This assignment allowed me to have creativity and self-expression while also developing media literacy. Sometimes teachers only teach traditional literacy, but in modern society it's just as important for students to have media literacy. Better yet, both forms of literacy can be brought together in the classroom, like Mr. Kaufman did with his class's social media adaptation projects in which he had his students adapt a classic literature work into a media platform. I guess that is what I did with this project too, adapting and interpreting "Ode to Oranges" into my own media platform! Just like the students I realized that creating is a PROCESS. Just like the students, I decided HOW I was going to adapt the literature into another form and what media form that was going to be. I decided on a video based off of A Todd's video, retaining many of his artistic qualities but with my own twist. I also transformed the introductory passage of "Ode to Oranges" into my own passage at the end of my video, showing my own adaptation and twist on it. I knew I wanted to create a video and needed a software/app to do it. I researched and found that windows filmora was a good option. Next, just like the students I identified significant aspects/elements of the literature to focus on. I identified a theme and focused on the obsessing over something part of "Ode to Oranges". I also identified a theme and focus on video clips of real sounds and people like in A Todd Smith's video. Just like the students, I made conscious artistic choices when creating this video media. I had to integrate words, images, and sound into my video. I edited and revised the video clips, cutting and filtering the clips. When filming and editing the video clips, I chose which aesthetic qualities, images and sounds of the soda to highlight and accentuate. I wanted to focus on texture, color, and sound of soda. I thought about what I should and shouldn't include in my video, eliminating or cutting out unnecessary sections of clips. I had a continuous process of analyzing and revising my video, and then reflecting on how it looked. Benjamin Thevenin in his article "Media Arts: Creating" describes three continuous creative processes: critical analysis, research and reflection. I think I used all these processes throughout my adaptation. I especially did the critical analysis by refining, modifying and revising the video clips. I included research when trying to find an adaptable media platform with Filmora. As part of "reflecting on your own creative practice", I could have reflected more on the software I used and if it would be exportable without a cost. These processes all show what it means to be literate in media text.
Overall, this project and Thevenin's article taught me that as teachers we need to give our students more media literacy education. I agree with what he said that, "Too often, young people's participation in social media is passive rather than critical and creative" (131). With projects like these students practice "refining and modifying media artworks, honing aesthetic quality and intentionally accentuating stylistic elements" (124). They practice working and engaging with different types of texts, realizing there are multiple types--classic literature and social media platforms are both "texts". Media texts are just as important, and Thevenin wants to "emphasize to the students the necessity of critically considering their engagement with all types of media" (128). They should engage with many texts and practice analyzing and creating with different media forms.
I don't want to just be an English teacher but a "media arts educator" that helps my students be literate, creative and informed with media!
I really loved how you chose to transform the original "Ode to an Orange." You kept the main tone, idea, and nostalgia in the original story, yet you changed it to reflect something that gave you all of those feelings (soda) just like the author felt about his oranges. Rather than reflecting on the story line of the "Ode to an Orange," you maintained the essence of the story, but transformed it into something that was more meaningful to you. I really, really loved that! I could tell by watching your video that the sounds of soda, the taste of soda, the friendship that often involves drinking soda, had had just as powerful an impact on you as the oranges had had on the author. I loved that you kept those feelings, but transformed the subject. It was very creative and something that no one else thought to do!
ReplyDeleteBecause of the way you manipulated the idea of an orange to a soda, you very effectively explored new possible meanings. All of a sudden, the ode wasn't about oranges and Christmas time, it became about loving the multiplicities of life. It became about reveling in simple pleasures. It became about powerful sounds, tastes, and feelings that throw a person back into the sweet multiplicities that are found in life.
I motives that you considered the context of mood and tone, rather than just the story line. You considered how to bring in the same feelings, in a more personal level. I loved it! Well done.