Student Examples Response

So, when first assigned this Visual Literacy Narrative project, I had no idea how to present my idea and topic in a visual format or even fully understand the assignment. There were so many different ways I could do it, but I wasn't sure what the most effective one was for my topic. However, after looking at all the student examples, I realized something very important: I am awful with making videos. I am what can be considered "Technologically Challenged"...Inputting muisic, uploading pictures or videos....Not my thing. But then I saw the collage.

The last student example I saw had a collage by Jordie Newton about her passion for music through the violin. It was a simple collage, not a typical, picture crazed one that one usually things of. It had about 5 pictures on a large sheet of paper, with a certificates, sheet music, and a few other related things attached to it as well. I like it. It was simple, yet told so much. It wasn't cluttered with unnecessary photos of the same thing, but rather, a few photos representing many things. She truly showed the meaning to the phrase "Less is more". We all know that "A picture is worth a thousand words", but, it's hard to really realize that when there are hundreds of pictures expressing everything you want to say... Also, her color choice and layout is simple, and not so complex with random bunches of color everyone. it is also not overloaded with words, which I tend to do...It's enough to make the viewer attracted to the collage, but not too much that it will distract the viewer from the main topic and overall point Jordie wanted them to get. I love how she uses two words: Practice and Success. It tells it all. So simple, yet so powerful...

This whole time I've been thinking that this project had to be elaborate and complex. But from her example, I realized that it can be quite simple, and still have an effect on a viewer- still get one's point across. Simplicity can still be quality. It can still tell my story, and even enhance it. So i don't have to do a movie or something that deals with technology. I can just do a collage, or a children's story book. I can just have simple pages and pictures that tell my story, like Jordie did.

Here is her collage:

English Essay Idea

So, it was hard to think of some ideas for this project because I've just always loved reading and writing. I use to write random books, and ideas, and read all the time. I read for information, to learn new things (such as sign language) and of course, for entertainment. But, where did this passion for reading and writing begin? I had to think way back, and realized it had all started in third grade, with my parents' divorce and a wonderful book called, The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.

This book was my escape. It was about an imaginary land, and it brought me to my own imaginary world. While trouble was at home, I would open this book up and read, being carried away by beautiful descriptions of lands I dreamed of going to, and adventures I planned on one day taking. This book opened my eyes to a whole new world, and I longed to find more books like this one. Whenever I was upset, I'd open the book and read. Whatever words I didn't know, I'd look them up in the dictionary or ask my older siblings. The book was so captivating that I held on to every word on the page- that I wanted to know what every word meant. I finished this book wanting more. It helped me through a tough time. It was my comfort, my home. After that moment where I finished the book, I felt so accomplished. I felt like I could be strong and courageous, like the kids were in the books, that I could get through whatever that was happening to my parents...my family (even though the book had nothing to do with divorced parents).

The book was inspirational in a big way. The way it was written made me want to learn how to describe a rose so truly that anyone who read what I wrote could smell the lovely flower and feel its perfect, silky, texture. I wanted the author's technique. I wanted to know how to engage a reader like she had. So, I began to write. I began to read to learn other types of writing, as well as to escape from my reality, and I began to write with the desire to make others love to read, as I had. To have others realize that there are heathy ways of escaping the lonely life at home and problems of reality.

Divorce made me grow up fast, but reading and writing kept me a child at heart, and this book started it all. It saved my childhood.

I was in third grade when my real fansination and obsession to reading took off, and I wonder what would have happened to me (how I'd be different) if my parents never got a divorce, and I didn't need that inital escape from reality and desire for an imaginary world of Whangdoodles...
This Was The Book That Started It ALL.

Below are some links to summaries of the book:
http://www.powells.com/biblio/9780064403146
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_the_Really_Great_Whangdoodles