Tag: Writing

Dear Grade 8’s

Wow the first blog post of grade 11, we’ve come a long way since my first big post back in grade 8. I remember crying over writing that… anyway. So what kicked off our grade 11 year? A project about something that is “mightier than the sword”, a writing project answering the driving question “How can we use the power of written text to inspire the new PLP 8 learners?”. This project helped us get through the messy writing process and learn how to evaluate our work to real-world standards. We also had to analyze our rhetorical situation and cater our writing to our audience, and with our main audience being the grade 8’s, this was a bit different than writing for our teachers like we are used to. 

Academic Writing

Before we jumped in and did our piece for the grade 8’s, we did some writing workshops and learned about the pre-writing process. We then tested this out in preparing a little academic writing piece answering the question “Why is PLP a good choice for students?”. Any good sarcastic PLP student would first think “Nooooo it’s hell not a good choice!!!” But I cracked down to research the benefits of PLP nonetheless.

I then did a rhetorical analysis pretty quickly because honestly it hasn’t been the most helpful tool for me to use so I didn’t put too much time into it.

Then was the generation of a topic sentence. I came up with 2 ideas that I wanted my topic to include; the fact that we live in a project based world, and how PBL and PLP help learners use 21st century tools and expectations to stay authentic with their work. I came up with a few but eventually settled on;

“Seycove’s Performance Learning Program adopts an authentic, real-world approach to empower learners and enable them to reach their full potential in our dynamic, project-based world.”

2 drafts later and I ended up with my final piece of academic writing. I’ll link it here for you to see – PLP Paragraph

Text for Grade 8

This is where we come back to our main driving question of “How can we use the power of written text to inspire the new PLP 8 learners?” I met briefly with some grade 8’s one morning before school with some of my peers to see what the grade 8’s are like. Really trying to take in their worldview and how they are feeling about high school. I took these notes to advise me in what to write, as there weren’t really any restrictions. I chose to go for a chill and honest tone to my message and just write a short paragraph, because I didn’t have the time or attention span in grade 8 to read essays full of cheesy advice. 

I really liked my first draft which surprised me because I was thinking I wouldn’t write something that I liked right away. A few little tweaks left me with something I was really proud of and excited to share. So to all the grade 8’s out there, this is my advice to you.

How to Get Through High School… Realistically.

So, you’re now in high school. New friends, new routine, new school, everything’s unfamiliar and exciting. Until it’s not. Too many new names to remember, classes are hard, you get rained on at the bus stop in the morning. Eventually the excitement wears off and you’re left being like, “Well I guess this is my life now.” But here’s the truth: high school can be a rollercoaster, and it’s okay to feel overwhelmed sometimes. The key to getting through high school realistically is finding balance. Yes, study hard and aim for good grades, but don’t forget to make time for yourself. Join clubs or sports you’re genuinely interested in, and surround yourself with friends who are thoughtful and supportive. High school is one hell of a journey, and you’ll have ups and downs, but remember, it’s all part of the process and it’s going to be ok. Stay true to yourself, stay organized, and don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. Your high school years will shape you in ways you can’t even imagine right now, so embrace the experience and grow from it. You’ve got this. 

Conclusion 

In this project, I feel my writing grew more in the process than in the final pieces themselves. I can think more consciously about my word choice now thanks to the writing workshop and I understand how analyzing a rhetorical situation helps me inform my decisions as a writer. 

So to the grade 8’s that were forced to read this post, thank you for listening and I hope PLP treats you well. And to everyone else, thank you for reading as usual and stay tuned because I will be going on a field study for the next project that will be mighty interesting. I will write to y’all again soon,

As Always, Brooke

Commemorating Canada

Hello all and welcome back. This post will be regarding my most recent humanities project, Save Juno beach! In this project we got to learn about World War II and Canada’s involvement and significance in said war. I have been fascinated by WWII for many years now so I was super excited to do a WWII project! So without further ado, lets hop into the project.

Driving Question

Why is it so important to preserve the Juno Beach Centre?

The Project; Keystones 1&2

We kicked off this project by learning all about WWII. Who was fighting? What was going on post WWI? Great Depression era? What was Canada doing? And how do all of these events and a grave economic collapse lead to WWII? Good thing I took extensive notes on all these topics in class because now I have a bank of knowledge that I can refer to anytime. Here are examples of some of my notes;

In keystone 1, we used our understanding of the criteria for determining historical significance to ascertain the 3 most important reasons why WWII was significant either for Canada as a nation or Canada’s impact elsewhere. Luckily my extensive note taking was coming in handy because I immediately knew what I believed to be some very significant events. I ended up choosing my 3 to be, in no particular order, the Battle of the Atlantic, Battle of Dieppe, and Elsie Macgill’s manufacturing of Hurricane planes for the Allied airforces. In case you were curious about these events or why they are significant, here is my writing for keystone 1 – Historical Significance of WWII

Keystone 2 reintroduced us to elements of rhetoric that would help us write our final composition for this project. We had previously learned about ethos, pathos, and logos in a project from grade 8 so it was definitely time for a refresher to step up our game. Part 1 of keystone 2 had us analyzing a text to look for its usage of rhetoric to get the message across. I started off my analysis by annotating the text as I read it to try to catch any usage of ethos, pathos, or logos. This ended up making it much easier for me to write about when writing my analysis to hand in. The question to be answered for keystone 2 was “What is the author saying and what are the choices they made to effectively communicate that message?” and I saw many areas appealing to different rhetoric schemes but found the main usage to be that of  pathos, appealing to emotion. 

Keystone 2 Analysis

Writing Process

To solidify our message for our final writing composition, we needed to develop a thesis. I wanted to recognize the importance of the Juno Beach Centre representing Canada globally and bringing people together. The final thesis that I came up with was;

“It is important to have Canada represented on the world stage when it comes to WWII memorials like the Juno Beach Centre because it is preserving the memory of Canadian soldiers, promoting international understanding and cooperation, and calling attention to the shared history and values that unite Canada and its allies.”

And before we jumped straight into drafting, we also did some brainstorming to make the writing easier because we would already have laid out what we wanted to talk about or make points of. 

After that, we finally started writing drafts of our composition. I ended up making 4 drafts in total before landing my final copy. I utilized a plethora of feedback from my peers and teacher to mold my writing and fix any mistakes I made. I found it super helpful to have multiple sources of feedback because sometimes certain people would catch mistakes that others didn’t or have a new idea for wording something that I wouldn’t have thought of. 

Overall I am really proud of my final work and my performance through this project. So, why is it so important to preserve the Juno Beach Centre? Here is my answer in my final composition, “Commemorating Canada”. LINKKKKKK

As Always, Brooke