Final Portfolio

Posted May 1st, 2008 by Elizabeth Hayes

Portfolio

I really enjoyed this English class not only because I read short stories that I would not have normally have read but because I learned about more than just analyzing works of fiction. In this class I broadened my horizon in more than just one way. I really enjoyed how we put literature and technology together, which can be considered to be opposites. I never really considered myself creative in the traditional way but more in a technological way and I feel like this class really nurtured that skill of mine. I used programs that I had never used before and stretched my creativity in a way that I had never done so in the past. My favorite assignment we did all semester most definitely was the video assignment because it was almost a combination of the playlist and the collage assignment. This assignment was so much fun to do and really made me think about how to integrate my topic in a literary way. My less favorite assignment was definitely the collage because it was so hard to do everything I wanted to do but do it all correctly. In this assignment I kept on feeling like I was running into walls with trying to make everything work properly and look good. I think everything came together when my poem collage because it was simple yet profound and I feel like that is what the assignment was suppose to be and I tried to attempt that in my final character collage. I also really enjoyed the Litwiki assignment because it was a little bit more like a standard English class but with some technological undertones. It was a good little break from all of the more hardcore technology we were doing before. Overall, this class was a struggle in ways that I had never struggled in a class before but I think I overcame the struggle and succeeded.

Playlist:
Original Playlist: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/121
Revised/Final Playlist: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/279

Original Reflection: I really liked this assignment because it involved a lot of thought and knowledge on a certain topic. I chose the play Hamlet because I really like that play and know much about it and because I felt like it could be a good one to analysis in a way I have never done before. I love music and finding the meanings in songs but usually through the lyrics, this was the first time I had tried to find the meaning through the beat and tone of the song as well.
Final Reflection: In my final playlist, the only thing I really changed in it were the descriptions because I was already very satisfied with the music selection I had originally made. The changes I made were describing more of the play to make the description complete. Before I had focused more on why I chose the song and less about how it related to the play and when it was relevant in the play. Overall, I feel like I made the necessary changes to the playlist to make it more whole and complete.

Collages:
Original Poem Collage: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/70
Revised/Final Poem Collage: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/116

Original Character Collage: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/73
Revised Character Collage: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/118
Final Character Collage: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/280

Original Reflection: This assignment was probably my least favorite out of all of them. I still enjoyed doing it but I thought it sort of took away from analysis the character/poem because many people just did it in a more obvious way. I chose to do Regina George from Mean Girls, firstly, because someone suggested that to me and secondly, because I feel like she was a very good character to analysis in a collage. Her hate and anger consumed her and that is why I put in the flames to represent that hate. I also chose the Raven by Edgar Allan Poe because it is one of my favorite poems. I wanted to keep the collage simple but still represent what the poem is about and what the meaning of it is.
Final Reflection: In this assignment, I feel like my revisions were well put. For the poem collage, I did not change it at all after the first revision because I feel like it was perfect as it was and because Dan said there was not much more to do with it. However, with the Regina George collage I made two revisions to it. The first revision was just little stuff that I thought tightened the collage but later felt like it did not really do anything to it. My final revision to it, I completely reworked it. I took the same approach I did with the poem collage with this one, which was just keeping it simple and profound. In doing so I made a very light pink background with only Regina George and then the flames (to illustrate her rage, anger and evilness). Across the top of the collage I put the movies tagline “Welcome to Girl World” because I think the tagline has two meanings to it. First, it is sort of innocent and second, it is also a warning of what is to come. I feel like my final revision to the character collage completed what I was trying to say.

Reflection: This was my favorite assignment because I feel like it represented exactly what this class is about, which is analyzing literature but usually technology at the same time. This was a great assignment and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. I also liked how we started this assignment in groups because it helped get the thought process flowing. I also liked how we did the annotations on the Yellow Wallpaper because there was so much in that story that required a lot of analyzing.

Video:
Original Video: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/182
Revised/Final Video: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/267

Original Reflection: I really enjoyed this assignment because I feel like it was a combination of both the playlist and the collages. I originally chose to do the history of Rock and Roll starting with the 50s and then moving to today. However, I did not see much literacy in that so I took out some of the photos of the musicians, cut it down to the just the 50s, 60s, and 70s and added in photos of crises and landmark events that occurred during those centuries like in the 50s I had the Cold War, Red Scare, Civil Rights, Korean War, and the Suez Canal Crisis, the in the 60s I had the Cuban Missile Crisis, Hippies, JFK assassination, RFK assassination, Malcolm X assassination, MLK jr assassination, and Woodstock, in the 70s I had Gay Rights, Nixon/Watergate, Oil Crisis, Women's Rights, Roe v. Wade, Kent St. Shooting, and Vietnam War. These events I feel are literary because there have been stories and novel which we have read in class about these events. I also feel that the Rock and Roll aspect of it is important because it shows how culture was during those generations and how the culture was represents how these events were handled. Many of the stories we have read are ones that are suppose to take place in different generations so I feel that the generations I show in my movie are the generations which we have focused on throughout the semester.
Final Reflection: I actually changed my video a lot. I kept the general theme but I incorporated much more of the landmark events by adding videos from those events. By adding the videos I removed much of the photos of the singers so now it is more of a 50-50 ratio of singers and events. I believe that adding the videos made the piece much more literary. I am very pleased with my final video and I think it is a much tighter and smoother film now.

Group Podcast:
Podcast: http://www.teachmix.com/itsfiction/?q=node/205

Reflection: I liked this assignment because of the group aspect of it. It was a great way for everyone to bring their knowledge and understanding of the stories together and made something great with that knowledge. I also liked how we could choose the stories. Sometimes I hate when we have to choose everything about the assignment but it was different in this case because we already had to choose from only like ten stories (which made the choosing easier) and so many of the stories had similar themes and issues which made the whole deciding part much easier. Overall, I really enjoyed this assignment.

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