“A rude awakening.”

My first Humanitys project in two months. What a grind. It’s been 5 who weeks since this project was started. We had to find an environment topic to readership and write a letter to a person in power. However, this project was actually much different from my last PLP 8 projects. Instead of having 7 different Milestones, being completed each week. There were only three that were worked on over multiple weeks. So, yeah, lets get into it.

 

The project first starts with a Topic Pitch. I think that this writing assignment was to re-jog our memory. The question was: “Are people nowadays destroyers or protectors of the environment?” I went with the obvious answer (yes). I talked about oil harvesting, factories, and peoples need to capitalize on everything. I think that this activity was to jog our memory on how to write and maybe learning about some potential issues.

Throughout the next couple weeks we learned about different styles of writing. Introducing Evidence With Context, Writing Explanations, Writing Reveiws, and a couple of Vocabulary Quiz’s. These were all done using a web browser called CommonLit. This program is like an online worksheet, using multiple choice questions and writing short explanations. Not only can you take tests and assessments, but we also read a ton of fictional and non fictional about the environment and used our lessons in writing to find hidden meanings, and use evidence to answer questions about the text.

While we were working on these Commonlit activities, we were also working on our letter. Our letter was the main point of the project. We had to write a letter to a respectable member of parlement that plays a major role in our environmental issue. I decided to choose Tanker Traffic in the Burrard Inlet. I live Cates Park. Cates sits right on the bank of the inlet so I see a lot of tankers coming through, passing by, and anchoring in the inlet. My fist drafts were not that great, and I didn’t put a great amount of effort into them. After my first couple revisions, I started getting serious. I put a lot more effort and a lot more research and it got approved. Here’s a comparison between my first and last draft if you feel like reading.

First draft ⬆️

Final Draft

The Final Milestone, after all of our Commonlits were completed, After our letters were written and ready to be sent to our corresponding members of parlement, We had to do a timed in class writing assignment. For this writing assignment we had to connect one of the fiction/nonfiction Commonlit stories and connect them to our letter. We wrote an outline the class before and the next class we wrote. Including all the grammar lessons that we learned in Commonlit were not required, but recommended so I tried to include introducing evidence and context as much as I could. I got a pretty good grade on that so I was pretty happy about that.

all in all, I Thought this project was OK. It might’ve just been me not used to school but I felt like there were more creative and ”hands on project”. I felt like writing the letter and sending it our to our member of parliament was a good experience for the future and the Commonlit was great to learn about grammar and the environment. A strong start to the year but not my favourite project.

Sending My letter to the Honourable John Horgan! (I’m in the blue.)