I completed that I felt was important to my learning was called ‘Precipitating Causes of War’. The ‘Precipitating Causes’ to War was an interesting assignment to launch this project, but I really think I enhanced my skills. I really think I learnt a lot about analyzing cause of the war because we were tasked to read a few pages of the Nelsons Social Text and evaluate the information. From this I gathered the information and sought to see what cause was most important and displayed this throughout a paragraph. In addition to analyzing I found that reading that topic helped me understand ideas and ideologies that influenced societies and events. I really think that this assignment helped myself understand the concepts of this project. 

We then moved onto the next Keystone, centred around the question “how can a graphic organizer support my understanding of WW1?”. Some contents of this keystone were as Propaganda Worksheet, and a Consequences of Innovation Worksheet. The Propaganda Worksheet was a poster that showed a piece of war propaganda. I was tasked with identifying the techniques used throughout it in a worksheet. I think this was a great way to understand the perspectives of other’s in the timeline of the War. The next assignment I complete throughout this Keystone was a consequences of war innovation worksheet. Throughout this assignment I read a few pages of the Nelsons Text about innovations used and developed in war. I used my comprehension skills to rate which innovation were more dangerous and useful throughout WW1. I think both of these assignments made myself open up to employing effective reading strategies into my learning.

Also within this keystone there were major assignments called graphic novel reflections. To complete these reflections I the graphic novel A war to end all wars written by Alan Cowsill. Throughout this graphic novel there was information of the many events and battles that started the war. Due to this the first of three graphic novel reflections was a 3-2-1 prompt that showed what I discovered, found interesting, and have questions about. This was a great way to get me engaged in what I was reading and I think it was also a great foundation for my other graphic novel reflections. 

The next reflection format I completed was called the 5ws. To complete this I was tasked with choosing a battle that I found interesting and was also briefly mentioned in the Graphic Novel. With this I chose the Battle of Gallipoli and started to research it. This research was then sorted into a chart that divided the information under five categories Who, What, When, Where and Why. I really think this assignment was important to complete because it was able to prepare me for the upcoming factors to create my Graphic Novel. 

Once the second graphic novel was finished, I then read to the end of the book and was able to complete the last reflection. For the last reflection I was tasked with writing a paragraph reflection based off of the consequences of WW1. I specifically highlighted material from the graphic novel and the Nelsons Socials Text to really communicate my opinion of immediate and long term consequences of  WW1. Throughout this portion of the graphic novel reflection I feel that I was able to communicate compellingly with evidence to support my opinion. 

After our graphic novel reflections my peers and I were able to get slightly rewarded with watching the film 1917 directed by Sam Mendes. To use our comparing skills we were tasked to explain the similarities and differences from the graphic novel and the movie. This was done in the format of a detailed Venn diagram.

I then moved onto the direct creation of my graphic novel, which was mostly all contained in the 3rd Keystone. The curricular competency question for this keystone that I strove to achieve was “How can I support an understanding of WWI and it’s affect on Canada within a comic panel?”. The first concept that I completed was my topic chose and research (5ws). Once again I had to pick a topic to research, but this time it was for the battle that I was going to write about in my graphic novel. The battle I chose was The Battle of Festubert. I then spent some time researching the contents of this battle and, once again, place them in the 5ws format. I think this research was extremely important because without it I wouldn’t have a detailed comic that correctly displays factual characters. I think this portion of this keystone showed that I can research a topic from history with accurate and additional sources. 

After my research was completed I was able to move onto the creation of my story. To do this I created a story spine. To refresh the class on what a story spine is about we did some group activities where we analyzed a piece of media and applied the story spine to it. I think this was very helpful because I was able to refresh my mind about the story spine and create my own. My Story Spine is basically the contents of the battle, but I evolved it around a few factionalized characters that go through the events of the battle of Festubert. With my story spine completed I moved onto creating my storyboard, which was a rough drawing of my story. This storyboard was meant to help know what information would be placed in certain panels. I also tried to understand the possible angles and placement of characters. I think I was really able to implement my research in creative ways throughout both of these creations.

Once all of my planning documents were finished I was able to start my drafts of my final Graphic Novel. To create my graphic novel I researched some landscapes, people and faces. With this I was able to blend each of these pieces together to create my own personalized images that helped enhance the scenes. For my first draft I did a rough outline that wasn’t as detailed as the final. I worked to show my storyboard, but in a more concrete way that flowed with my storyline the best way possible. I then imported my images into Comic Life 3 and was able to summit my first draft. To improve my draft I received feedback from a peer, Erik, in a feedback protocol. With this feedback I was able to improve my graphic novel, specifically re-reading it to make sure all the facts were presented. I also went throughout every image to make sure all the details were added. Overall, I think this graphic novel shows how I can effectively incorporate technical and narrative writing with a comic/graphic novel. 

(you can see my full comic at the top of this blog post)

In conclusion, I really enjoyed learning about different aspects of ‘The War To End All Wars’ (which didn’t actually end other wars, if you didn’t already know). I also think I was able to improve on my ‘Thinking’ core competency, including creative and critical & reflective thinking. When I reflect upon the overall project I do think I was able to Create technical and narrative writing effectively. I also was able to continue to build on the curricular competency ‘Analyzing Cause and Consequence’ throughout determining the fuel and impacts of how events come to be. With all of this knowledge that I’ve gained I’m able to answer the driving question for this project “How might we use graphic novels to understand Canada’s involvement in WWI?”. We can use graphic novels to understand Canada’s involvement in WW1 by researching and implementing this research into a graphic novel layout. This layout can give an creative outlook on the contents of WW1, causing it to aid the understanding of Canada’s involvement in WW1. 

Have you created a Graphic Novel? If so explain what it was about! As always…

Thanks for reading,

Alicia 😀

 

Credits:

Nelsons Social Text.

1917.