Resources
Articles:
- Murray, S. (2008). Materializing adaptation theory: The adaptation industry. Literature/Film Quarterly, 36(1), 4-20.
- Hutcheon, L. (2012). How (audiences). In A Theory of Adaptation. New York: Routledge, 113-133.
- Mackey, M. (1999). Playing the phase space: Contemporary forms of narrative pleasure.”Signal, 88, January 1999, 16-33.
- Rushdie. S. (2002). Out of Kansas. In Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992-2002. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 3-30.
initial Response
This week’s reading on adaptations had me thinking about how film versions are often not valued as much as books or the written word, in the educational world. We often show films as the fun part at the end when teaching. It almost seems like when we show films in science or social these are considered more educational. Why is that?
I sometimes feel bad when I show a film in class. I have even had a parent question why I had showed a film in class before. She did not think we should be showing any movies in class. Even when I explained that we were comparing the film to the book she was not satisfied. This preference for written communication over more visual modes even comes into play in how we expect students to represent their learning. How often are students given the opportunity to show their learning other than writing a paragraph, essay or report of some kind? Students have different strengths and challenges they should have more opportunity to choose which ever mode of communication they prefer when showing what they know.
I sometimes feel bad when I show a film in class. I have even had a parent question why I had showed a film in class before. She did not think we should be showing any movies in class. Even when I explained that we were comparing the film to the book she was not satisfied. This preference for written communication over more visual modes even comes into play in how we expect students to represent their learning. How often are students given the opportunity to show their learning other than writing a paragraph, essay or report of some kind? Students have different strengths and challenges they should have more opportunity to choose which ever mode of communication they prefer when showing what they know.
Post discussion response
This week’s discussion reaffirmed that in general there is still a preference for traditional forms of literacies in today’s classrooms and libraries. It also made me realize that I have this strong bias in some ways to traditional literacies. I have always said that books are better than movies in most cases. This is interesting to me, as I am a visual learner, and prefer to show my learning in non traditional ways when given the chance. I am not a strong writer in my opinion and have always struggled to write. Being that I am a technology geek, I often like to use technology in some way when showing what I know. Because of my own fear of writing, I am becoming more open to other forms of literacy, when it comes to giving my students choices when showing their learning. Perhaps I shouldn't feel so pressured to have my students always write what they know. Will this preference for more traditional forms of literacy ever be more balanced in education? For all of my students sake, I really hope so.
Adaptations are a great way to let students play with storylines they are already familiar with. One of the projects I used to teach on voice, had my students reading remixes of the story of the 3 Little Pigs. When I started this project back in 2007, we only had the desktop lab, but I started having students respond in less traditional paper and pencil kind of ways. I would read 3 different versions of the story to my students. We would start out with the classic version, followed by The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka and lastly The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, by Eugene Trivizas. I used these books to show my students that good writers get ideas from other people’s work. I had the students follow up the reading by creating a blog as one of the characters, from one of the stories we read. They had to fill in their about me page and add a couple of posts as their character. I encouraged my students to respond to the original story by filling in the “holes”.
Here is a link to an example I showed my students the first year (http://bigmomma-christine.blogspot.ca/).
Here are some student samples (http://atriptograndmashouse.blogspot.ca/ & http://myownstoryofthethreelittlewolves.blogspot.ca/)
I have not done this project on the 3 Little Pigs in a few years. Now that I have more access to iPads and laptops, I have my students creating things like movie trailer responses, vlogs, Telligami’s (avatar’s), Toontastics, Storybirds, Animotos, ToonDoos (comics) and more. Looking back, I could do this project again, but on my students’ blogs they could respond in more ways than adding just images and text like we did back then. Now they can use the tools available to them to respond in many different ways and of their choice. Pretty much anything they create using an app or web 2.0tool can be embedded to their blog. If they choose to create something more hands on (not digital) they could then video tape a reflection about their piece or use a screencasting tool like Educreations or Explain Everything and that could be embedded to their blog.
Adaptations are a great way to let students play with storylines they are already familiar with. One of the projects I used to teach on voice, had my students reading remixes of the story of the 3 Little Pigs. When I started this project back in 2007, we only had the desktop lab, but I started having students respond in less traditional paper and pencil kind of ways. I would read 3 different versions of the story to my students. We would start out with the classic version, followed by The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka and lastly The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, by Eugene Trivizas. I used these books to show my students that good writers get ideas from other people’s work. I had the students follow up the reading by creating a blog as one of the characters, from one of the stories we read. They had to fill in their about me page and add a couple of posts as their character. I encouraged my students to respond to the original story by filling in the “holes”.
Here is a link to an example I showed my students the first year (http://bigmomma-christine.blogspot.ca/).
Here are some student samples (http://atriptograndmashouse.blogspot.ca/ & http://myownstoryofthethreelittlewolves.blogspot.ca/)
I have not done this project on the 3 Little Pigs in a few years. Now that I have more access to iPads and laptops, I have my students creating things like movie trailer responses, vlogs, Telligami’s (avatar’s), Toontastics, Storybirds, Animotos, ToonDoos (comics) and more. Looking back, I could do this project again, but on my students’ blogs they could respond in more ways than adding just images and text like we did back then. Now they can use the tools available to them to respond in many different ways and of their choice. Pretty much anything they create using an app or web 2.0tool can be embedded to their blog. If they choose to create something more hands on (not digital) they could then video tape a reflection about their piece or use a screencasting tool like Educreations or Explain Everything and that could be embedded to their blog.