Personal Project Report

The Life of The Baby Bear

Student Name: Alishova Sona

Supervisor: Afat Nabiyeva

Project Goal: To draw children’s attention on the global

warming problem

Word Count: 2237

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 Table of contents

Investigating ……………………………………………………………………………… 3
Inspiration ………………………………………………………………………… 3
Goal and Global Context ………………………………………………… 3
Prior Knowledge ………………………………………………………………. 4
Research …………………………………………………………………………… 4

Planning …………………………………………………………………………………………5
Development process …………………………………………………………5
Self-Management ……………………………………………………………… 6

Taking Action …………………………………………………………………………………… 7

Developing the product ………………………………………………………… 7
Thinking skills ………………………………………………………………………… 7
Communication ………………………………………………………………………... 7

Reflecting ………………………………………………………………………………………… 8
Knowledge and understanding ……………………………………………… 8
Evaluating the product …………………………………………………………… 9
Development as a learner …………………………………………………… 10

Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………………… 12

Appendices ……………………………………………………………………………………… 13

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 Criterion A
Investigating

Inspiration
21st century is a century of many ecological problems.
People have used factories for the past several centuries, not
realizing that all of the waste from them is going in the
atmosphere and that one day the Earth will not be able to hold
such pressure. Because of this waste people and animals are
also suffering, as many of them are not able to live in the warm
conditions.
The global warming topic has interested me since the day
I found out what it was, and from that day I was always trying
to do everything what I could to stop it; I collected paper and
plastic for recycling instead of throwing it, tried not to turn on
the lights when it was unnecessary and never went to the zoo.

Goal and Global Context

I was inspired to create a children book, which will draw
children’s attention to the global warming problem and explain
what is it in a simple language. Therefore, I have chosen polar
bears to be the main characters, as children can be very
compassionate towards animals. According to the MYP global
contexts table1, the most suitable for my goal is Globalization
and Sustainability. This global context shows interaction in
between actions, that at first sight, have no connection but it
turns out that the are strongly connected. In my book I
described how waste products that come from the factories

1
Refer to appendix 1

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are connected with polar bears who live on the North Pole; this
shows people’s impact on environment, which is also one of the
aspects of this global context.

Prior Knowledge
As I have already mentioned before, the global warming
topic interested me since ever I learned what it was.
Therefore, my prior knowledge on the subject of global
warming wasn’t poor, yet I still did a research. What comes to
my knowledge about writing, it was limited, as I knew how to
write essays or something in general for adults, but not children
books. I had an experience with kids before, as it was described
in my process journal2; I have a little brother and I helped in
kindergarten. Therefore, I had an approximate idea of
vocabulary, that would be understandable for kids.

Research
The main aspect on which I researched was writing a
children book; I researched about the style, illustrations and
looked for references.
My primary source was digital research. It means, I
researched for the information on the internet. Mostly, I used
websites for the beginning authors, but I also watched videos
which were made by a professional illustrator, where she
described the whole process. Some information was in Russian
because I thought that people who write in different languages
have different point of views on one subject and it would be
useful to see them.

2
Refer to appendix 2
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 My secondary source were books. I went to the book
store3, where I learned what children books were sold the most.
I took those books as references to understand what will grab
children attention the most.
The third source that I used were children themselves. I
have arranged a meeting with the kids4 where we discussed the
global warming problem. Based on their knowledge on the topic,
I got an idea of what should I include in my book.

Criterion B
Planning

Development process
I started my project by choosing a book category5. Among
all of the categories, I found the most suitable for me, which
was Trade Picture Book. Next, I had to choose my writing style.
I chose to write without a rhyme, as I wanted to make a book
about our life, and in life we don’t talk with rhyme. At first, I
decided to write in a present tense to make kids sympathize
more to the main character. I wanted them to have a feeling of
going through all of this with the Baby Bear, but I ended up
writing in mixed tense depending on the part of the story. What
comes to the description of the events, I decided to write from
the third person, so that a child will feel himself or herself as
a witness of all of the events.

3
Refer to appendix 3
4
Refer to appendix 4
5
Refer to appendix 5

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 After finishing with the book category and the writing
style, I started thinking about the plot of my book. First, I
identified main characters, which were Baby Bear, Mommy Bear
and People. Then, I wrote down a rough plot overview of the
book.6
Once I was done with the content of the book, I had to
define aesthetics; specifically, appearance, cost, customers,
resources, environmental consideration, function and materials.
All of that can be seen in the aesthetics chart, that I have
created.7 After that, I chose 4 specifications, on which I have
weighed my product when it was done. These specifications can
be seen in my Criteria for success chart.8

Self-Management
Throughout the whole work on Personal Project, I have
experienced quite a lot of self-management problems. In the
beginning of the year, I just came to the school, so I could not
bare all of the work that I had to do, as I was not prepared for
that. I also, had several extracurricular activities, which made
it even more difficult to follow the deadlines. Therefore, I
experienced many difficulties with the deadlines and usually,
stayed up late at night to complete the work.
Fortunately, by the end of the year, I was already used to
the load that I got from the other lessons and we got
quarantined. For these reasons, I had more time to spend on my
Personal Project, so I no longer experienced time-management
difficulties.

6
Refer to appendix 6
7
Refer to appendix 7
8
Refer to appendix 8

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 Criterion C
Taking Action

Developing the product

With all of the information that I got, I started writing
the book. At first, I wrote down half of the story, after what
I decided to start illustrating the book. I tried to draw the
cover in a digital format and make it colorful, but then I
realized that my digital drawing skills are not that developed
and it will be hard for me to draw everything like that. Since I
have a printer with a scanner, I decided that I will draw
illustrations in my sketchbook, scan them and add the text in a
digital editor.
At all, bringing my product to life was not hard and, in my
opinion, I have successfully done it. The hardest part among all
of it was drawing the cover, as it is the first thing at which
people look, when seeing the book.

Thinking Skills
Throughout seven months of completing the Personal
Project, my thinking skills have developed a lot. I had to think
of a good plot that would actually grab child’s attention and talk
about a serious problem in a not serious way. Thanks to Personal
Project for giving me an opportunity to write my first book and
combine two different things, that at first sight cannot be
combined.

Communication
In my opinion, I have developed my communication skills a
lot while completing this project. I had to find a way to
communicate with children, who are my expected audience, in
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order to write the book properly. I did my best and tried to use
simple language while talking to them, which I later included in
the book.
I also had to communicate with the sellers at the book
store and talk to them about their best-selling children books,
which was not that hard for me, yet I faced difficulties
because not all of them were friendly.
The other way in which I have developed my communication
skills is by talking to my mother’s friend after completing the
product and asking her to read it to her daughter.

Criterion D
Reflecting

Knowledge and understanding

Throughout the 7-month long work on the Personal
Project, I increased my general knowledge about books and
techniques used by different authors. During this time, I also
improved my writing style which can be seen through the way
I keep my process journal. During the investigation stage, I
researched a lot about climate change and the various
categories of children books, which later helped me write and
interview kids in the Taking Action step. The project helped
me to understand kids better and use language, which is
simple and understandable for them. I had many difficulties
with time management at the beginning, but later, I fixed
them.
My goal was to write and illustrate a children's book
about the global which will draw their attention to this
problem. I have successfully completed by product by using
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my primary knowledge on the subject, researching skills and
the opinion of my target audience (e.g. kids of the age 4-8).
First, I showed the draft version of the book to my 7-years-
old brother, who gave his feedback, which later helped me to
improve the language in some parts and choose the ending.

Evaluating the product

Due to the current lockdown situation, I could not go to
the kindergarten, where I would read my book to the kids and
ask them questions afterwards, yet I read it to my 7-years-
old brother and asked my mother’s friend to read it to her 4-
years-old daughter.9 After she read the book to the kids, I
video-called them and asked her questions in order to see if
she could also understand the message of the book.
By using their feedback, I judged my final product by
weighing it on 4 specifications that I have chosen as my criteria
for success.10
From the table, it can be clearly seen that my product was
extremely successful, which I could not even think about at the
beginning of the school year. If I were to write another book,
I would make a few changes. Even though children liked my
book, I would make the illustrations more colorful; I did not do
that in my Final Product, because I was too scared to ruin the
pictures by adding the color. I would also translate it to French
as well, so that more people all around the world could read it.

9
Refer to appendix 9
10
Refer to appendix 10

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Development as a learner
Personal Project has helped me to develop such aspects of
IB learner profile as Principled, Thinker, Communicator and
Open-minded.
I developed my Principled learner profile by following the
deadlines and completing all of the assignments according to
the instructions.
My Thinker learner profile developed because I faced
various situations where I had to think of a solution, especially
in the current lockdown situation.
I developed my Communicator learner profile by meeting
with different kids and trying to find the ways to talk to them
in a way that they would understand and listen to me.
My Open-minded learner profile has been developed by me
looking at the global warming problem through children’s
perspective and understanding how they see this situation and
feel about it.
Personal project has also helped me to improve my ATL
skills, which I needed as an IB learner. My communication and
social skills have improved the most, as I arranged several
meetings with the kids, where I talked to them, listened to
their opinion and asked them various questions. The other part
of working on this project, which has also improved my
communication skills is when I talked to my mother’s friend,
asking them to read my book to their kids and after that talking
with kids about the content and the idea of the book.
My self-management skills have also grown immensely. If
in the beginning of the year I was very anxious about completing
my project and thought that 7 months won’t be enough for me
to complete it, now I am fully confident in my outcome and I
have met the deadline.

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 My research skills have also increased a lot, as during the
Investigation stage I did a lot of research on the topic of
climate change and writing children books. This later helped me
in my Taking Action stage, as I was more enlightened on these
topics.
My creative and critical thinking skills have also improved.
I faced such difficulties as the lockdown, which didn’t let me
read the book to the kids myself and the loss of the photos,
which made me meet with different children and talk to them,
which was also beneficial, as now I relied on the opinion of more
kids while Taking Action.
The global context chosen by me was “Globalization and
Sustainability”. This global context allows us to “explore the
interconnectedness of human-made systems and communities;
the relationship between local and global processes; how local
experiences mediate the global.” This context perfectly fits my
project, as in my book I talk about how factories affect the
climate, which then affects icebergs, which then leads polar
bears to lose their home. Here we can see how at first sight
there are two things that have nothing in common, but then we
understand how strongly connected they are, which is a
relationship between local and global processes.
In conclusion, the Personal Project has helped me achieve
one of my biggest childhood dreams; I wrote a book. The Final
Product became my first which is very important for me, as a
future writer. I will definitely continue with writing books
because it was an inexpressible experience; I got to see how
my characters developed throughout the book and how their
personality changed. I will apply the skills gained while working
on Personal Project in my future writings.

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 Bibliography

https://kindlepreneur.com/how-to-write-a-childrens-book/ Eevi Jones.

January 16, 2018

“Agatha Girl of Mystery. The crown of Venice #7” Steve

Stevenson. November 13, 2014

“Dr. Ouch” Korney Chukovsky. 1929

“Look Inside Animal Homes” Emily Bone, September 4, 2018

“Cinderella” Charles Perrault. 1697

https://youtu.be/B5SJszsiEGs Anna Lomakina. May 15, 2019

https://youtu.be/wqpLkz-2sRQ Anna Lomakina. July 28, 2018

https://www.leonardodicaprio.org/projects/climate-change/

“How Big Are Your Worries, Little Bear?” Jayneen Sanders.

November 28, 2017

“It’s Okay to Make Mistakes” Todd Parr. July 15, 2014

“Wally and Mae” Cristina Kempter. 2008

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 Appendices

Appendix 1- MYP Global Context Table

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Appendix 2- Process Journal Entry

Appendix 3- Going to book store

Appendix 4- Meeting with children

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Appendix 5- Choosing a book category

Appendix 6- Plot overview from the Process Journal

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Appendix 7- Aesthetics Chart from the Process Journal

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Appendix 8- Criteria for success chart from the Process
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Journal

2 3

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Appendix 9- Reading the book to the kids and asking them
questions

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Appendix 10- Weighing on Final Product against the
specifications (Extract from the Process Journal)

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