Sunday, May 30, 2010

Multimodal Media Projects

As a final project for your junior year in English, you'll have an opportunity to demonstrate your interest and capabilities across a variety of modalities. The list below gives you ideas from which you can draw. You will post your work on your blog, so please revisit and update your blog as necessary before beginning this project.  Please remember to tag your blog posts with your pseudonym.

Prior to beginning a multimodal project, you are required to conference with Dr. Carolyn. She will discuss your ideas and offer you input so that you can be really successful.

Remember:  Your multimodal project will contain the nine research sources (minimally) that you compiled over the last three weeks.  Each project must include MLA citations for all texts.

Advertisement
Create a public service advertisement about the issue that you have chosen. It should highlight visual aspects of the issue for your audience by including a slogan, captions, and prominent and easy-to-comprehend visual icons. It should be 8.5” x 11” and be able to be reproduced as a full-page magazine ad.  Beware!  It's difficult to create an advertisement that looks like a professional advertising agency composed it. You'll need to learn about the various elements that contribute to a professional advertisement.

Amazon.com Super Book Review
Write critical analyses of books about your issue. To begin, you should also review other book reviews on Amazon.com and critique their reviews so you demonstrate real comprehension of the genre.  In addition to posting on your blog, you must also post your review on Amazon with your pseudonym.

American Memory Multimodal Imagination
American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. These materials, from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas. Compile research from American Memory about your issue and create an imaginative multimodal construction.

Blogs from Beyond
Create a Super Blog that gathers together what other people around the world are saying about your issue. Read several blogs on the internet that discuss aspects of your Issue. Cite and synthesize each blog’s main ideas in a succinct annotation. Hotlink to their blogs.  Fabulous "Blogs from Beyond" will have conversations with the bloggers you discover and develop a dialogue with other bloggers who have interests similar to your own about your issue.

Blog Narrative
Feeling a time crunch?  Why not consider simply creating a series of nine blog posts that incorporate each of the research resource requirements?  You would have a beginning, middle, and end to your narrative.  You could add interesting visual effects, too, if you find that you do have extra time.

Body Biography
This is a human outline that you fill with images and words that represent your understanding of a teen who experiences your issue. The Body Biography is a visual and written portrait illustrating several aspects of the character's life. Step back and think about each part of the body, and decide what symbols the different parts stand for in relation to this teen’s life. Heart (love), spine (motivation), hands (touch), feet (beliefs and values), and other body parts have special meanings to your teen. Interpret those meanings. Also, include research excerpts and rich descriptive passages of your own writing and voice to support your ideas.

Gallery Display 
This is a series of objects that have cultural significance to the teen issue which interests you.  The objects take on special significance due to the descriptions you attach to them. The gallery items connect to the themes and content of your issue. Each Gallery Display Item must have a 3-4 sentence caption that describes the significance of the object in conjunction with the teen issue.  The Gallery will build into a presentation that is similar to works of art in a museum or independent gallery.

Graffiti Wall
Think of your blog as a long wall--- a canvas on which you can provide your own imprint and impressions.  Prominently write the name of your issue in large font so that the audience of your blog is aware of the teen issue around which you're working.  Around the name of the issue, with colorful, handwritten-like font, write down lots of ideas about your Issue. These ideas can include direct excerpts from your research, important words and phrases, quotations about the issue from experts, and data.  When you're done, it should look like a Graffitti Wall but have a persuasive message that connects the items to the issue at hand.

International Teen Newspaper
Create your own Super Newspaper by creating a layout that seems like it is a real newspaper.  You could surf newspapers around the world, too, to learn what other people in other countries are saying about your Issue. A good place to start is at the website, Commondreams.org, which has a left frame with hotlinks to major international daily newspapers. Create your Super Newspaper by hotlinking to the research you have compiled.  Make your newspaper look like a newspaper with banner, headlines, photographs, interviews, advertisements, attributions, and other typical elements.

Internet Comic Book
Create a booklet of words and images of sequential art about your Issue. Integrate a narrative about different dimensions and controversies of your issue into a flexible and powerful printed format. This project selection is not for the art-challenged, like Dr. Carolyn! You must be able to upload your final Comic Book onto your class blog, so be conscious of any technology needs ahead of time if you choose this project.

Movie Trailer
The goal is to create a movie trailer of a fictitious movie based on your Issue. First, write a script. Next, plan out how you will assemble visuals and narration into a cohesive narration.  You can film it or create a Microsoft Photostory or Microsoft Movie Maker composition.

Music Montage
This is a compilation of several pieces of music that speak to the various points of view different people hold about your Issue. This should be accompanied with visuals and/ or lyrics to create a multimodal response. Post the lyrics with songwriter credits on your class blog... but beware of copyright infringement!  You can also layer narration and graphics into a streamed series of persuasive issues that use music to create meaning.  Our own high school Sound in the Hall recording studio may be of assistance to you.

Photographic Slide Show
This is a photographic representation of themes and content of your Issue through images. You may choose among photos artwork, graphics, museum artifacts, and other digital artifacts. You should arrange your slide show so that the images build into a narrative: you should tell a story through your selection of images.

Point of View Plea
This is a filmed appeal from the hypothetical point of view of someone who dramatizes what is means to be emotionally involved with your Issue. He or she should talk directly to the camera and discuss the Issue honestly and openly. Be creative, though: remember, lectures aren’t persuasive.

‘Zine
This on-line magazine reflects your feelings, opinions, and uncertainties about your Issue. You can hotlink to other texts such as editorial, newspaper columns, feature articles, blogs, and advertisements. A ‘Zine is a hypertext composition, so you need to make design decisions about layout, white space, fonts, color balance, visual proportioning, and headlines.