Lest We Forget

Sorry if this is truncated or staccato but I'm in the midst of NaNoWriMo & roof repairs & general life chaos & blogging time has fallen to <0.

But since Remembrance Day is almost here & we're almost wrapping up our studies of World War 1 this term, I wanted to jot down a few of the resources I've found helpful:

The Teaching Company World War 1 by Liulevicius
36 lectures, large focus on social & political history. You'll want to supplement with maps & good chronologies of the various battles & main theaters of the war (this supplemental stuff is readily available online in numerous places)

John McCrae's War - NFB documentary about the author of In Flanders Fields. Note, this does have a few photographs of the excruciatingly brutal wounds that McCrae, as a doctor, would have been treating. They're brief and black & white of course, but they are horrific. As far as I'm concerned, very important for kids to see the real effects of a war. Also briefly mentioned is the fact that venereal disease was a large problem for the military, and that Canadians beat everyone (even the Aussies!) for their rates of VD. Ahem.

A copy of In Flanders Fields. I like this book version by Linda Granfield which includes biographical and historical notes, photographs and evocative paintings to accompany the poem. Ds did feel that it was a mistake for the editors to decide to break the poem up with the notes, rather than having them in front or back. Covers similar ground to the NFB doc. Technically this is a children's book, well suited to elementary, but I would not hesitate to give it to a highschooler, esp one who is not familiar at all with the subject.

Online: World War 1 movie clips from Canada at War. All are worth watching.
Most are under 10 minutes and cover life in the trenches, the nurses roles, battle scenes from Arras, France (location of Vimy Ridge).
The single long film is an NFB docudrama about Billy Bishop, the flying ace; very well done.

For the teens:
Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth
and/or Robert Graves' Good-Bye to All That
and/or Erich Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front

For youngers & olders:
the last book of the Anne series, Rilla of Ingleside deals with life in Canada during WW1
Dear Canada: No Safe Harbour (Halifax explosion)
I Am Canada: Shot at Dawn


film:
Lawrence of Arabia
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Gallipoli (1981)

More problematic for younger or sensitive viewers: Passchendaele. I'm a sissy & haven't seen it but mention it because it keeps popping up on lists.

Poetry - Loving this anthology: Anthem for Doomed Youth - Twelve Soldier Poets of the First World War by Jon Stallworthy. Excellent biographical sketches of the poets, photographs, illustrations, copies of their handwritten poems and analysis of style and viewpoints.

Combine it with Mary Oliver's A Poetry Handbook for a poetry unit.

World War 1 is one whose scale is hard to comprehend. For instance, in the Battle of the Somme, British casualties were 60,000 in ONE DAY. I type this out to remind myself because the mindnumbingly huge numbers somehow just do not want to register.

We have studied history pretty much every day this term but I've been careful to always schedule something lighter & completely different immediately after. For many weeks it was Great Ideas of Classical Physics. It doesn't matter what it is, but I think you need something to move the mind away after a while....

If you have other resources to share, please add them to the comments. Thanks

& at 11 am on 11/11/11, there's only one thing to do: REMEMBER