How can we use the power of written text to inspire the new PLP 8 learners? That was the driving question for the first PLP 11 project. This project was a lot more English based then many humanities projects, which I found challenging. Writing and grammar have never been my strong suit so when we started a project called “Mightier than the sword” I was a bit worried.
To start off the project we did writing workshops and learned about the writing process. This included learning new ways to brainstorm and finding different techniques that worked better for us. If you click here you can see my writing journal where I reflected on this experience.
In my writing journal you will also find my academic writing which was the next part of this project. For the academic writing we had to think about the audience and toneso you can see my process in the rhetorical analysis in the writing journal. I found the rhetorical analysis especially hard in the writing process because its a different type of purposeful writing than I usually do. Normally I write down some ideas and some evidence and then just start writing; for a rhetorical analysis, I had to think about what contexts and audiences affect my writing. The requirements for the academic where to write about why PLP is a good choice for students focusing on whatever aspects we wanted. I decided to write mine on hand on learning because I know this is a type of learning I have found very useful in PLP. I have done a bit of writing in the last few years but this one was much harder then most of what I had done before. This writing was serious and needed research and sources and quotes which all took a lot of time. I wrote many drafts (that you can see in my writing journal above) and got lots of feedback I used for my final draft.
This brings us to the final product which was creating a piece of writing for the PLP Grade 8s. Now as grade 11 student I don’t interact with the grade 8s on a normal basis so figuring out what they would want to get advice on was challenging. We started off with lots of brainstorming and then came up with questions to ask them during a morning snack/discussion time one morning. I participated in the early group for the discussions and it went really well. I was able to get good ideas of who the Grade 8 are and what they are concerned about for high school. Using that information I decided to write my advice on F.A.I.L which in PLP means First Attempt In Learning. I am very proud of the name I decided to call my writing F.A.I.L (Faith’s Advice In Learning ).For this writing I liked how I added in my own experiences as well as my brother’s as I felt that it added a more personal touch that gave the students first hand advice. I found the type of writing for this much more casual and fun compared to the academic writing so I found it easier to write.
I unfortunately wasn’t able to get any feedback from the Grade 8 on my writing but I am proud of what I wrote which is my goal this year to be proud of what I hand in. If you click here you can see my final writing I hope it’s helpful to you PLP 8 out there :).
“Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert on my own learning. I am also responsible and accountable for my own learning. You can expect me to give an honest evaluation of my progress. We will discuss my strengths and opportunities for growth. Thank you in advance for listening and for offering feedback that I can use to improve as a learner”
In this presentation my goal is to answer the driving question: “Why do you feel you are ready to advance to the next grade level?” In order to answer that question, I’d like to direct your attention to my learning plan.
Let’s start by looking at the core competency profiles that I wanted to be at by June 2023.
The ones I have check marked are the ones I feel like I have met throughout projects this year. The underlined ones are the profiles I don’t believe I have fully developed yet and will set them as a goal for next year.
In my last tPOL, l I went into detail about how I demonstrated these areas of core competencies as I shared what I loved and where I grew. This year, I would really like to share about my growth plan for each subject area and at the same time reflect on my learning profiles. Let’s look at the humanities section of my learning plan to see if I have met my goals for growth.
At the beginning of the year one of my humanities goals was that I would like to improve in my sentence structure. In order to grow in this area needed to be more comfortable asking for help.
– Peer edit formal and informal: Ms. Madsen asked us to create a first draft of our composition and share it with some peers. What I liked about this form of peer feedback is that our class knew what we needed to look for, and physically wrote on the draft. I really loved how I could choose WHO I sent my draft to for feedback.
– Interesting about this process, when looking over other’s work I found myself finding mistakes more easily than in mine and it gave me practice.
– Setting goal to improve my sentence structure is one reason why I believe I am at a profile 5 for Personal awareness and responsibility.I knew this was a weak area for me and knowing that I figured out tools to use to improve my achievement.
Another goal for humanities was to improve my blog posts. I wanted to do this through adding more personality, and thought into my work.
– My work this year shows growth into adding thoughtfulness so I would like to draw your attention to specific choices that I made that show personality:
– Romeo and Juliet blog post In that opening, I felt I made fun of my actual dread of homework in a creative way. My lines parodied lines Juliet speaks to herself.
– Another way that I took action to my growth goal was in changing the name of my blogpost from “Faith’s blog” (not the most interesting name. Is it better than my brother’s? “Ma blog”… I think so) “Thoughts of a Scheewe”. This change was not big but it’s a start. And definitely beats Sam’s.
– Finally, my “About me” update forced me to really think about choices that really showed me. I mention my skills in sarcasm, have pictures that reflect me now, and feature a cool photography workshop I did.
– making intentional choices about adding personality to my blog posts is part of how I improved in communicating. Adding personality shows awareness of audience.
Maker
In Maker, one of my goals was fine-tuning my time management skills. Looking over year, I barely had to ask for extensions for any assignments this last semester because I found my self planning out when I would do my work and having what I needed prepared (notes ready so that scribing easier).
– A specific example of excellent time management was my podcast. I’m proud of my release schedule which was detailed. What I needed to do would pop up on my Things app. Part way through, I realized later that I needed more time to write my script and less time to record so I changed my plan accordingly.
– My pod cast is a good example of the confidence I believe I show in communicating in different ways to different audiences. It also shows my profile in critical and reflective thinking. I had my topic of “Fun solutions to stress” and I had to gather evidence, including interview, and decided what best fit what I wanted to say. I also had to think about what was working and what was not such as using a microphone and choosing a variety of people to interview.
A second growth goal was to want to improve in teamwork. I can get really stressed and annoyed at teammates and I need to improve on my patience when working in a team.
– In the first semester, The Komagato maru project gave me an opportunity to improve in collaboration. I decided to trust my teammates with their roles and I focused more on what I needed to do.
– Something that has had an impact on team work skills was the Field school to Disney world. This trip made me more comfortable around my classmates which I notice has really helped me now.
– Overall, I can confidently work with my peers to further our shared goals whether it is a “It’s Porg!!!” Tik tok video or a monument.
PGP
In PGP I had three growth goals but I would like to highlight my anxiety. This year I want to grow in taking care of my anxiety. I want to learn and implement new strategies that will help me be less anxious about handing work in on time and the quality of what I can communicate in a project.
– I think my anxiety has gotten better. First of all, I utilize Things app for everything, even personal tasks. This has relieved pressure on my working memory where I was always worried that I was forgetting something.
– Another strategy I use actually comes from Atomic Habits. It talked about having a reward for motivation for tasks that are difficult. I found myself setting goals like a specific time to hang out with friends if I got certain parts of my homework completed. I think having more social time has also helped me be less anxious in school.
– Speaking of Atomic Habits, in my blog post I said I would try unplugging. I would put my VR head set out of sight so that I would not play it so much. I really enjoy it, but needed to find other ways to relax. I have consistently put it in a cupboard where I can’t see it. Instead, I now listen to music or hit a volley ball against the wall. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I played it!! These choices have helped lower my anxiety.
In the last section of my tPol I want to highlight some major successes for me this year and also recognize some FAILS.
While it was challenging, perhaps one of my projects I am most proud of is my collage. I felt like I used the app really well to portray what I had learned and what I wanted to say. This project is one example of how I showed social awareness and responsibility as I explored Indigenous issues and then made a collage that helps raise awareness.
While I do not think I reached a profile 5 for creative thinking in all my work, I do know that I showed that out of the box thinking in my collage and want to build on that success for next year.
F.A.I.L.
One FAIL that I need to mention is the Power of Imagination final video. We did not have a detailed enough plan before the trip or a full storyline. This meant that our video was not at a level that I wanted to see. I felt that we needed to work better together with the editing at the end as well to help our storyline come through.
Another FAIL that applies to all my PLP subjects and pretty much all aspects of my life is one part of communication. In my growth plan, I identified that to stretch out of my comfort zone I will need to communicate more in class.
– The good news? I can now approach PLP teachers will a little less fear in a one on one situation. I volunteered twice to read roles for Romeo and Juliet.
– The other news? The entirety of the text analysis discussion. I sat frozen in silence and avoided eye contact for 45 min.
– This is my nemesis. I am taking suggestions and am open to advice.
Overall I am feeling really good about how I have grown. I am able to set and meet goals, communicate in different forms to different audiences, work more confidently with more classmates, and produce work I am really proud of creating. This I setting a goal for accomplished in all my classes and then changed it to extending for Humanities. Next year? I want to aim for extending because I know I can do it.
In my writing journal you will also find my academic writing which was the next part of this project. For the academic writing we had to think about the audience and tone so you can see my process in the rhetorical analysis in the writing journal. I found the rhetorical analysis especially hard in the writing process because its a different type of purposeful writing than I usually do. Normally I write down some ideas and some evidence and then just start writing; for a rhetorical analysis, I had to think about what contexts and audiences affect my writing. The requirements for the academic where to write about why PLP is a good choice for students focusing on whatever aspects we wanted. I decided to write mine on hand on learning because I know this is a type of learning I have found very useful in PLP. I have done a bit of writing in the last few years but this one was much harder then most of what I had done before. This writing was serious and needed research and sources and quotes which all took a lot of time. I wrote many drafts (that you can see in my writing journal above) and got lots of feedback I used for my final draft. 
