What Do You See, Feel, Hear, Smell, Taste?

I can't wait for you to see the projects, BUT NOT YET!

This week we began a deep dive into the TEXTures of war. If you remember, our learning experience is to answer (independently) "If War Is A Necessary Evil?" using the information about the political, economic, and social events leading to the clash of entire countries. So, after much reading and learning on many different wars that America has sent combatants to, the students have finally decided on which war they would like to present as evidence to their answer.  Although the list of options ranged from the American Revolution to the Irag/Afghanistan wars, the students clustered into: Civil War, World War I, World War II, and Vietnam War.

Ms. Gosh and Brandyn, our resident artists, brought a model for the class so they could begin forming ideas. We started the class by asking the students to have a pretend wartime backpack and what "spoils" of war would they collect. Hopefully, this activity assisted the students in getting into their time period (i.e. early wars : letters, batons - later wars: telegraph, grenade - modern wars: email, jet pieces) With only pictures, Brandon was able to express his idea through symbolism, point of view, propaganda, and allies commitment to the wars.

In addition, on Friday we also got the chance to complete a graphic organizer by raiding the text and text features of words that create imagery and searching History.com about their specific war. The students searched the background and foreground in the videos and still pictures to pull out the sensory objects that caught their attention and help better form the TEXTures of war. The resident artist and I agree that helping to put the students in the war ensure they engulf the event in its entirety.

Pics are forthcoming, but my excitement stems from seeing the students discussing their wars in such details, sharing ideas, and using their internet, photography, reading, and research skills together to answer a question.

In leaving, "the liberally educated person is one who is able to resist the easy and preferred answers, not because he is obstinate, but because he knows others worthy of consideration." - Allan Bloom