With so many powerful writing tools at our disposal, what elements of writing do our students need to consider and transfer over from their current understandings of print? Think about this question as you read Chapter 4, and then consider the following questions:
1. How can the MAPS heuristic help you define the writing task for students as well as begin to think about assessment of the multimedia work that they will produce? After reading the chapter, how comfortable would you feel assessing students using multimedia compositions that may be new to us?
2. Take some time to visit the Flickr page dedicated to visual stories (mentioned on p. 63 of Hicks). Read carefully through the instructions the site gives for those who participate. Pick 2 submissions to positively critique, and 2 submissions that you have suggestions for. What made you like/dislike the submissions you chose? What elements of author's craft helped you critique the submissions?
(Just in case the link in questions #2 doesn't work for you, the web address you should visit is www.flickr.com/groups/visualstory )
Liz's response to question #1
ReplyDeleteThe MAPS heuristic helps define writing for students because it clearly explains each element of author’s craft. By including both the print-based persuasive essay and the public service announcement on the MAPS heuristic on page 56, students can understand the important differences between the two examples. Including an explanation of each element on the MAPS heuristic also helps students critically examine their writing. When assessing students’ multimedia compositions, the MAPS heuristic can be used to critically examine the written pieces and focus on the writer’s craft through a chosen media. I think, using the MAPS heuristic allows teachers to evaluate multimedia compositions more holistically.
After reading chapter 4 in Hicks (2009), I feel comfortable assessing students’ multimedia compositions. I would approach the assessment of multimedia compositions as a learning process everyone is going through, even the teacher. I think it would be important to include students in the creation of assessment tools. I think both teachers and students are exploring new possibilities in writing and assessment, and these discoveries should be done collaboratively. I believe the biggest challenge when assessing multimedia compositions is not stifling creativity with too many restrictions or limitations.
Liz's response to question #2:
ReplyDeleteI would give the visual story Running With Scissors on Flickr a positive rating. I thought the title was catchy and pictures used to tell the story made me laugh. I think the last picture of the medical center was a great surprise ending. When thinking about the elements of author’s craft in this visual story, the mode, media, audience, purpose, and situation were critically thought through. Life as a Coke Bottle also made me laugh. I thought the story being told was interesting. I thought about the writer who put this unique piece together, and what he or she was thinking about to come up with this. The mode, media, audience, and situation were critically thought through. I think the purpose was less clear but maybe this was created just to make people laugh, which it did! Finding Her Feet was another visual story I liked. It was an amazing story about a mother and baby. Each picture captured an important event of the baby standing up on her own. The mode, media, audience, purpose, and situations were critically thought about in this visual story.
The visual story My Mom and I lacked a real story being told. There wasn’t enough substance in the pictures to convey a message. I understood what the author was trying to say, but I thought the elements of author’s craft were lacking. The mode and media were considered but I think the author did not think enough about the purpose, audience, and situation. The visual story Flowers are Beautiful did not appeal to me. There was no story told through the 5 pictures used. There were just 5 pictures of different flowers. I don’t believe the author considered the element of author’s craft, and therefore this particular visual story lacks the ability to tell a story.
Dr. Jones's Post in response to Question #1
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate Hicks' discussion and particularly the heuristic detailed in Figure 4.1. One of the points that hit me as I was reading this is that even when designing traditional writing assignments I always try to include a notation about audience or audience-awareness in my directions or instructions, but now I am wondering if I need to be more explicit in my rubrics as well? I was just looking at the 6+1 traits again and I realized that as these traits are described, rarely if ever, is an attention to "those who are most likely to receive your work and what they value in good writing" (Hicks, p. 57).
I so appreciate the way Hicks provides teachers to ease into designing and assessing multimedia compositions. As long as teachers begin by using their knowledge of writing as a process and the rhetorical triangle (i.e., relationship between reader/writer/text) and they are very reflective and metacognitively aware of their comprehension processes as they try to "read" multimedia texts, then they should be able to develop the competency needed to assess multimedia text.
Dr. Jones' response to Question 2: Flicker 5-Frames
ReplyDeleteBig Bad Pirate Bully: I think this one needs 5 more frames. Am I supposed to be pleased that the bully "gets away with it?" I also don't really understand why this girl? Does the wedding dress/white dress signify something? Did he love her, but it was unrequited? I also think the author could gain at least one frame easily by introducing both characters in the first frame, even if the pirate was only partially in the frame.
Running with Scissors: I know Liz said she liked this one and I did "get it," but I wonder if that is because I'm familiar with this adage. If someone read these frames that did not know what scissors are, if they would get it? Also, (and maybe I'm just being too picky, but....) a question that came to my mind at the end of the photo-essay was ...whose to say it was the scissors that hurt the runner? It could be that he was rocking out to U2 and didn't see the bicyclist coming around the corner and ran into him... and maybe it was the bicyclist who got hurt by the scissors....? A question I'm still thinking about is how literal how explicit does an author need to be?
Breast Cancer: Now this one I liked that everything wasn't said "explicitly and obviously." Each image alone evokes an emotional response that when ordered in this way leave the reader with a particularly hopeful and reassuring sense of this woman's journey.
First Baby-Carrot Puree: This one is really great. I think the title could be improved to serve as a better "hook" (Furr) because I scrolled by it a few times, but I think the author provided a complete and compelling piece here. And as one of the other commenters stated, the fact that the writer zoomed in with each frame added to the interest and detail of the character's action and emotion.
Melissa N.'s response to Question 1
ReplyDeleteThe MAPS heuristic would be a useful tool to help define writing tasks for students. It clearly explains the mode, media, audience, purpose, and situation; this is helpful, as it seems that these aspects can be ignored or confused in many students' pieces. When I wrote essays in high school, I remember paying very little attention to a potential audience (other than my teacher) and to the true purpose (other than to get a grade). Having a MAPS heuristic attached to the assignment sheet would have benefited greatly, as it clearly defines each of these aspects of the writing assignment. In addition, the MAPS heuristic is so versatile that it can be adapted to fit each assignment, making it usable for both essays as well as other multimedia projects, such as the public service announcement video mentioned in Hicks (2009) chapter 4.
After reading the chapter, I feel that assessing students using multimedia compositions that are new or unfamiliar to me could potentially be overwhelming. However, with the MAPS heuristic, this process would be easier, since the criteria are clearly outlined and are specific to the particular assignment. With the MAPS elements clearly established, it would be easier to navigate any unfamiliar aspects of the new media used in the compositions in order to assess the MAPS criteria.
Melissa N.'s response to Question 2
ReplyDeleteI would give Life as a Coke Bottle a positive rating, since it tells a complete story of the "life" of a Coke bottle, as if it were a person. When I initially browsed through the frames to get an idea of my opinion about this piece, I did not notice that the Coke bottle in the first image is smaller than the Coke bottle in the second image. Once I went back to this piece to post my comments, I noticed this small, but creative, detail. It really struck me that the person who created this story gave an inanimate object, such as a Coke bottle, a "life" and a family. Would the Coke bottle's "death" occur once someone takes it out of the refrigerator to drink it?
I would also give The Break-In a positive rating. While it is not the most pleasant series of images (in fact, it is quite scary to think about the possibility of someone breaking into my house or apartment), the series of events reads like a movie scene. While there isn't a clear "ending" in terms of what happens after the homeowner catches the criminal in the house, this story's last image appealed to me as an appropriate ending, since the issue of a home invader is resolved once she is caught. I like that the viewer is able to create her own idea of what happened next.
I wish that Traveling included more distinct, individual images. While I understood that the intent was to demonstrate the photographer's travels through the city, the middle images did not convey enough of a journey, as they were not distinct enough from each other. Also, the final image did not strike me as a true ending, as the final destination of the photographer is unclear. Did her or she intend to stop in the middle of the road? Was this a particular street with a particular building on it? That part was unclear to me.
Spaghetti? didn't make much sense to me. Each individual image was clever, but I didn't feel that they all flowed together into a cohesive story. My impression after viewing the images was that, after attempting to make spaghetti, the photographer decided to get pizza instead. However, I don't believe that the images made it clear how many obstacles the photographer faced or how frustrated he became before opting for the pizza.
Melissa and I are trying to figure something out here?
ReplyDelete