How do we as writers make our message clear and engaging to an audience?

Hey blog, I haven’t been here for a while, but I finally have a new project to post about: Rise of the Frankenstuffies!

This was a big project, which included me making my own stuffie, a written story about it, and then creating a movie about it. This may be one of the harder project I have done, because of all of the components. 

Let’s start by going over what the actual project was. We started by understanding the driving question, How do we as writers make our message clear and engaging to an audience? We had to create a story that clearly articulates the message/theme, while still being engaging and entertaining. (Purposeful communication, engaging creativity and meaning making, and effective production skills)

The easiest part of this whole process was making the actual stuffie, and reading the book “Leviathan”. The stuffie I created was a teddy bear with some frog legs, and a platypus’s tail and nose. So while we were in the starting process for our stuffie, we read the book “Leviathan”, doing reflections on it every week. “Leviathan”, was the perfect story for us to read, because it has a lot to do about weird creature-mutants, while following the “Hero’s journey” premise. Our reflections of the book helped me understand why the book was successful. Brainstorming for our characters followed, which slowly transitioned into creating characters files and storyboards.


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Then we started writing the actual story. I had a hard time with this because creative writing is really hard for me. It took me a long time to actually start writing, due to me not being able to come up with anything. I wish I would have just started writing, instead of trying to write perfectly the first try. I also wanted to be able to compunicate the idea of my story without writing too much. My first draft was very short, and basically just a chunk of writing describing what was going to happen. It wasn’t written like an engaging “hero’s journey”, but instead a brainstorm for what a hero’s journey would look like.

My second draft was a a lot stronger, a story I’m actually really proud of.  I feel like this story is really entertaining, and something I would actually read in real life.

Now that my written form of this project was complete, I needed to make my digital media representation. Through this movie I needed to show my production skills, which I think I did very well. The platforms I used to create it were Keynote and iMovie. When looking at my storyboard, you can see there are many scenes(138 to be exact) and I animated around that many slides to complete my movie. Then I put it into iMovie to add sound. I think my movie is very detailed, and has strong animation. I feel like my movie doesn’t really tell the audience what I wanted it to. The message I wanted to convey was something along the lines of “Don’t let your fears/pains stop you from getting what you want”. 

From a producing point-of-view, I really struggled with was finishing it by deadlines. The way I chose to make it took me a long time, and because it was a new way for me to create, I had to learn along the way. 

Overall, this project taught me a lot of things. I got to work on my creative writing skills, communication skills through different media, media creating skills, and also a personal growth: time management. Because of how big but fast-moving this project was, when I noticed myself leaving things to the last minute, or handing things in late, it got harder every time to get back on track. I have a better understanding of the importance of meeting deadlines.

I hope you have liked my story, in both media forms! To give me direct feedback, click the link below! It will take you to a platform that you can give me direct feedback, make a comment, or ask a question!

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Driving question: How has the portrayal of Louis Riel changed over time?

When I got back to school after winter break, I learned about my last project for Humanities in semester 1. For my three last weeks, I was going to learn about Louis Riel, and how his portrayal changed over time. I was ALSO going to be improving my writing abilities.

Now, to be able to answer the driving question I was given for this project, “How has the portrayal of Louis Riel changed over time?”, I need to learn the basics first. We spent lots of time learning about who Louis Riel was, where he was from, what he did, and who it effects. At the same time, we were also spending time learning about how we can use stronger words. These stronger words would help us improve writing pieces, and understand how to express a powerful message. We used frayar models, and other tools to help us with this.

Now that I had a good understanding of him generally, I started to her more about different portrayals of him. A really good example we looked at were two statues. One statue, made by Marcien Lemay and Étienne Gaboury, presents a very weak, powerless man. The figure has a distorted body, that is leaning over and has his hands behind his back. Then we looked at a different statue Miguel Joyal, that showed a very strong, powerful, heroic man. The figure is standing tall, is well dressed, and holding a scroll. The first statue was made in 1973, while the second one was made in 1996. From this comparison, you can see how negatively Louis Riel was viewed. Over time though, more positive portrayals of Riel came to life, as more people started to learn about him from more then just one perspective.

With all the information I had gathered, I could create my multi-paragraph response to the driving question! I had a very hard time with this. I found I had a really hard time starting my project, but with the help of an amazing teacher, I found myself creating something I am quite proud of. I got feedback from my peers, and from my teachers, leaving me with writing that I want to share. I feel I met the criteria, and showed my analyzing skills through my writing. I used two examples that we learned about as evidence, and explained how the portrayed Louis Riel, and how that contributes to the driving question.

Through this project I learned a lot. I learned about some words, and how I can use them to enhance my writing. I learned about Louis Riel, what he did for the Métis people, and how is portrayal changed over time. These aspects of what I learned are very easy to see, but when I reflect deeper, I can see a few more things. One thing I got to really understand through this project is when you look at history, you might not be getting an accurate explanation to what happened after you read on article, or look at one piece of evidence. Especially when the evidence you are looking at was from the time period. As these events are happening, everyone will have options, and biases, which can lead the to create information that doesn’t share the full story. Morals also tend to be differnt then morals that are more common now. I really understand how much a bias can effect the way a person is seen.

This project only took 3 weeks, but was still as big and important as a project I could spend 2 months on. I learned a lot, and got to practice skills in more focused, clear ways.

I hope you enjoyed my blog, and had a RIEL good time!

How has the geography of the west shaped who we are?

This is a pretty tricky question, but I was able to answer it through what I learned on my Alberta trip.

This was a very big trip, for one week I drove around in a bus with my class, stopping at historical sights and beautiful national parks. At every place we went, I learned something new. It didn’t even have to be some fact, it could be as random as something about a classmate of mine. But all of it still somehow connected to the driving question.

I documented lots of my learning through a Digital Touch book.

For every place we went, I added photos, videos, and information I gathered from there. My main focus was about the five themes of geography; Location, Place, Human-environment interaction, Movement, and Regions. I would select one main photo that I thought really showed where we went, and then talked about which of the fives themes of geography I could see. What I found was, in every image I could see all 5. Sometimes some were much more clear then others, but as I went along in this project I found them easier to see. In my book, I do only talk about the ones that are easiest to spot. 

This part of the project really got me thinking about geography everywhere we went. I got to see these beautiful places in a new way, and I could finally look at them for more then just the beauty. I would actually be learning something.

Another thing we focused on in the book was a more historical aspect. As well as talking about geography, I included why each place was historically significant. In some places like Cave and Basin, this was very easy. Everything there taught me something, whether it was about the three boys that “founded” it, or the endangered species of snails. In other places, it was a little harder, like golden Skybridge. For the Skybridge, I had to find out more about the geography to really understand its historical significance.

So with everything I learned, how do I answer the driving question? I like to look at it from a more personal perspective. I know how the geography of the west has shaped who I am. The mountains I am surrounded by and the ocean I live near make me who I am. It is a way for me to connect with people, find passions, and calm myself. Being surrounded by diverse terrain gives me opportunities to explore and learn everyday, because this is what I am interested in. 

From a broader standpoint, the geography of the west effected the history of BC, which of course effects me. The building of the CPR, the joining of BC to the Canadian Confederation, and even the fur trade. All of this was effected by the geography of western Canada, and all of that has effected me in one way or another.

So I think this is a question that is hard to answer for everyone, because “how has the geography of the west shaped who we are” includes lots of people. If you yourself look at it in a personal way, I think the question becomes much easier. Think about what you love to do, and could you do it without the area we are surrounded by? How is your job, your family, your home effected by the environment we are in? All these questions lead to the answer of the driving question.

I think I have successfully answered the driving question, but I wanna know, what do you think?