Hiroshima by John Hershey is a book that tells Hiroshima from the perspective of 6 civilians. As we read through the book we took detailed notes and had many detailed class disscusions, dissecting the ideas and main points, finding connections to our lives now and trying to understand the legacy of Hiroshima from a new light.
Over the course of 5 chapters we wrote 3 journal entries, these entries would explain the main points of the chapters and our personal connections and opinions. In these journals I would choose 2-3 main points and foucs on those through my entry. I would include quotes from the book to support my claims and material.
Once a week as a class we would have a “Socratic Seminar”, during these seminars we would disscuss the chapters we had previously read. Many good topics and opinions would come up during these disscusions that I would use to further my journals and notes. Many times the conversation would stray to topics I had never thought of before, further expanding my knowledge and ideas on Hiroshima.
We collected all our Journals, Relfections and notes into one big document called a ZettleKasten. This ZettleKasten helped up organize our thoughts and knowledge on the topic which we could later use in our final essay. I also stored all my notes from the past project, where we had learned about the Manhattan project and the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, I had thought that this previous information could prove useful from such a closely related project.
The final part of this project was an essay that reflected on all our learning throughout the project. This essay was required to hit 3 different points but we could go above and beyond by finding our own connections and topic points to include. The three main points were
- Write about the impact of Hiroshima on the people of Japan, the world, and you. This includes short-term and long-term effects.
- Write about the direct and indirect links between the bombs and other phenomena.
- Reflect on your knowledge, beliefs and how they have changed from this project.
Final essay
Hiroshima- A bombing that changed the world
Reflection
Throughout the process of writing this essay I took a lot of time writing ideas and re-editing, with many rough drafts to make sure my final product was something I would be proud of. I got editing from my parents, peers and teacher which all contributed towards helping me complete this essay. In the end I had a product that I was proud of creating, though if I were to write it again I would change some things. First I would make it longer and add more examples of possible connections, go deeper than I did with this essay. I would also give myself more time for editing and figuring out how to add MLA sources. Thank you for reading!!