Did you have a relative that participated in World War I? Well many people did whether they were Canadian, British, German or any other nationality and many of those people lost there lives to the war.

This topic on World War I is something that we have been looking at very intensely these past few weeks in class. First we started of by looking at Canada before the war. How at first it was run by Wilfred Laurier and was known as the Laurier era but then Canada went on to elect Robert Borden when the War started. I talk about that more in this blog post:

Who started WWI?

From there we then went on to cover working conditions and human rights during the war and how they were effected in the war. It was interesting to learn about this aspect and how it went on to change since some of the laws were very controversial.

After that we went on to look at not only Canada during the war but also Europe. We learned how when Franse Ferdinand got shot it changed the world because he was so important to all the countries. We watched a video on this that specifically talks about it. This is only part 1 of 3 but in order to understand it all we watched all three. While we were watching these videos we were also told to make a mind map showing how all of this connected together to become such an important part in World history.

After learning about this we then looked at three other different aspects on how the war started. G Hirschfeld, J Remak and A.J.P Taylor were three people who have different perspectives on who started the war, we learned what they each thought and then were put in groups to create some sort of media that explains what happened so my group including Sofia and Hannah decided to create a video of a game show debate on the subject. Here is that video:

After learning about why the war started it was time to look at why Canada joined the war. And surprisingly this was actually a very simple answer. It was because Britain went to the war and therefore Canada went to war. That’s not to see that all Canadians wanted to go to war. The British immigrants wanted to go to war since britain was going to war and they felt they were still British while the First Nations and the people form Quebec did not want to because they felt that it wasn’t fair and that they had to go to war. And this was important it was really what happened once you got to the battle front and the consequences of the war. Once you were at the battlefront soldiers would see that the conditions were very bad and very dangerous. Wether you were fighting from the sea, land or air they all had there dangers. Here are some facts and new technologies for each field that we learned about.

Sea: The convoy system helped the English because it allowed them to see where the German u-boats were

Land: Tanks had been invented and were helpful because it allowed the soldiers to not only be protected but also break through walls and shoot from across the field. The downfall though was that the tanks often got stuck in mud but by the end of the war that had been improved upon and fixed.

Air: Dirigibles were invented for scouting and bombing missions. The aircraft was filled with lighter then air gas and was made of a wood or metal frame and then the outside was made of water proof material or aluminum. This was made by Germany and is now named and known as a Led Zepplin

And all while we were looking and learning about this we were also reading Shattered Ground  a story about a Canadian soldier at the battlefront. It was really interesting to read this story because you could picture the family and the soldiers a lot more and it made it real instead of just history.

After reading that story we looked at the actual battles that went on from vimy’s ridge to the battle of the Somme and how they all made such a huge impact on Canada and gave Canada the reputation that it has today, really putting it on the map.

Then when we learned all the foundations of the war and how it affected Canada it was time to compile it all into one Podcast. This year in PLP ten we look at podcasts and this was a great way to see what a podcast is and how to make a good one. So before every class we listened to just a couple minutes of a podcast. We also made lists showing what a great podcast includes. And as we were learning this we were starting our own podcast.

We each had to pick a Canadian soldier and find information on him and how he affected Canada. I chose Charles Arnold Grant as my Canadian soldier. And as we got more information on our soldiers, podcasts and World War I soon enough we had a first draft script. This is my first draft script with critiques from my teacher.

And once I got that done it was time to record the first draft!

Now this had a few mistakes, one of them being that some of the transitosions were abrupt and another that the audio wasn’t very even. I knew that there were revisions to be done and that’s why this was just our first draft! So right away we got back to second draft. I wanted to make my my music differ and focus more on Canada and how Charles Arnold Grant changed it. So that meant changing my script, here is my revised script:

So with that done here is my final draft!:

 

Overall this was was a really interesting unit and I loved learning about Charles Arnold Grant specifically. It just made it a lot more personal and relatable. At first when we started I thought it would be boring because Canada is such a young country but in reality it just made me thankful to the soldiers that lost there lives. Plus it taught me a lot about podcasts and I’m definitely going to listen to lots more going forward. So until our next project bye for now!

 

Resources:
http://laughton.ca/mirror/military/ww1/jackennedy/documents/bnPPCLI/bnPPCLIconsolidated1914-1919.pdf

http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/467929

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme

http://collections.musee-mccord.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/I-4029.1

https://www.cwgc.org/history-and-archives/first-world-war

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/personnel-records/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=352653

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Battalion_(Eastern_Ontario_Regiment),_CEF