More Happy than not is a book that I read in class and has been at the centre of many of my assignments from this unit including this one, the more Happy than not book trailer. In this assignment we chose one of four book options layer out for us and got into groups based on which one we chose. My group consisted of Adlih, Isabelle, Melika, Logan, and Luca. Me and the other members of my group all chose to read More Happy than not, a book about a teen boy who wants to forget that fact that he’s gay because of the pain that it has caused him, so he uses a special procedure called the Leteo Procedure to do so. We all completed the book, and now p our objective was to imagine that the book was to be made into a movie. We were supposed to create and film our interpretation of what the trailer for that movie would look like. 

We had to pick and choose certain passages and the most important scenes to include in order for the trailer to make sense. We put all of our ideas into outlines and storyboards that we used as a guide when it came time to start filming. We had planned out all the settings, costumes, music, and a script for the video, and it was finally recording time. In order to get all the shots we needed, my group and I traveled downtown to record different scenes that we needed for the final trailer. We had also filmed at people’s houses, different stores (with permission of course) and even the workplace of my friends mom who was kind enough to drive us downtown and let us film there. We also filmed at parks and other places that we came across while walking around downtown. 

After this, we edited together our first draft and it was time to review, critique, and revise. This is our first draft.

After revision, we completed our final draft and I quite proud of how it turned out. Our final video even included a self written song that Luca wrote and sang to be the audio for the trailer we created.

This is the final video.

Once finished, we took the QR code from our video that had been uploaded to YouTube, printed out a bunch, and pasted them on the inside of all of the books all the copies we had of our book, more happy than not. That way anyone can take a picture, scan the code, and be directed to our video. So basically in other words, this video will always be around to haunt us forever.

All in all, I was so proud of our group for being so cooperative, easy to work with, and for all contributing in some way wether that be in the form of filming, acting, providing a setting suitable for the scene, sharing their ideas, writing the script, creating a storyboard, finding costumes, organizing when where and what to film, and so on. I learned so much throughout the duration of this project such as how to pick out a good setting and how to plan around everybody else’s schedule as well as my own. We really hit home with the visuals and music and the video turned out extremely well thanks to our hardworking group members, and peers who gave us helpful feedback to change things like the voice overs and quotes which we completed for the final draft.

How do authors use text to teach us more about ourselves? This was the driving question for our synthesis essay and many of the other assignments in this unit. One of these projects was the book trailer, where we were made to pick one book from the few that we had to choose from, and get into groups based on who chose the same book you picked. My group consisted of Adlih, Isabelle, Melika, Logan, and Luca. Me and the other members of my group were all reading a book called More Happy than not. Once we  finished the book, our objective was to imagine that the book was made into a movie and create and film our interpretation of what the trailer for that movie would look like. To learn more about the filming process and final outcome of this project, click the link to be redirected to my blog post regarding the book trailer. 

The next project after this was the Synthesis Essay. The criteria for this specific project was basically to create a five paragraph essay answering the driving question of How Do Authors Use Text To Teach Us More About Ourselves? Using examples from not only the book that we read for the previous assignment, but also from another book called Persepolis, as well as the widely known movie The Breakfast Club, the next step was to research and brainstorm these three examples. Now with this newfound knowledge, we can answer the driving question in our own words and derive around five paragraphs of text doing so. Before writing, we looked at how to create an essay outline using the Standard Five Paragraph Essay Outline Format as a guideline. Writing this outline helped us prepare ourselves to write the final essay when it came time to do so in class, and it would help the writing process go a lot smoother.

When preparing to write my own essay, I chose to answer the driving question using the perspectives of the characters as proof to validate my thinking. I also practiced going over how I would format the essay itself and what information I would put where. After all of this preparation, it was finally time to Write the in class essay, and we had the whole class to finish it, some even staying to write through the break in order to get it done.

The whole process of completing the essay taught me many valuable things such as time management, formatting skills, as well as how to become a master at critiquing your own work.

I really enjoyed taking feedback from my first draft that I completed in class and improving my essay for the final draft which I will insert down below. Before I end this post, I will say that there were definitely areas that could’ve used further improvement such as my title and the  aesthetic aspects of the essay were a bit lacking. Keeping this in mind, there were also many things that I did very well in my opinion such as answering the driving question clearly, and creating a good outline beforehand.

With summer having come to a close and school beginning again, a new project has arisen. The project is based around a book of our choosing, and by reading this book we can find an answer to our driving question, that question being “How do authors use text to teach us more about ourselves?”. The book have chosen is called More Happy Than Not, written by Adam Silvera. I chose this book because the description made it seem like the type of novel that would keep me interested throughout the duration of the book, and me being the type of person that gets bored of books quite easily, I felt this was the right choice for me. Having only read the first few chapters, it’s hard to tell at this point what will happen throughout the storyline, but if I were to guess I’d say one of the main characters dies and the rest of them get their memories wiped to make the pain go away. That’s my guess, but I’ll have to keep reading to find out what really happens.

after reading the first few chapters, me and a group of classmates worked together to create a video depicting some of the key events and scenes from the book. Adlih, Logan, Melika, Luca, Isabelle and I worked together to plan out and film scenes from the book that we would then put together and share with the class. This fun Mimi project was one of many to come, be sure to read any of my upcoming posts to stay posted on this project and many more.

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