What if I told you that I did something more scary than being a grade 8 going into high school? That’s right, not only did I make the switch from elementary to high school, I wrote, sung, recorded, and posted a song about it.

The Project

After 4 hard weeks of reading, working, revising and reflecting, I have learned, worked, and grown, and came out of the ‘It’s The End of The World Project’ with a song and music video I am truly proud of. 

For this PLP assignment we were assigned with rewriting the song ‘Its The End of The World as we Know it’ by R.E.M in a way that portrays our world view as we are going through the transition from elementary school to high school. Throughout this project we were tasked with several different assignments that led us up to answering the driving question, ‘How can a text help me understand myself as my world view is changing?’

What is World View

All of our projects in humanities in PLP will come back to the Concept of World view. World view is how one sees the world, it is influenced by experiences, values, stories, home life, etc, which influences our every thought and action. For a more detailed description, click here.

The Outsiders

To start off this project we were assigned with reading the old yet famous book ‘The Outsiders’. When I say this book is old I mean it, My Dad read it in school! But, despite its age, it was a very relatable entertaining book that showed several examples of worldview. While reading this book I learned how alike most teenagers and our world views are. Lots of the things the characters are going through I can relate to. For example, the main character, Ponyboy, cares a lot about what he looks like and how he presents to the world, which is a problem I am faced with almost every day.

High school Expectations vs. Reality

One of the assignments we were faced with during this project is brainstorming and then making a meme that reflects on what we expected high school to be like versus what it actually turned out to be. I made my meme about how I expected all of the older kids in the hallway were going to mess around with me and ‘bully’ me, but now I’m here, I realize how invisible grade 8’s are, nobody pays attention to you let alone bullies you. After making this I learned how much less terrifying high school turned out to be. All of my expectations for it were bad and negative things but after living through my first month of it, I learned that high school really not that scary.

Reflecting on my Own Worldview

My world view is constantly changing as I mature and learn more about the world and all of the challenges people are faced with. This project forced me to think a lot on what changed my worldview over time. After doing this I created the first draft of my song about all of the things that evolved how I see the world. My original draft of my song perfectly expresses my life and what has changed.

Creating The Song

After working very hard on and finishing my first individual draft of my song (read up to view) the project was soon switched to a group project. This forced us to leave our original songs in the dust and collaborate with our group members. We then took small sections from our songs, and merged them into one big song focusing on the topic of our transition into high school. Creating this portion of the project taught me how to be adaptive and be able to change direction quickly.

Creating The Video

Final step in this project, we had to create a music video built up of several different photos of all of our group members. These photos had to show how we have changed over the years, and had to match up somehow with the lyrics of the song. In making the video, I learned my way around the iMovie app.

First Attempts in Learning

If I were to change any thing about this project, I would change how my group functioned as a team. When I’m working with a group, I always try my best to divide the work up and give my group members a job, but i feel like the moment anyone complains about what they have to do, say its “too hard”, or does something that didn’t exactly line up with my vision I tend to come in and do it for them. From this project I have acknowledged my group work habits, and for my next group project, if someone is struggling I will help them with their portion of the work rather than taking it over.

How Can a Text Help me Understand Myself as my World View is Changing?

Back to the driving question, The Outsiders helped me understand my changing worldview by showing me the worldview of other teenagers and how in many ways we are all the same. In the last year or two, there has been a drastic change in how I see the world. Rather than the world being all sunshine and rainbows and family and friends, I am starting to see the external forces in our society and The Outsiders confirmed that it even teenagers in 1967 noticed them as well. This project helped me feel less alone because I now know that I’m not alone in these new times.