Media Scrapbook

For my African American Expereince class I decided to have the students do a media scrapbook as a lit set assessment. The students read different novels about inner-city life. I picked the groups so that the 5 members of each group read a differnt novel. Their duty was to creat a visual representation (media scrapbook) of the common themes, and messages that ran through their novels. They were only to use technology to accomplish this task. The visual wsas to serve as the voice for the group and therfore no students were allowed to speak during teh presentation. The scrapbooks turned out really well. Some students used power point others Windows Movie Maker. I was surprised th way they were ab le to streamline videos, incorporate music, voice overs, and the creative graphics they used to tell a story of iner city living. The students were able to see the power that music, words, and colors, have on the construction of media and teh messages that are conveyed.

The project helped teh students better uderstand the inner-city experience and the social implications atttached to this lifestyle. Through their creativity, they were able to bring into the classroom, through a short 4 minute presentation, social stigmas, hurt, pain, suffering, determination, perseverance, pressures, and strengths and weaknesses of inner city living as shown through their novels. Because students can relate well to music, pictures, and short quotes, better than novels at times, through the use of technology, the presentations allowed students a second chance to receive the messages that they may have during teh reading of tehir novel, and bring to understanding other aspets that they may have missed due to a monlithic reading. I hvae to say that my co-teacher and I were very pleased!