Week 1 –
Focus – Writing Picture Books for Children
Stories Viewed –
I Read Banned Books - http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/view_story.cfm?vid=403&otherid=featured&d_title=Featured%20Digital%20Stories
Where have all the Heroes Gone - http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/view_story.cfm?vid=279&otherid=all&d_title=View%20All%20Digital%20Stories
Focus – Writing Picture Books for Children
Stories Viewed –
I Read Banned Books - http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/view_story.cfm?vid=403&otherid=featured&d_title=Featured%20Digital%20Stories
Where have all the Heroes Gone - http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/view_story.cfm?vid=279&otherid=all&d_title=View%20All%20Digital%20Stories
- Indicate what assessment/evaluation traits you selected and why (in other words, what's your rationale as a critic of these stories?)
- Story – This is a digital story so story should be the most important.
- Content Understanding – If the person is taking a stance or educating, I want to know that they know what they’re talking about.
- Originality, Voice, Creativity – I am interested in how these stories use creativity to help our generation stay engaged.
- The extent to which these traits are successfully present and utilized in the given stories
- IRBB
- Story – I felt like this digital story wasn’t a story as such. It was more of an informational or persuasive video. It informed viewers about banned books and tried to persuade them that banning books was a bad thing. This is the first digital story I have watched so I don’t know how much story there is supposed to be.
- Content Understanding – The author seemed to understand the content well because she is an English teacher who has experience with banned books. She has students who like to read the books that have been banned in other areas of the country.
- Originality, Voice, Creativity – Again since this is the first one I’ve watched, I don’t know how creative this one is compared to other ones out there. I thought it was interesting how it was presented with images, video, and voiceover. I think the persuasive aspect worked for this video.
- WHG
- Story – I didn’t think this one had much of a story either. It mostly sat on a soapbox talking about the media and society and how we don’t appreciate the heroes that are right in front of us but instead look to celebrities who screw up more than anything else.
- Content Understanding - I can’t tell if the author knew about the content or not. It was more of an opinion piece than a story and didn’t have much concrete information either.
- Originality, Voice, Creativity – I liked how the author included a bunch of recognizable superheroes as heroes because these drew me back in. She definitely gave her own voice to it because she gave her opinion through the whole thing.
- IRBB
- What these traits fail to capture about the selected story (that is, what other characteristics of the story are noteworthy, and why?)
- IRBB – I wanted to note that the author had a very good sense of audience during this presentation. She even made sure to state in the description that banned book titles were mentioned and shown in the video.
- WHG – I selected this story because the description talked about what a hero should be and why it is important to have heroes in today’s society. I thought this would be important in writing children’s books because books often focus on the hero of the story. I feel like the story talked more about the media than why we should have heroes to look up to. It really didn’t fulfill what I was hoping for.
- Based upon your trait evaluation, what modifications and changes to this digital story might improve aspects of narrative, production, media usage, and/or audience engagement?
- IRBB – She might include some information about which part of government actually bans books. I am not aware that schools in my area have banned Harry Potter, for example. If I wanted to protest this issue I don’t know where I would need to go in order to have the most impact.
- WHG – I think this story needed to be restructured with a clearer focus. If the author wanted us to have more worthy heroes, this needed to be the focus of the piece rather than the downfalls that we have as a society because of the celebrities that we focus on. I personally do not agree that we idolize people like Lindsay Lohan and Brittney Spears. I think more than anything we feel sorry for them and are appalled at that type of behavior.