“For no war is ever over” (LS-GR-733)

Context

The present learning scenario is organized around the Europeana material concerning World War I. It is based on blog posts, photos and paintings, posters and cards. It attempts to help students understand the unfathomable reality of war and empathize with the people affected by its harsh reality. All generations in Europe after WWII were raised to believe that the ugly face of war belongs irrevocably to the past; yet the complex landscape of the 21st century poses new threats and challenges, often leaving students unable to process and understand what is happening not very far from them. This LS aspires to help them first and foremost express themselves, their questions and their fears about the war.

Activities

First, students are introduced to the subject of the LS exploring what wars are taking place in the world today. They are then informed that we will be approaching the reality of war through the Europeana WWI material. 

In the second module students process Europeana material (from photos and paintings to collections and blog posts) trying to figure out how Europeans experienced WWI and write creative writing texts inspired by the material they studied.

In the third module they work though works of European art that reflect or revolt against the WWI and in their own stories give voice to a painting they chose.

Lastly, they study propaganda war posters in order to understand how information is often manipulated and mishandled at war and comment on one of them.

Using material from all modules, they create an anti-war poster that speaks against the war today or make anti-war GIFs.

Short Video

https://youtube.com/shorts/hZKLEVQQF2U?feature=share

Title: Cavern, probably Plateau of Lavarone, Photographer: Flam, Institution: Austrian National Library
https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/9200291/bildarchivaustria_at_Preview_4811239

GIFs created by the students

https://media.giphy.com/media/qVnH4S4dJ5hLtszd6p/giphy.gif

https://media.giphy.com/media/yn1L4lQxNwrWvb8yZc/giphy.gif

Evaluation

It took one 45min session to introduce the topic and four 2hours-long sessions to complete all five modules. They seemed to enjoy the activity where they made an anti-war poster about modern-day wars using material from the WWI era. The concurrence of the implementation with the Ukraine war helped students express their own feelings and thoughts about the reality of war and its ugly comeback in Europe.

Would you like to know more about this learning scenario? You can download it below:

Did you find this learning scenario interesting ? You might also like:

• The Great War through Children’s eyes
• Discovering the Great War
• Letters and Postcards from War Times

CC BY-SA 3.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Europeana 1914-1918.