Unit 8 Reflection Blog

The topic of Module 8 of Writing for Non-Print Media was Video Production. This form of technology can be utilized in a variety of ways in an English classroom. Different lessons we covered this unit include the 20 shot short story, book trailers, digital and audio feedback, and Vine. Each of these gives students an opportunity to be more hands-on with what they’re learning. Video production can be very valuable to both students and teachers.

One way to use video production is designing a book trailer. Like a movie trailer, a book trailer previews the plot and entices the viewer to read the book. They use elements such as photos, music, words, and effects to convey the story. Book trailers benefit students in a number of ways. According to Chapter 1 of Gura, “Creating book trailers is a differentiated way students can demonstrate their knowledge about and understanding of books in a way that plays to their strengths and interests.” Book trailers provide a unique outlet for students to use their knowledge.

Another tool discovered in this unit was Vocaroo. This site gives teachers the ability to give feedback through audio. It’s a very easy-to-use tool. To start and stop recording, you just click the red button. When finished, the site provides a link that can be sent to the student. This form of feedback is more convenient and faster than typical written comments, which can appeal to both students and teachers. Other tools for non-traditional feedback include Audioboo, Camtasia, Jing, and Vimeo.

The 20 Shot Story and Vine are comparable, as there is only a certain number of shots or amount of time to record. For our Vine project, we were required to demonstrate a theme of a chapter in only six seconds. It was a lot more difficult to act out a theme than the plot. After a ton of time and consideration, my group chose to do our project on Chapter 5 of Divergent. We decided to do the theme of society and class, but we weren’t sure how to convey it. Finally, we came up with an idea. For most of the Vine, we see “Triss” trying to figure out what she wants, or more specifically, what faction she wants to join. We decided to be a little creative and at the end, we show her with different kinds of pizza. We wanted the various pizzas to represent the different factions. The benefit of the Vine project is that it promotes deeper thinking about the novel. Because it’s only six seconds, only the most important details should be used. Once we finally had an idea, my group really enjoyed creating the Vine. Video production is definitely something I’d like to use in my classroom.