So, you’ve made it to grade 8. Congratulations!

Driving Question

“How can we use the power of written text to inspire the new PLP 8 learners?”

Writing. Words. MMMMmmMMMmmmMmM. 

Do I like the idea of writing? Yes. Absolutely. So, do I like writing? …No, not really. 

Ok, ok. Don’t get me wrong, I love writing, but it’s way more complex and messy than we give it credit for. Sure, it’s easy to write words. However, there’s a difference when you write words with meaning. Writing is a subjective art. You have to consider how some words mean different things to different people, and that there’s never one right answer. Most importantly, it’s absolutely impossible to make everybody happy. 

Well, if it’s so hard, then why do we do it? As we learned in our first PLP project of Grade 11, words have power… and they’re definitely mightier than the sword.

In this project, we learned the importance (and power) of writing. And what better way to demonstrate this understanding than impose our great Grade 11 wisdom onto this years’ Grade 8 class in written form. However, before we got to writing our advice, we had to complete some steps along the way. At first, I thought I knew what it was like to be a grade 8… but in hindsight, I’m not so sure. 

Coming from summer vacation, our brains were fairly fried (well, at least mine was.) So it was helpful to start with a quick introductory exercise. We were given the prompts “create the perfect haiku” and “define leadership.”

To be honest, going into grade 11, I didn’t think much about “being a leader.” This exercise helped me understand what being a grade 11 meant, and set the stage for the project to come. Though it wasn’t something we spent a lot of time on, I still feel that it’s worth mentioning. 

(Click to Read!)

To build up to our final product, we first had to go through some activities (each with varying difficulty.) These would help us develop our writing skills and use new techniques to guide our writing process. We recorded our experiences in a “writing journal”, which you can read above. 

One of these exercises taught us the wonders of “pre-writing.” You know, the stuff writers do before they get to writing. This could be an outline, a quick write, a brainstorm/mindmap, sitting in a chair and thinking for five hours straight, or even a bunch of multi-coloured sticky notes covering your bedroom door. It’s up to you, go crazy! FOR STICKY NOTES!!! 

Though I was “pre-writing” before this project, it was fun to experiment with some new techniques. …Maybe this time, I’ll finally try outlining all 8+ novels I have lingering in my head 24/7. I SWEAR, THEY’D BE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERS IF THEY ACTUALLY EXISTED (and if I was actually good at writing.) 

Another activity taught us about the power of word choice. For example, we learned that that adding words like “really”, “very”, and “extremely” don’t really make your writing better. And that there are better ways to describe things than saying “there is” or “there are.” We also experimented with adjectives and adverbs, finding better ways to describe things.

I enjoyed this activity. It was fun and helpful to review these things… Even though I’m really, extremely terrible at coming up with very good synonyms. 

Haha. I’m laughing at my own joke. I see my sense of humour hasn’t improved. 

Now, for the “varying difficulty” I mentioned earlier. The hardest of these tasks was putting our skills to the test and actually writing. NOT ACTUALLY WRITING IN A PROJECT ABOUT WRITINGGGG.

(When you have to write in a class for writing)

I guess it didn’t really help that I went ahead and vanished for the week we did it… ANYWAYS, LESSON HERE, DON’T GET COVID. IT REALLY SUCKS. 

The topic for this piece of writing was “why PLP is a good choice for students”…which doesn’t leave much room for a counter argument, but I’ve been in PLP since grade 8, so I better think it’s a good choice. I think what really befuddled me was not the research, the planning, nor what I was going to say, but rather, the struggle with “he who shalt not be named.” (Aka “writer’s block,” GASP.) 

I was feeling pretty drained (probably because Covid is annoying), and I think that reflects in the writing. However, I’m happy with the points I made and more importantly, the fish quote. 

AND NOW, we approach the final product. 

I planned on just writing a letter for the grade 8s, which would include my brilliant sense of humour and impart my very wise wisdom. Unlike the mentor figure in literally every piece of media, I don’t plan on dying in the first act either. However, things don’t always go according to plan. 

As I was writing the words, I didn’t really feel like they had meaning. Sure, it was funny and I was sharing advice, but I wasn’t proud of what I was doing. So I did what I always do… scratch everything two days before it’s due and find some inspiration. 

The main theme of this project is that words have power. By writing this letter, I was influencing these grade 8s with my words. However, are words the only things that have power?

As they say, a picture can tell a thousand words. 

I turned to a book that I got a couple years ago, which was supposed to be a gift for my grandmother before it found a permanent spot on my bookshelf. 

The first time I read it, I feel in love with it. It came to me at an interesting period of my life (cough, young teenage-hood, cough), and I think it really made an impact. The book shares a positive outlook on life, one that I needed help developing (and I still struggle with having today.) 

Not only is the art gorgeous, but its words have a lot of meaning and influence. I just love the way the author depicts the world in such a beautiful way. 

Somehow I thought that if I could capture a quarter of that influence in my own writing, that my message would come across too. And thus, I developed my own little book, featuring a cast of its own little characters. 

Reflecting back on this decision, I don’t regret it, but I do wish I started with it from the beginning. I think I could really improve it if I had more time (particularly the writing of its second half.) However, I did have a lot of fun with it and I got to create something unique to me. Though, I do think the process of creating this book helped me more than the grade 8s. It helped me sort out some thoughts and regrets I’ve tucked away. 

Overall, I’m proud of my work, even though it was a weird idea. I hope it helps the grade 8s and inspires them as the original book inspired me.