Changing schools is a big enough challenge especially trying to slip into teaching their already planned inquiries. However, with the study of war, it opened right up to using storyboards.
Students were asked to write about the day in the life of a soldier. They had watched many clips from youtube about a range of sides from WW1. Here are some of the storyboards they came up with and part of their stories.
Storyboard 1 - The Soldier Sleep in the damp, wet environment, with bombs raining along the borders of foreign lands. The flock of men, scared to death as explosions run at them. The crisp cold morning air fogging the view of our enemies. The filthy trench boards creaking foot by foot. Mud smothering each man in a thick brown coat of dirt. Rats make their home in your ditch, feasting on your fellow buddies. Soldiers on the bare minimum of sleep.
Puff, your Captain prepares to announce the time to charge. He presents his supposed final speech as returning is unlikely. "Men of Britain may the best of luck be brought upon us soldiers."
The whistle blows, MEN SCRAMBLE OVER THE TRENCH & SHOW NO MERCY!
Storyboard 2 - The soldiers awoke at 6:30 am being grateful that they were still alive. They gathered all their gear and left for their areas. Pushing past each other, shoving and having a joke trying to get their minds of where they were for a moment, boots soaking wet and uniforms covered in mud.
Waiting in silence for a gunshot. Looking left and right, waiting for the orders to 'fire'. Silence in the air for 2 hours, when finally the order came. "Fire!" the Commander shouted across the trenches.
Heavy thumps hitting the ground, bullets flying through the air, body parts splitting the trench walls. The soldiers were once again at war. Smoke in the air and bullets on the ground.
Storyboard 3 - Soldiers wake up for their four-hour uncomfortable sleep ready for war with their rifles in their hands. They start marching scanning the area looking for enemies. As they march you hear rats scuttling around in the muddy steep trenches.
Carefully looking through periscopes to find troops marching straight for them, so they opened fired, killing many of the opposition. But when they put their heads up to aim, they got shot in the head, with their last words nothing but screams. All their minds thinking today would be their last day living in this world.
I was blown away by the detail and feeling their stories started to provoke.
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