OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay
Hello world and welcome back to my blog for yet another post. This time is different I assure you. You see this post is all about our most recent humanities project, Revolutions Through the Ages. I like to identify as a history and literature nerd so please excuse the amount of utter excitement that I am presenting as I write this. Ok now for the nitty gritty! This time around our driving question asked us, âhow do ideas drive change?â This certainly was a new concept for us as we hadnât really studied the idea of what drives change in a while. That didnât stop us from diving in head first. For each of our projects we focus ourselves around both the driving question and the curricular competencies. So Iâm trying out a new way of formatting these posts to allow you to get a better look at my understanding and growth.
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Cause & Consequence:
  Starting off strong letâs cover what this really means. Understanding the who what when where and why of a historical event is a big deal especially when your overall task is to create a video in which you would offer said information in immense detail. Admittedly when we started off our video wasnât the strongest and we didnât really have a clear way of showing our understanding of the causes and consequences that came from the French Revolution. I felt as though I understood the reasoning for the French Revolution and what it caused in the end and further thereafter but struggled with the presentation of it. Defining the cause came easy because when you understand where the idea for a revolution came from its easy to show it, especially with the format of video we chose the first time around. As we got to our third video I began to easily see the recognition of the consequences that came after the revolution in question. The third being the Russian revolution there was a lot of resemblance between the three we had studied. I wonder why! Oh wait, we learned this. Crane Brintonâs theory of the structure of revolutions allowed for me to recognize the connection between all of the revolutions we studied. And I got a better understanding of how I could represent cause and consequence in my final video. When we talked about the incubation stage in each of our videos I feel that I got better and better at recognizing the defining factors leading up to the ultimate crisis stage. Overall I feel that I can now identify the cause and consequence and present it in a way that is easy for an audience to comprehend.Â
Evidence:
  This largely comes into play when we talk about my final video. We decided to go a little off the map and take a risk in choosing our own, particularly recent revolution. This required a ton of research and in doing so I had to carefully sift through articles, websites, and videos that were not necessarily offering false information, instead it was biased. In choosing to study The Troubles in Ireland, a recent rebellion that only took place roughly 30 years ago thereâs still has a lot of unsettled tension causing many sources to be particularly biased in the information they give. I think that aside from the general research itself the evidence of our understanding for each revolution was evident in each of our videos getting better and better as we improved our skills.Â
https://youtu.be/B-t9fSqDACE
Create and Extend Shared Understanding:
  With my group mates, Holly, Grace, and Finn, I felt like we could use one another for our skills in each video while simultaneously pushing each other to our limits with all kinds of challenges. Having half the group being moderately to extremely extroverted and the other half being very introverted was no problem and worked to our benefit. On any day, weâd come together and discuss our findings in research, innovation, and revision. In doing so we found ways to bounce off one another with new ideas evidently changing the dynamic of our group to benefit us in the long run. With each of our videos we tried to mix things up a little. Myself and Holly would typically be highlighted in the video while Finn and Grace worked behind the scenes on post production work. Sharing our ideas allowed us to extend and gain insight on ourselves and how we work in a group. I definitely see an improvement in my group work this time around which is fantastic and Iâm glad to see that in myself.
https://youtu.be/Rc-by99-xAc
Text Comprehension & Appreciation:
  Finally, we talk about the novel. Jennifer Donnellyâs, âRevolution,â is a fiction novel based on the events of the French Revolution. The story takes place in present day following the teenager life of Andi Alpers as she struggles to find her way through depression and addiction following the death of her younger brother. This part of the project was rather enjoyable as the book was actually quite captivating. Or at least thatâs what I thought until some major plot twists took place. Sorry, no spoilers. Anyway, alongside the physical reading aspect we had to write a creative reflection at the end of the novel study. I say write because I chose to write my own short story from the viewpoint of Truman Alpers, the deceased brother of the main character. everyone had the option to choose whatever they please to represent their text comprehension and their overall appreciation of the books contribution to our studies. I think that I did an outstanding job with this. Iâm not trying to brag or sound snobby I just was really proud of the work I did. I think that my creative reflection was strong and very personal. Nonetheless I can confidently say that I improved with this competency mostly because whenever we get assigned a book for class I typically find it to be an easy read or one that is not captivating to my personal style.Â
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Our Videos:
  Ok I promise its almost over! In talking about the curricular competencies and reflecting on how I feel I performed and improved with some, if not all of these, I realized I neglected to show my groups masterpieces to begin with. Getting right into it, we studied the French, American, and Russian revolutions in class and made videos for each, describing the cause and consequence using evidence from our notes, sited sources, and background knowledge. Starting out, making these video was a very difficult task. To write, film, and edit a video is one thing. Doing it in under a week is another. We somehow got through the three weeks almost smoothly if it werenât for some small bumps in the road. I really enjoyed the history part of this project as it was honestly very interesting to get a deeper understanding of how a revolution really works. And lets be real here. Two months ago if youâd asked me the cause of the American revolution was I would probably have answered with a sarcastic comment regarding George Washington and his slaves. By the end of each week Iâd learned something new and been able to represent it in a stellar video. My personal favourite to create was the American revolution rap video. Yes you read that right. Rap video. I think that we did a very good job with this video and it was definitely the most enjoyable. And finally, the moment youâve all been waiting for. Our final video! For our fourth and final video we chose to study The Troubles. This was a revolution that took pace in Northern Ireland around 30 years ago making it very recent compared to the others. In creating this final video we had to conduct all of our won research and innovate our ideas in order to succeed. I believe that we did so and I was really proud of the video in the end. Aside from my horrible voice because yes, we of course decided it was a great idea to make another rap video! Anyway ladies and gents, thatâs it for today because my brain hurts from thinking to much!
https://youtu.be/nP9PPqGf7K0
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk âď¸
