Tanya Lloyd Ki Writing Workshop

On January 26, all grade 7 classes had the opportunity to meet Tanya Lloyd Kyi, the author of Me and Banksy, our grade 7 novel study. Ms. Kyi is a renowned author who writes books across many genres, including Mya’s Strategy to Save the World, The City of Lost Cats, and Your Brain on Stereotypes.

Me & Banksy is an informative book about surveillance, where a girl is captured on camera in an embarrassing act and the resilience she had to get back at the Principal to take down security cameras. The story embeds multiple morals and lessons that make it an incredible novel for our classes. 

In our session with Ms. Kyi, she gave us insight about writing and led with the statement, “What do you do when you get stuck.” She explained her writing process in general and specifics for Me and Banksy. On top of this, she took us through the motions of creating a well-structured story, teaching the classes certain elements that build a story. Then she guided us through a little writing workshop where we played a fun game called “The envelope game," where we brainstormed topics and traded them to do a free write. This was an enjoyable game and made writing a lot more entertaining because the topics rarely made sense! For example, "An alien with blue hair lives on a deserted island and a volcano explodes in San Diego." This was an amazing way to make writing really inspiring.

Ms. Kyi taught us fun new ways to write creative stories. She helped us go from reluctant writers to writing lovers! We are so lucky that she came for a visit and explained her process with us.