Communicating Powerfully
Tiger Pistol Shrimp
Alpheus bellulus
Soaring
Soaring
Descriptions of Portfolio Item
The Fabulous Killjoys
In Writer's Workshop, we were tasked with making a children's book that we would later read to second graders. I decided to take it a step further by writing a chapter book. I based my chapter book off of an album called ‘Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys’ by My Chemical Romance/ comic that the lead singer of My Chemical Romance created. I mostly based it off of ‘Na Na Na’, ‘Planetary [GO!], ‘SING’, and ‘Bulletproof Heart’. When we first started coming up with ideas, I knew what to do right away. When first cooking up my own perspective, I thought of the main character writing in a journal, but scrapped it because I wanted to keep the time it's set in a secret and the twist of the story shocking to the character.
I’m still not finished with the story but so far the story starts with the main character, Jenny, leaves Australia to go find her mother in the American Republic. On her journey she runs into world famous vigilantes, the Fabulous Killjoys. I created very different personalities that still work together for the different characters in my book, Party Poison, rebel, serious, Kobra Kid, rule follower, intelligent, Fun Ghoul, goofy, sweet, Jet Star, mysterious, quiet, and Dr. Death Defying, computer-savvy, awkward. As for the main character, Jenny, I try to make her as blank a canvas as I can at the beginning so that during the end you could see how much the Killjoys impacted her personality.
I feel like if I had more time I would change a lot of things, like adding more setting and dialogue, giving the characters more… characteristics and personalities. I would also just make everything make more sense and tie all the strings together more thoughtfully.
I’m still not finished with the story but so far the story starts with the main character, Jenny, leaves Australia to go find her mother in the American Republic. On her journey she runs into world famous vigilantes, the Fabulous Killjoys. I created very different personalities that still work together for the different characters in my book, Party Poison, rebel, serious, Kobra Kid, rule follower, intelligent, Fun Ghoul, goofy, sweet, Jet Star, mysterious, quiet, and Dr. Death Defying, computer-savvy, awkward. As for the main character, Jenny, I try to make her as blank a canvas as I can at the beginning so that during the end you could see how much the Killjoys impacted her personality.
I feel like if I had more time I would change a lot of things, like adding more setting and dialogue, giving the characters more… characteristics and personalities. I would also just make everything make more sense and tie all the strings together more thoughtfully.
Reflection on Iteration and Personal Growth in Portfolio Item
When I first started my book, I wanted to make the main character be writing in a journal, but scrapped the idea because I didn’t feel like I could keep something a secret or build up to something as dramatically as writing in first person. I also wanted to change around the different perspectives way more but didn’t because I didn’t want to say something that would undermine the characters personality. I feel like I grew in this by learning that each character should have a distinct personality that makes them different from just anybody.
Explanation About Portfolio Item Represents Sustainability Skill
The Tiger Pistol Shrimp is the loudest animal in the world. It is so loud, in fact, that it lets out very high pitched screeches to stun its enemies and prey. To create this project, I got inspiration from an album by My Chemical Romance, and started writing. I thought I would make my book talk a lot about trust and growing friendships and personalities. This shows the trust and growth by my characters warming up to people and ideas. It also shows trust by my main character getting won over by another character she didn’t completely trust. The main characters trust gets broken by her mother who comes back alive with the main character’s enemy as her husband. feel like, through writing Danger Days my perspective on Communicating Powerfully has changed because before I thought it just meant that you would write about a problem or topic, but now I know it needs to be a problem or topic you're interested in. I deliberately use the features of a medium and knowledge of and response to the audience to achieve a desired result through skillful delivery of content: strategic, flexible, and responsible use of format, tone, rhetoric, information, and technical language. I feel like my Children's Literature story relates to Communicating Powerfully and the Tiger Pistol Shrimp because I metaphorically screeched and stunned my audience with my powerful writing skills and story development. For example, Communicating Powerfully means, according to the SEEQS staff, "Organizes information, selects and uses an appropriate medium to effectively engage the target audience in a topic, point of view, argument, and/or creative work through the presentation of information and ideas. Listens to audience questions to ensure their understanding," but I have figured out through this project that it means "SEEQers write about what’s on their mind about a topic they feel passionately about with a respectful perspective and a strong stance."
