Why I chose to research this topic
Sexual assault is a growing issue that many individuals experience sometime throughout their life. We as a society need to do a better job spreading awareness in this issue to that others don't feel alone and can feel supported through a traumatic experience like this. I wanted to learn about this topic for my project so that I can stand with many men and. women who have been and feel violated due to someone else's actions. I want to understand why so many victims don't receive justice for what they have been through. We need to Break The Silence and Stop the Violence.
English
For the English portion of my project, I read the novel "Speak" by Laurie Anderson. It is about a high school girl who gets sexually assaulted at a party, but blames herself for what happens due to the fact that she was drinking. (Which still isn't her fault!) I wrote summaries throughout my reading and wrote my thoughts as well. After finishing the novel, I create a "Top 5 List" around the idea of why sexual assault victims are afraid to speak up. I created the list based on the reading I learned from the book and the research I conducted before the novel as well. I included specific. reasonings for each of the numbers listed on the top 5 and used statistics to support my reasoning and also, to support and meet the thinking skill.
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The Research I Conducted Throughout The Process of My Project
Art
For the art portion of my project, I created a painting symbolizing sexual assault. Before I started to sketch out my painting, I wanted to make sure that a message would be shown across it. While I was doing research and reading my book for English throughout my project process, I tried to put myself into a victim’s shoes. I read about how sexual assault can affect someone's mental health and have an effect with relationships throughout their lives later on, which I showed what I learned from all of my research throughout the products of my English and social studies portions of my project. I was inspired by a page I read on the Cosmopolitan website about a girl who shared her story through her artwork. It helped others understand what she went through and it also helped her get through a tough time in her life. While I was reading about sexual assault, the statistics shocked me and opened my eyes as well. Nearly 80 percent of rapes and sexual assaults go unreported, according to a Justice Department analysis of violent crime in 2016. It may sound incredible that only around 23 percent of survivors report such crimes to police, but it’s true. It is sad to hear that many victims never get justice for what happened to them. After the research that I have read and learned about, I had a better understanding on how I was going to show reasoning within my painting and portray a correct message/meaning. At first, I was going to create a flower and have different colored petals symbolize different meanings. But after some thought about that idea, I decided that the female body gives a stronger and better message for such a sensitive and important topic that needed awareness to be brought to it. I created a key to explain what each color represents., which was how the thinking skill was shown within my project and met. While creating this painting, as I placed the handprints, I felt like I was connecting too many victims from around the US and the world. Being able to make artwork to support these victims is such an amazing opportunity and experience.
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My Painting Process |
Social Studies
For the social studies portion of my project, I created a mind map surrounding the question of, "Why does the issue of gender inequality still exist?" I wanted to understand the reasoning behind that idea to build a better understanding overall. Before creating the mind map, I conducted research to have knowledge about my topic before presenting the information that learned throughout the process of my project. The thinking skill was broken into four reasons, where the answers were branched off from, within the mind map to build a deeper understand and overall conclusion for those reasons listed..
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Research I Conducted Throughout The Process of My Project
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