I created an online fanzine for the book Crowfall by Vashti Hardy. There is an attached link to the website I created it on (you click the arrow to move the pages!) and the pages of the zine will also be attached as photos to this post.
My process of appropriation to create my zine for Crowfall was very fun! Being able to add some images and some important key things from the book to my zine helped bring out a little bit of my creative side to piece everything together. The website was very easy to work with and was completely free. Jenkins mentioned in the section Why Teach Media Literacy: 3 Core Problems that, "children's experiences online are shaped by a range of social factors: class, age, gender, race, nationality, and point of access," (14) and I think no matter what experience my future students may have online, I can help them with this website. Some online materials are easier to help shape students to understand and I think this would be a great website to introduce students to help them create online zines. The multimodal response influenced my thinking about the book and the topics raised in the book helped me to dissect the text a bit more than I would have done if I was not creating the assignment. Diving into more detail about what traits I would consider the few main characters to have, what lessons I would consider the text to focus on, the conflicts (both internal and external) which were faced, and so on.
I think these visual practices can amplify learning by allowing students to be more creative with their work. With the opportunity to use the internet and do more than simple assignments the students may be used like writing papers or making PowerPoints, the digital practice I did allows minds to try new things and have fun with the assignment. I think this would promote civic engagement because everything that is involved with these assignments allows students to connect the book to everyday topics, thus creating a deeper understanding.
https://www.flipsnack.com/EBAAF9EEFB5/crowfall-zine-by-drew-lehman.html
Hi Drew! I really loved your fanzine and even though it was an online zine, I found the website's feature of clicking through the pages to be interactive in a super fun way! I also really enjoyed how the zine genre allowed you to explore different parts of the book, including the characters, a summary of the book, and even a little about the author. I could easily see how this inspired deeper engagement as you chose which parts of the book you wanted to highlight and explore further. Also, I really enjoyed your summary part of the fanzine because while summaries seem to come naturally for us, after my recent presentation in Currins 630 I am reminded that for young readers/writers it is not always straightforward. This is an amazing way to practice that skill and others! ~Kimberly
ReplyDeleteHi Drew!
ReplyDeleteLike Kimberly, I loved the interactive "flipping" feature on Flipsnack; I've always wondered what sorts of websites were out there for creating zines since they have, historically, been created and shared using paper. It was really interesting getting to read your thought process as you created your zine, especially when it came to how intentional and specific you had to be when selecting multimodal aspects to include like images. I had a similar experience while finding images to use for my book trailer, and definitely agree that multimodal projects like this help to push our thinking and understanding of a book further, especially when we care about "accurately" representing it to potential readers/viewers.
- Kelly :)
DeleteFlipsnack looks like an awesome website, Drew - thanks for sharing this with us! Your zine effectively introduces the characters/conflicts/main ideas of the story without giving too much detail away, but getting me interested in the book. You've inspired me to do something like this with my own classes! I can totally see this being a cool assignment to do with a short story or even a longer novel to get my students to pick out the main ideas of a text and engage multimodal-ly. --Elizabeth
ReplyDeleteHi Drew! I had to see what my fellow Crowfallers had done and your zine does not disappoint! Thanks for introducing us to Flipsnack. One of my biggest problems with this assignment was that I wasn't familiar with all the websites we can use. I'm getting so many ideas for my final project by looking through what other people have done. I also felt like you had the beginnings of a lesson with this zine because you talked about themes and conflict. Zines could be an interesting way to introduce lessons too.
ReplyDeleteDrew, your digital zine turned out really well. Thank you for introducing me to “flipsnack” as a page turning platform. I appreciate how much you reflected on your process of composing and its intersections with media literacy. I hope that you are able to do something similar with your future students.
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