What we wanted…
Propel yourself into the mind of Martian leader Zoggsblurf as he leads an attack in Blooms Tower defense, and tell me the possible thoughts oscillating in its mind. Entering Zoggs mind is a typical scenario often requested of our students, as they struggle to gain empathy with a context and plot stark in contrast to their everyday lives. Actually, some students may have more empathy here with Zoggs, rather than the young daughter of a nomadic desert camel herder living in a male dominated society. Having already used story climax charts to develop discussion and insight, I needed something else. Dealing with a combo issue of weak personal connection, soft plot and a developmental consideration of students only beginning to be able to connect multiple abstract themes, I really wanted the students to conceptualize that in this instance the protagonist’s struggle against cultural values created instances where she was also the antagonist, a big ask of 7^th graders. Putting them into the story would work but it needed to be incredibly efficient, no time for video clips or the like, and it needed to be something more permanent than just a drama presentation as I wanted students to engage in an intense discussion.

What we did…
In preparation, I identified eight instances where the main character, Shabanu, created a conflict with herself due to her rebellious nature.  Students were in pre-organized discussion groups, as they rolled through the door, a camera was thrown at them along with a scene. Their task, to capture the scene using images and digital manipulation, and themselves as the lead characters. With an uncharacteristic fervor, students scoured the room for additional props, while happily bantering as who would be the camel or Shabanu’s dog. Camera’s snapped and images were manipulated, printed with lightening speed. Falling straight into discussion, students were then required to ride the energy created by putting themselves in the story, straight into a heavy weight discussion relating to protagonist and antagonist.   As a result many students chose to write about this subject in their final essay, in which many demonstrate brilliant in-depth, insightful comments developed from this activity and discussion.

What we wanted….
Eye catching is the advertisers’ initial game plan, creating eye candy designed to snare your attention. Having published a number of digital pieces over the course of the year we decided that we would hardcopy publish a poem and a narrative piece. Wanting some eye catching spice we turned to add some simple visual language features to the pieces. Expediency being the order of the curriculum drive, the visual spice was required to be effective and efficient. After discussion with team mates we decided to roll with a simple, yet powerful image that would at a glance communicate the subject of the poem. Continuing the trail would be a powerful, yet fitting title that would lead the viewer to delight in well crafted poetic delicacies’.
How we did it…
So simply, we introduced students to creative commons and demonstrated how to search for images, specifically looking for images that the copyright holder allowed modification of. Students could only use one image. To ensure that students found something visually contributive to their poems we discussed the concept of a powerful image. Student discussions concluded in defining powerful images as “images that, with a glance, cause an emotional response”. Students sourced and downloaded images, noting source url.

Wanting to complete this publishing process in mere minutes instead of extended hours, once students had sourced their image the countdown was on. Manipulating their word documents, students were required to simply add the image behind their text, ensure font style and color suited their topic and worked together visually, buddy review, and scale print their document to A3 size. Once printed students then trimmed and slapped their printed poem to black backing paper. Humorously enough, as it turned out, students had the most difficulty feeding A3 paper into the printer and then mastering the paper cutter!