Jane Sheeley October 31, 2006 EDLA615: Language Arts and Technology Susan Silverman Assignment Midterm Assignment Reflection Piece
When I started this assignment, I had absolutely no idea what to expect or what was expected of me. In viewing some of the examples posted, I started to gain a realization of the requirements, but none of the projects actually stood out as something I would have actually enjoyed doing. I would have just completed them, without taking a personal interest in the final product. I wanted to alter one of the examples to fit my tastes. I have always been very into music, and have enjoyed both working and playing with it. I decided to take the idea of designing a CD cover and change it. I did not like the idea of making up fake song titles, to help me fit the theme of the book. I preferred instead to find my own songs that related to the story and the underlying themes within it. Little did I know what a huge undertaking this would be! When I started brainstorming theme ideas, I saw that this project was growing, but I did not really realize yet the full extent of just how much. Once I started searching keywords for these themes, I realized that I had “narrowed my song choices down” to only 77 songs. Ouch! It was extremely difficult to keep narrowing these choices down to the 36 songs that I ended up using. I just could not cut any more! I was already somewhat disappointed in the loss of some fantastic songs that I love and would have liked to include, but whose lyrics just did not fit in as well as these all did. And, finding the lyrics, and correcting many of them, turned into an enormous undertaking! I decided to use some very stark images for my CD. The front cover is a picture of a boy in a cave of some sort looking across the water at a destroyed city. The industrial look of the picture attracted me. I could see Willie as this boy, not because of the futuristic/anime style, but because he now has a safe place from which to observe the destruction that has engulfed London, his former city. The inside liner notes is a picture from an International printing of Goodnight Mr. Tom. I had not seen this image before, as all have been reprinted with a much “friendlier” image, and so this one attracted me. I liked the fact that Willie was breaking out of somewhere that he had once been trapped. I also liked the fact that it looked like paint marks, which struck me as very symbolic of Willie’s newfound talents. The image under the CD was one I struggled with. Originally, I had a picture of a battered and bruised boy, but I was very uncomfortable with the image. I chose this, because Willie has been stripped to his core, and had only himself for such a long time. The fact that it is hidden under the CD is symbolic of his hiding his bruises, the very marks that symbolize these feelings. The back cover art is a picture of a solitary tree. The tree is all alone, much like Willie and Tom both were until they were brought together by fate. The tree can also symbolize the growth that each undergo once they find each other. Together they become strong and united as one. I really enjoyed the creativity that this project allowed me. Both it and reading the book were very enjoyable experiences!
*Lyrics
to all songs used in this project Multimedia Project : CD Creation Rubric
Rubric Made Using: RubiStar ( http://rubistar.4teachers.org )
Score: ___30___/30 |