Hi everyone,
I just completed a very complicated project. I had 4 different groups to work with. We had to build machines, write paragraphs, create videos, and learn about the American and French Revolutions. Oh yeah we also read a book called leviathan this was the best book we read so far in PLP.
This project involved us working on a few main competencies. For social studies it was Establish Historical Significance and Analyze Cause and Consequence. Those are two ways you can analyze an event and how it affected history. Using these competencies I was able to better understand the revolutions we studied.
In English we worked on Designing texts and Discussing, Listening, and Speaking. The latter is self explanatory. I do think I did a good job with this one. I contributed a variety of ideas to my group and listened to other group members idea’s. Designing texts doesn’t just refer to writing though, this applies to video, picture, audio. For this project we focused on writing and video. Throughout my years at school, especially the recent years my writing has improved with every assignment. This project was no exception. I really think I did a good job on our paragraphs even though they were a little long. Throughout this year we will be working on video as a means of communication. Of course I helped with all of our group videos but on one I was the lead editor. I think I did quite a good job with what I had for this video. I also used a lot of iMovies more advanced features for the first time such as cutaways.
In Maker we only had one competency, this was creative communicator. This was all about using technology to create and communicate. I did exactly that this project. Through all the videos I made. Those both communicated an idea and were made using a variety of different apps.
Our project Launch taught us about Crane Brinton’s theory of Revolutions. This was the base for how we would analyze revolutions throughout the project. The theory compared a revolution to a disease through comparing the stages of a revolution to different parts of a common sickness. I really realized that revolutions are incredibly complicated, but all share many common traits. Then we built a metaphor machine which represented a society through a revolution. We also had to create a video of that machine. As this was a launch milestones it wasn’t the prettiest and it didn’t work most of the time. Although I learned a lot of valuable lessons from this milestone which helped make our revisions of the machine work and look okay.
Then we moved onto Building Knowledge. This was where we learned about the American and French Revolutions. We also had to write paragraphs about both. Throughout this area of the project we alternated days, learn about a revolution then build a machine, create a video, and write a paragraph. Of course I learned a lot during this stage, but I also gained experience in time management this was amplified by the fact that it was the start of the ski season so I went up the mountain a couple of times!
Then the Develop and Critique stage came along. This stage got combined with the present and reflect stage as our teacher didn’t think we were ready to do the assignments in this stage. We just made our final video here.
To summarize this project, we built metaphor machines about revolutions which we took videos of and then wrote paragraphs to show our understanding of the revolutions. Plus we read a book. Thanks for reading through. Keep an eye out for more blog post before winter break.