Digital and Social Media Adaptation

    Completing this project was an interesting way to learn about texts, processes, and literacies. I used the background knowledge that I previously had about these three elements of learning in order to create my adaptation. It was fascinating to see how the independent creative process shared commonalities and differences with a group creative process. 

    Independently, I approached the text like a student. I read through “Ode to an Orange” marking my favorite lines and words along the way. I thought about where the text brought my thoughts and what effect it had on me. I considered what types of things I like and disliked. Had this text been introduced to me in a class, I am sure we would have read the text aloud, shared our thoughts about what we had read, and performed some critical analysis as a group. Though many of these practices took place for me in this assignment, they obviously all happened when I was alone. 

    This exposure to the text led me to all these processes and more. After reading the text, I began the process of critical analysis. Following that, I began to consider what adaptation I would like to create based on my exposure to the text. I began the creative process by brainstorming what types of mediums I would like to use, what message I would try to send, and so on. I decided that I wanted to do a collage of a variety of orange things because I enjoy making collages and I really love the color orange. Instead of creating an ode to the fruit, I wanted to create an abstract ode to the color. After brainstorming, the real creative production began. I started looking through magazines and books that I had for the color orange. I cut out the images that I found the most notable, beautiful, and interesting. I arranged them carefully on the page adding spontaneous layers of paint to the various pictures. As a final touch, I incorporated some of my favorite words from the short essay. Upon finishing the collage, I began the process of reflection. I started to ask myself about the pros and cons of my little collage. I tried to carry out a type of internal dialogue that I would hope to encourage in an actual classroom. 

    Though I consider myself a fairly literate person when it comes to media, I found that this text and this specific creative process helped me to become even more literate than I was before. For the first time in a while, I thought about the limitations of mediums and what that meant exactly. In this project, I learned more about appreciating media and the various ways that we are presented with important, beautiful information. 

    I thoroughly enjoyed the process of finding multiple meanings from a single piece of writing. I liked completing this project to learn about text, processes, and literacy. By undergoing this process, I learned more thoroughly what those words mean and how they will pertain to my future classroom.