Todays project was a bit different than the ones in the past, but no less enjoyable. This project was about events, people and everything else in between during World War One. We also compiled everything we learned in the end into one huge book that would be over 100 pages. During this time I learned a lot more about the the war effected not only the people involved but also how countries would be changed for years to come. The core competencies used to help deepen our understanding are comprehend, using literacy and text to understand, and historical perspective.

For the first part of the project we did a launch activity that helped me understand what was going on at the time of ww1 and how one action lead to many more that eventually broke out in a full out war. For the assignment we had to read some textbook and online writing on the allies during the war, who was teamed up with who during the war.

 It all comes together when reading about the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand, which was blamed on Serbia by the Austria-Hungary, this is where the allies start appearing. When Serbia had war declared on them their allied nation Russia stepped in to stop Austria-Hungary, because of that Germany got involved and so on. This created a domino effect during the beginning of the war which lead to everyone getting involved, and this is really important information to now when moving forward in this project.

For this part I was able to use the Comprehend competence because using the online, written, and video information, I was able to understand and translate what was happening during the beginning of the war into an image. Using multiple sources helped me understand all of the detailed information as well, and moving into the next steps these details would be more and more important.

Our next steps in completing the project was creating our soldier story. This would be one of the topics included in our portion of the book. We used sources like The Library and Archives Canada Website along with the Canadian War Museum Archives to find a soldier we wanted to do research on, and with the help of these website we were able to find almost any soldier we wanted to. I chose a Canadian soldier named Hubert Edgar Ebsary who was from Newfoundland and fought in the battle of Gallipoli. From there I had to compile a page of research on things like his rank, his home town, why he joined the army, etc.. 

To add onto our soldier stories we were also split into four different book groups, with each group reading a different book about World War One. My group was assigned a book called Generals Die in Bed which tells the story of ww1 from the prospective of an American soldier. I found this was a really good insight into the daily lives of soldier and gave me a greater understanding of how tough each of their lives were.

That was another main part of the project where I was able to use the Comprehend competency when researching my soldier. It was very important to know everything I possibly could about this soldier other wise my information in the book would make no sense, so by analyzing multiple sources I was able to come out with the largest amount of accurate information.

The last steps before creating the book was our final topic which would be different from person to person. We each took a different topic that involved the war such as The Assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand, Vimy Ridge, and many more. I chose to research the Technology of Artillery during the war which as it turns out was a pretty cool topic with a lot to learn about.

Artillery adapted a lot during ww1, starting with light field artillery that fire long shots but only to about a 18 degree angle, and then when trench warfare broke out new artillery was devolved to attack those in trenches. These new weapons could fire much farther and at a 18-55 degree angle making them extremely effective. During some of the battles, countries with weaker artillery still insisted on bringing their inefficient guns to battle. They thought would work because in the past it had worked for them before, but the problem was that the battling style had completely changed since they had fought. This lead to more casualties than were necessary.

Using the historical perspective competency I can try and answer the reasons for this behaviour. During the war the only job for the soldier and their higher ups is to destroy the enemy, and with past victories I could see why leaders wold decided to use the same tactics as previously because they believed this is what would win them battle after battle. Unfortunately this type of thinking is what lead to all the deaths of soldiers. In war the only concern I would believe is winning the battle, so I could see why they chose to use their same weapons over and over because changing could have been a risky move, and the only thing besides winning that would be a concern would be to stay alive. 

With all that I had leaned I created my pages for the book. I put all I had researched along with some extra information about some cool artillery discoveries and tactics of the war.

In the end I look back on this project and I am very surprised how much I did not know before entering into this project. I am very glad with my choices on topics and was engaged throughout the entire project.

To wrap up this post I will include the book that my class has created. I really hope you enjoy it.

 

That’s all for now