New Literacies Blog

My New Literacies project is one that I tried to take in a different direction. I have used the technology that I am using before, but the way in which I am presenting it is completely different than what I did with it in the past. I am planning to do a digital book but use it to describe a story through a screenplay as well. I will take a film that was based off of a novel and show students the many types on literature that can be used to describe a story based on the same premise. One way is through the novel, which I will have read to students through a computer program. I will then show how a novel can be adapted into a screenplay, which is what a film uses to set up scenes, settings and moods for any shot or series of shots that make up a portion of the film. One aspect of screenplays that I like is that they allow the students to take the descriptions of s particular scene and use their imagination to picture what the story would look like on the big screen. In this way, I feel students will focus on the comprehension of understanding why a screenplay is set up the way it is and focus on the details and lines in a scene, and look to see how each of these coincide with one another. After this, if it were a lesson plan, I would have the students give their best illustration or vision of what the scene would look like. Maybe I would have them draw the scene to show how they picture it in their mind. Another option I may give is for those who prefer to work with technology. I could have them film their own depiction of the screenplay and show it to the rest of the students in the classroom. There are many other options I can choose from but I would be sure to vary these options for a variety of learners. The final step of the process in the project would provide a link too a film clip in which both the novel and the screenplay are based off of. This can be a culmination to the project and to the lesson plan/ unit. I feel all three parts of the process focus on numerous parts of literacies and would definitely cater to many different students and their multiple learning needs. After all, I think the main goal of this new literacies project is just that; focus on new and innovative ways to share material that is seemingly the future of learning and education in America and in the rest of the world as well.