This post is all about our most recent project in humanities, named Save Juno Beach. The project was about Canada’s involvement in WW2, specifically the D-Day battles and why the Juno Beach Centre should be preserved. The driving question for our project was, “Why is it so important to preserve the Juno Beach Centre?” and to answer that, we did the following.
Notes on WW2
We started this project by taking notes on significant events in WW2 and everything that Canada was involved in or contributed to. Our teacher created slideshows that we had to take notes from, and we continued to look at these slideshows for the first week and a half until we had a good understanding of WW2
You can view my notes document here
This part of the project was my favourite as I’ve always found history pretty interesting, It was intriguing how I thought I knew quite a bit about WW2, but I barely saw the tip of the iceberg. I would have enjoyed a different final product because although we’re learning about Canada’s involvement in the war, with something this interesting, we could’ve done more than write an essay.
Keystone 1🧱
Beyond just knowing what happened in World War 2, we have to understand why it was significant and how it affected Canada’s long-term and short-term.  We were tasked with creating an explanation of the three most important ways WWII was substantial to us. I chose Economics, Social Problems and How Canada Helped the Allied Forces as my three topics. I felt like this keystone was some of my best work, and I’m proud of how well I wrote this since not the best writer.
^click on the photo for Keystone 1
I formatted my three writing pieces into one craft document to make it easier to access. I’m pretty proud of this organization method, and I’ve started to use it for almost everything as it makes my assignments more visually appealing and effective.
Keystone 2🧱
This keystone was all about learning what rhetorical writing is and how to use it ourselves. We learned about rhetorical analysis devices like Purpose, Perspective, Audience, Ethos, Pathos, logos, etc. We used the 4-2-1 group protocol to learn more about and answer several questions about Rhetoric. Next, we were assigned with analyzing a piece of text titled “Thanks for Not Killing My Son” by Rita Schindler; the text features a letter written by Rita Schindler, a mother who expressed her gratitude and thankfulness that a violent attack on her son didn’t end fatally and the attackers spared his life. The letter conveys Schindler’s hope that the attackers will understand the value of human life and its fragility.
You can click the image for my Keystone 2🧱
Keystone 3🧱
After a solid understanding of rhetoric, we constructed our initial drafts for persuasive texts. Each of us could select a specific aspect to delve into. This freedom allowed for a diverse range of engaging and thought-provoking ideas to emerge. I ended up deciding to make this my thesis and the topic of my essay “Condos should not be implemented near The Juno Beach Centre, and it should be a protected part of history because of the sacrifices and contributions of Canadian soldiers and the impact it has educating our generation and future ones.”
Throughout writing my final essay, I went through 4 different drafts from my peers, teacher and mom. As more and more feedback came in and I slowly worked on it over two weeks, it slowly became a better and better piece of work. I found the feedback to be very beneficial and I found that my skill in applying feedback improved.
Click the image for all of my drafts
I really think I nailed it with my argument using all those fancy writing techniques we learned earlier in this project. And hey, I’m glad you took the time to actually read the whole thing.
Thanks, Erik