Doing as I Say: Digital Storytelling iMovie Practice with Paradise Lost
with 10 comments
Print This Post
When you work at a 1:1 school - really, when you’re a teacher who assigns any digital storytelling projects to your students - it only seems responsible to know whereof you assign.
So I assigned myself a language arts project for my AP Literature class:
Task: Using illustrations from historical editions of John Milton’s Paradise Lost, recite roughly 100 lines of the epic in a quality short film. Time limit: 5 minutes.
Here’s what I came up with:
Along the same “Do as I do, not as I say” lines, I’ll add this: making attempts at creativity and performance public is not the easiest or most comfortable thing in the world to do. I feel the need to excuse this effort as “an attempt,” in order to elicit gentleness from my audience. I’m uncomfortable with the quality of my interpretation, a few editing decisions, and more. It’s good to feel this myself, since present and future students will be feeling the same way.
Extra Credit for My Readers: For 5 extra quiz points, guess: how long did this take to create?
Why is this question important? Picture being a student with five teachers simultaneously assigning such a project.
Check the comments on Saturday for the answer.*
Extra Extra Credit: Constructive Feedback?
As I wrote on my Google Video page:
Constructive feedback welcome. Better without scrolling text, for example? Cathedral voiceover effect good or bad? Is this even worth doing to enhance understanding or enjoyment of one incredibly difficult poem? Anything else?
–
*Oh what the heck. I was always an easy tester. You want to know how long it took? Seven hours. Please pass this on to teachers assigning 5-minute movie projects with a quick turnaround time.
If you like this post, please spread it: 
- Paradise Lost Digital Storytelling Series: Second Try, Thanks to Feedback
- “Escape” - a digital storytelling sketch
- Digital Arts Menu for Multiple Intelligences Wiki: Please Contribute Your Favorites!
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Clay,
The combination of sound, text, and graphics was perfect for my learning style and would probably accommodate many different types of learners (auditory, visual, kinetic, etc.). The somber pictures perfectly suited the dark lines of poetry.
I have to say that it is probably more effective with a male voice, though I’m sure some of your theatrically-gifted female students could do quite a credible job.
I would have guessed two hours to complete the clip, knowing how technically adept you are. Seven hours means I’d be at it for days! Yes, this is something teachers need to consider when giving assignments, as well as the level of access the students have to necessary tools at school and at home.
One little aside: have you ever discussed some of the titles for Satan/the Devil and what type of image they convey? I’m much more partial to the misguided, valiant, tormented Lucifer (”light-bearer”) than the nasty, destructive Beelzebub (”Lord of the Flies”).
diane
diane
22 Nov 07 at 3:43 am
Thanks
One of the great values of PL for AP Lit exam is the flood of allusions to Biblical and Pagan mythology. Milton’s rebel army is peopled with the likes of Beelzebub, Belial, Moloch, Mammon, and others. And Milton, of course, demonizes all the pagan gods by literally making them, well, demons also. So Apollo wears horns in Milton’s vision.
Clay Burell
22 Nov 07 at 3:50 am
You’ve got a great voice and love the audio effects both the echo effect and the wind.
Just wondering about the use of text. From my perspective I’d rather have no text or perhaps more like a closed captioned format on the lower third. I was a bit distracted. Your voice was compelling enough for me.
Dean Shareski
22 Nov 07 at 6:06 am
Clay,
Thanks for taking a risk for the sake of learning! I am amazed at how many educators will assign this type of work with little to no experience with it themselves. I’m glad you’re willing to eat your own dog food, as we all should be. I wasn’t bothered by the text - although I’m an English major - so I’m probably biased in your defense.
Bud Hunt
22 Nov 07 at 6:54 am
Clay, I recently assigned a 5 minute digital storytelling assignment. It went with our reading of The Odyssey and centered around the idea of home. The students drafted essays after an inspirational visit from Chang-Rae Lee, then collected photos, then worked in either Garageband or iMovie. I think I ended up giving them something like 2 weeks start to finish. After that, we started to watch 3 or so in each class. I had a few students who refused to be done until it was perfect and some that were satisfied with a slideshow and bad audio. For the most part though, it’s felt like the culminating project of the semester, even though I meant it to be just one of several projects. But I felt like it was worth while for them and me, and I loved having them turn them in to my video iPod. What about you? Do you think it’s a worthwhile exchange of time for learning?
Chris Watson
22 Nov 07 at 9:14 am
I really like what you created. It is much better to view it as a tiny picture on your blog than the google video page. It was too blurry there. Everything is stretched out of proportion and the words are hard to read.
On the blog, the words are fine. It was interesting to compare how it reads versus how it is written with the line markers included in the text. I’d keep the text for comparison purposes.
I am guessing that it took you six hours including recording and scanning images. As the school’s computer teacher, I appreciate that you took the time to figure out what it might take as a student. For some kids, you’d probably have to triple the time frame.
This would make works such as yours, The Canterbury Tales, or Dante’s Inferno so much more accessible. I know the college professor made the stories so much better by reading parts to us back when I was nineteen or so.
Great job!
Ann O
22 Nov 07 at 12:52 pm
Dean, good feedback, thanks. I wondered about the scrolling too. The subtitle option is better, I agree - but my god, think of the additional time-load synching the text to the voice, line by line!
Chris, your questions echo mine. Is the time invested worth the learning returned? A good question for students.
Ann, thanks too
I did the scrolling text for the reason you mention: to model how M’s incredibly inverted syntax can make so much more sense when read aloud, emphasizing the syntactic elements vocally to make sense of the whole.
I agree about reading aloud/hearing literature: especially epic poetry. I’d love to hook up with other English or speech teachers (hint, hint) and develop a collaborative library of student readings of these things. We could manage it by a two-column list of “perfected” versus “needs new submission” entries, by Book:Lines, for example, so that the high-quality student submissions are true “product,” while those of lower quality sort of “fill in” until a better performer comes along.
That would be cool!
Thanks all
Clay Burell
22 Nov 07 at 1:11 pm
[...] - Our Students Our Worlds on Notes on Warlick’s Keynote, Second ViewingClay Burell on Doing as I Say: Digital Storytelling iMovie Practice with Paradise LostAnn O on Doing as I Say: Digital Storytelling iMovie Practice with Paradise [...]
Paradise Lost Digital Storytelling Series: Second Try | Beyond School
24 Nov 07 at 3:34 am
Milton Book 4: Here Come the Movies! - KIS AP Lit 07-08
24 Nov 07 at 10:02 am
[...] me to continue my own recent attempts in that direction, such as the so-far-underwhelming experiments I’ve done this week with digital storytelling. (I’m so glad I didn’t inflict this [...]
On the Stager and Richardson UStream "Bootleg" | Beyond School
25 Nov 07 at 6:55 am