Illuminated Texts: The Gateway to In Depth Media Analysis and Creation

My activity builds on Buckingham's "Translation" concept - I want my students to "translate" a short story into an "Illuminated Text." An Illuminated Text (IT) is the retelling of a story using words, color, animation, and sound, and is created with Power Point or Adobe Flash. For an example of an IT, visit this website and click on the "QuickTime" version of Hemingway's short story, "Cat in the Rain," or click here for an Illuminated version of a portion of Orwell's "1984." Also, here is an example of an IT for which the story itself was written by the student, who then translated her own composition into an IT.

 This activity will highlight the transition from text to visual medium, and could be used as a stepping stone to a film making project. The activity would be carried out as follows:

1.) Students would read a short story or a poem. While they read they would take notes on/highlight specific words or phrases that stood out to them for their descriptive nature or for their emotional effect. Students would compare notes, and a class discussion would ensue with the teacher guiding the students in order to discover how authors move their audience.

2.) Students would then watch an Illuminated Text for the short story/poem that they read. The students would view once and just watch; during the second viewing, students would take notes/fill out a graphic organizer comparing and contrasting the two tellings of the stories. The teacher would help the students to see what each medium has to offer and how the text is visually translated onto the screen. Students should also take note of the music and what it adds to the overall tone/presentation.

3.) Have students repeat Steps 1 and 2 with a different text if additional analysis practice is needed.

4.) Students take what they've learned from other texts and select a poem or short story and translate it into an Illuminated Text. Post students' texts onto an online blog, have a class viewing day, or have a viewing with students from other grades or classes so that students will have an authentic audience.

5.) Students should write a reflection in order to review what they learned about text, visuals, music, and how the two can work together to tell a story. If appropriate, students could be encouraged to make some observations about other media where different mediums (visuals, text, music) are blended together. This portion of the reflection could be used by the teacher to gauge what students have already noticed about other blended media.