Digital+Imaging+Project+(27+July+2008)



Creative Writing and Graphic Design Collaborative Project **

This activity brings together visual and literary art forms and would ideally be taught in collaboration by language arts and visual arts instructors. Students will bring 2-4 digital images to class around which to write a story. Language arts instructors would primarily guide the creative writing process, while visual arts instructors would provide aesthetic guidance. However, this activity could be done in either content area without collaborative instructional guidance.

1. Have students select 2-4 digital images. (Non-digital images are welcome, including student work, as long as they can be scanned or photographed to get them in digital format.) In the selection process, students should keep in mind the end goal of writing a story involving the images. The visual arts instructor can guide this activity by teaching students about elements of art to help them choose (or consciously not choose) images with aesthetic continuity.

2. Using their images, students begin brainstorming or continue developing their stories. The language arts teacher guides this process, teaching and reinforcing writing principles. The first draft should be 1-2 pages long.

3. Next, probably on the following day, students reduce their stories to less than half a page, selecting critical details, focusing on word choice, and learning to create impact with minimal text. The complexity of the story should not be diminished, but the exercise will stress the creation of a literary work that balances visual and literary components.

4. Finally, they piece together the visual and finished written pieces to create a meaningful whole.

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