My American Literature students are currently reading Huck Finn. This novel is always difficult for students, so we have been looking for ways to increase student interest in it. We are currently working on our final assessment and trying to create a project that is multimodal. I am interested in having students incorporate images from sites like Flickr into their writing. One of the topics that we always have students explore is the role of the Mississippi River in the story, especially as it relates the search for freedom.
The images in my Flickr Slideshow are all images of the Mississippi as I think it appears in the novel. Of course, the images are current, but most are taken from spots traveled by Huck and Jim. Students could certainly seek images that represent specific episodes in Huck's journey. They could use the images combined with images which represent ideas of freedom, morality, etc. to create a presentation about themes in the novel. My colleagues and I discussed having students create e-zines about Huck Finn. These images would definitely be useful in such a project.
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I'm curious what e-zine is?? I like your idea of incorporating the Mississippi and themes from the novel into Flicker. I think it could help place some perspective into their writing and get kids more engaged in their final essay on a topic. I also think it can make their thesis statement stronger. Perhaps you could have the students showcase their flickr slideshows and have some sort of museum walk of some sort. I've been searching for a unique project to incorporate Flickr as well.
What a good idea for your slideshow. I don't teach Huck Finn, but I do teach Mark Twain's short stories and this is a good idea to have students get an idea of the setting and themes. We should chat about our final projects because it does sound like our ideas could be similar. I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing, but if I do something with American Lit. it would be very helpful for me to hear what you're doing.
Yeah--so many people are visual learners. I'm always much more interested in stories about places I've been. When I went to London I came home and watched every London-placed movie and book I could get my hands on.
Even with people: my best friend Karen lives in Milwaukee, and I'm always more interested in hearing about her friends whom I've met.
My cooperating teacher said he liked to show the movie of a book to his really low-level learners before they'd read the book b/c so many of them had a hard time visualizing stories, and seeing the images helped them be more committed to the book.
Huck Finn. Good for you.
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