teachingmedialiteracy wiki / Spring, 2008 final project reports (Swiss's online class)

The whole comic book thing has been popping in and out of my mind throughout this course and
after trying to hash out a final project idea on media representations, I
decided to come back to comic books and think a little bit more about
that....so here's where I'm going ....

I’ve really thought quite a bit about comic books/graphic novels throughout
this class. I had the chance to teach a very quick 2 day lesson on comic
book genre this past winter, and I loved it. So after hemming and hawing
for too long about this project, I’ve decided on this:

After spending a bit of time reading and learning about short stories, my
students will create their own short story, only in comic book form. They
must include all elements of the short story which will be a great way for
them to put to use what they just learned in the past unit. But we will
need to look at the different shots that they can draw to create different
effects to their story. Students will learn vocabulary that is unique to
the comic book genre, such as panel, open panel, balloon, caption, emanata,
block, gutter, and a handful of words. I’ll use
http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/comic/vocabulary.html', 'Comic
Vocabulary’ as a tool to help students see examples of the comic book
vocabulary. Along with this vocabulary, student will be introduced to
different types of film/shot techniques, such as long shot, medium shot,
close-up shot and so on. After going through the writing/drawing process
students will turn in a completed short story comic.

Here’s where we step it up! Now that student has studied and used different
shots in their comic books students will be ready and raring to go for the
film unit. For my final project I will expand on the specific lessons are
included in the comic book unit and the film unit. I plan to include
specific films along with lessons that will go along with some of the
films.

Joshua L:

I would like to create a class outline which would be geared

towards a high school level class. Since one of my favorite assignments we

have done this semester involved YouTube, (WK 7 I believe), I would like to

use it as a cornerstone to my student's work. I believe that YouTube has

changed in a few different ways. First, YouTube has changed the way a

younger audience can access information. The upcoming generations of the

world, like we've been studying in this course, is a generation that has

used tools like media to get their information when and where they want it.

With a tool like YouTube there comes pros and cons. I would like to explore

some of these pros and cons through a lesson plan composed of 15 to 20

lessons which would take approximately 45-60 minutes to complete each. The

lesson plan would involve a similar template like the one we've used in

this class (if it ain't broke don't fix it, am I right?) with items like

READ, WRITE, WATCH, RECORD etc. Through this class I hope my students will

see both the value and limitations of a medium like YouTube.

Kimberly M:

For my final project I'd like to create a multi-media portfolio for a
curriculum unit in high school English. Specifically I want to create a
curriculum unit surrounding a book or series of books that have similar
themes, motifs and symbolism. Having my students read these books we'd then
use the multi media tools that I have learned through this course to find
movies, songs, music videos, websites etc. to further discuss these ideas.
Then we'd continue our discussion on a message board or wiki. For the
logistics of the project I'd like to combine my paper with power point
presentations that would be used in class, as well as hand outs and
possibly starting a sample wiki.

I want to do this project because it will be the first curriculum I would
have created. SInce I am not yet teaching I'm really looking forward to
learning not only how to apply these new skills but I will also learn how
to lesson plan etc. I want this to work because I'd love to be able to do
this for all of my units.

Lisa Holton

Since I was most interested in the critcal analysis approaches and got a

good mental workout from that week, I am planning to write goals and units

which incorporate the instruction and application of these various

approaches. I plan to create instructional plans as well as evaluation

outcomes for the critical approaches. I will outline various pieces of

media which will be brought in to evaluate as means of teaching and

practicing our analytical skills. I hope to pull from all corners of the

media world and weave the selections together to promote generalization of

analytical skills. For a better idea about where I'll be starting from, see

my discussion board post from week 4.

I have selected this project because it was personally challenging for me