Lunatic ➡️ Heroic

🤔Introduction

In early January, we began to uncover the one of the biggest controversial icons in Canadian history, Louis Riel.  Over this brief project, we had researched and viewed the portrayals and perspectives of Louis Riel. While gathering information, we particularly looked at primary sources ( e.g. statues) and secondary sources such as articles. After gathering knowledge, we created 3 paragraphs based on how the portrayals of Louis Riel have changed over time built out of our research and analysis.

 

📈What Were Some of the Things I Learned/Improved?

– The relevance and impact of Louis Riel on Canadian history and the Mètis. Although lots of the Canadian government looked down upon him, throughout his dedicated life, he fought for his fellow Mètis political and territorial rights. Riel led the Red River Rebellion which resulted in the creation of Manitoba.

– While learning the achievements and struggles of Louis Riel, I completed a series of excercises to both improve my vocabulary and paragraph structure. These excercises really woke up my brain as we had to get a little creative with our word choice. No google, no dictionary, just you and your brain. When the teachers revealed, our vocabulary wasn’t the most sophisticated, I started to look at my recent writing and said to myself “I can do better than this”. Recently I’ve been reading more books which will help me in the long run in terms of vocabulary. Lastly, before I submit my assignments now, I try to re-assess my writing and see if I can further improve upon

📉What Were Areas Where I Think I Can Further Improve Upon?

– I figure at times I was quite veg in my writing which certainly wasn’t my goal. Dry sentences seemed to be a re-occurring theme, especially during the first half of this project. When given critique, I often got asked questions like who? When? Why? Further explain?

🙋‍♂️Driving Question: How has the portrayal of Riel changed over time?

The portrayals of Louis Riel have tremendously altered from the mid to late 1800s to now. Most non-Mètis thought of Riel as a madman but over time, people’s views on him have shifted away from deranged into heroic. Why you may ask? Back then, everyone believed him to be insane since he made the decision to kill Thomas Scott as Riel wanted to make an example out of him. In court, Louis Riel’s lawyers argued he was insane but Riel completely denied. Nowadays, much more people believe Riel was a freedom fighter as people gained the Mètis’ truthful take on Louis Riel.

✅Conclusion

To sum it up, this project really was small but mighty. Ending off the semester with an assignment that stepped up my vocabulary skills to the next level as well as learning about one of the biggest controversies in Canadian history. Seems like the Riel deal to me. 

Brief Evidence of Work:

1. Final Multi-Paragraph Response Draft

2. Letter to Foreigner

3. Heritage Minutes