Digital Storytelling and Multimodal Composition (Blog #4)
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When multimodal composition comes to mind, the only project I can vividly remember is from my senior year of high school. I took a critical thinking class with a very influential teacher in my education. His name was Mr. Schreiber. His class taught us to never take things at face value and to always critically analyze things presented to us. We had a unit about subliminal messaging in specifics to advertisements. We learned that subliminal messaging is the key to selling products on commercials and were prompted to write our own scripts and create our own commercials. Our commercials were meant to show our understanding of subliminal messaging and create something to show the class. It prompted us to go out of our comfort zones and use multiple modes of writing and creating to make a finalized product. After te class is shown the commercial, they were asked to point out every piece of subliminal messaging they had seen. It was the best feeling to create a commercial with a subliminal message so obscure that no one realizes it... (my partner and I did that).
And lucky for you all... the video is up on YouTube.
This lesson was not only fun to make, but it stuck with me four years later. I recognize subliminal messaging in commercials, mass media, articles read for class, and in day-to-day life. Multimodal composition fosters skills in writing and more. In our case we had to write a script which supported our writing skills. We also learned a computer program to edit videos, how to add voice to videos, how to edit videos, and uploading videos to YouTube. These are skills that are applicable in daily life. The skills that I learned have come in handy in helping others with similar projects and allowing me to show a sense of mastery in a skill that isn't available to everyone. It set me ahead, which is one of the many benefits of multimodal composition.
As Jodi said in Hicks et. al.'s Reimagining Writing Process Via Digital Storytelling, "the process of writing a digital story has affected me as a writer in more ways than I could ever imagine" (180). I related to this too. I learned and retained so much more from this multimodal lesson. If we were to have written a paper instead, I wouldn't have remembered a thing.
The other experience I had of Multimodal projects wasn't one I created, but witnessed in elementary. We would always watch book trailers prior to the scholastic book fair. It was a great way to introduce books and was something that I enjoyed. It sparked an interest in reading in me at a young age. Multimodal learning is applicable for all age groups. Don't forget about our young kids and let them experiment and experience multimodal learning. I remember one specific book trailer from my childhood and I'll share it below.
Multimodal teaching and projects have the potential to reach students and stick with them for life. These two examples range from four years ago all the way back to 2008. I remember these vividly (Though the swindle book trailer was difficult to find at first). I actually had to look up black dog book, then look up the breed which I didn't know... It was a hassle but I remembered the video so vividly I had to. These two small things stuck with me for life and that is the power that multimodal learning has.
omg, you unlocked a core memory of scholastic book fair trailers! I remember being in grade school and watching one about the series of unfortunate events books and the author Lemony Snicket was like blacked out with a voice changer and he said that he has to stay anonymous ahahhaha. -Krista
Alyssa here. Dude, your blogs are always my favorites. Like just super relatable! And yes, scholastic book fairs were the bomb. I never had any money though, but looking at all the shiny book covers was the highlight of my elementary education. Let's be real though, I would have gotten a flappy eraser or something!
Hi Dylan! I love that the video you made is still up - that's so hilarious and totally awesome! It's so great that projects and teachers that really connect with students can stick with them for years after. I was super obsessed with the book fair, and I think that's a pretty universally shared memory that we can all look back on fondly :) Even in the comments, it makes me so happy to see that a BOOK FAIR could have this huge effect on pretty much everyone who experienced it
Hey y'all, so I read the graphic novel Skim by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki. Skim was overall a really good and fast read. I'd highly recommend it to someone who wants to get into graphic novels, even though there can be a few triggers throughout the reading. Below this you will find a short book trailer I composed to see if the book is anything that would interest you. I covered up any potential spoilers with text so there's that lmao... Also, if you would like to use the program, Biteable , feel free! It's free to use I found making a book trailer to be quite difficult. It was really hard to make the book sound interesting and compelling without giving any spoilers. It took me longer than I thought it would to create it because of that. I tried using stock images, but I felt like it didn't have the same effect as if I used the images from the novel. I'd say my favorite thing about creating this was finding images that conveyed what I wanted to say without spoil...
The blogging experience is not one I will quickly forget. It was nice, for once, to be able to talk about important things and not worry about sounding professional. It was great to solely write and have fun with it. I took a lot away from this experience too. I learned how valuable low stakes writing can be, how helpful it can be to generate a positive outlook on writing, and honestly I just enjoyed it (I may look into blogging more casually, and potentially have a professional one too). I will be selecting my top blogs based upon the following categories: Professionalism, Design, and creativity. I then will select one of my Peer's blogs that I enjoyed overall. " Tonight is the Dundies, the annual employee awards night here at Dunder Mifflin. [holds up a trophy of a business man] And this is everybody’s favorite day. Everybody looks forward to it, because, you know, a lot of the people here don’t get trophies, very often. " -Michael Scott Professionalism What Young Wri...
What's up?! My name is Dylan and I guess you're reading my blog. As I'm writing this, I am currently on my fifth year of college and my third year at UW Milwaukee. I am currently student teaching English 10 at The Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education and it already is playing a major role at how I view English Education. This is a school where a large amount of the student population don't care about learning or have simply been "swept up" by life. These students have had to deal with hardships that I can barely understand, but looking past these hardships I see students with a fire to survive and thrive in whatever way they deem necessary. My goal, as an educator is to provide these students with the tools they need to survive and thrive after high school. I would also love to spark an interest in reading for the kids too. Helping students learn applicable skills, like writing emails, leaving voicemails, and even creating a resume can help ...
omg, you unlocked a core memory of scholastic book fair trailers! I remember being in grade school and watching one about the series of unfortunate events books and the author Lemony Snicket was like blacked out with a voice changer and he said that he has to stay anonymous ahahhaha. -Krista
ReplyDeleteAlyssa here. Dude, your blogs are always my favorites. Like just super relatable! And yes, scholastic book fairs were the bomb. I never had any money though, but looking at all the shiny book covers was the highlight of my elementary education. Let's be real though, I would have gotten a flappy eraser or something!
ReplyDeleteHi Dylan! I love that the video you made is still up - that's so hilarious and totally awesome! It's so great that projects and teachers that really connect with students can stick with them for years after. I was super obsessed with the book fair, and I think that's a pretty universally shared memory that we can all look back on fondly :) Even in the comments, it makes me so happy to see that a BOOK FAIR could have this huge effect on pretty much everyone who experienced it
ReplyDelete