The world is pretty weird right now. Our most recent project really reflected that, but pretty much the whole year has been playing up to it. The big focus for Humanities was what it was to be Canadian. It had us diving into different things like Japanese internment, and other historical events, but I’ve already talked about all of that. This post is all about the most recent project, Definitely NOT the 51st State. It was focusing on what Canadian Identity is and what it means to us.

The Notes

Before we could really get started on what the project really was, we needed to further our understanding of Canadian identity. The projects throughout the year have all been building up to this, with each giving it’s own look into Canadian identity. The thing I found most useful for this was a group discussion we had all about what we each thought Canadian Idenity was, and what it was to us. This gave me a lot of insight on what Canadian identity meant to others and not just me. We each had our own personal experiences that changed the way we looked at being Canadian. This step in general was the building block for the rest of the project.

A Little Misdirection

The next big step of the project was all about public speaking and how to effectively do it. This part really confused me because the end of this step was going to be a Human Library where we bring in people who can talk about their past experiences and who it shapes them. It didn’t really seem like it was important for us to know how to do it, but little did I know it would come in handy. 

 

A key part of this was doing a small speech about what Canadian Identity meant to us, and what we think it is. Not only did we need to do the speech, but we also had to write it in an engaging way. This was probably the biggest part of this step after the Human Library was cancelled. It was also a really good start to arguably the biggest part of this project. 

The Exhibition 

For this exhibition we didn’t have a product to present like other ones. Our product was us being in character. Each group had a different event in Canadian history that we would act out. This meant not only did we need to have a really good understanding of the event but also use all the other skills like public speaking we worked on earlier in the project. 

Takeaway

As much as this project was about Canadian Identity, almost every other Humanities project this year has been on it too. What was really unique about this one was the public speaking. The closest we had gone to it before was the radio play, but it wasn’t really public speaking. Because of that, I would say my biggest area of growth was definitely public speaking, and being able to write speeches that are engaging for a diverse audience.