Media Texts

“Toward New Media Texts” was a very interesting article. It had many interesting points that I had not realized until reading it. Many teachers are scared to incorporate different types of text into their teaching because they are so set in their ways. They have already spent money and got their writing habits established the way they want them accomplished. Some also feel like they do not know enough about new media text to introduce it into the composition classroom.

“By visual literacy, then, I will refer to the ability to read, understand, value, and learn from visual materials…” This is one quote that I found very interesting from the article. Students can use things such as photographs, videos, films, animations, pictures, and drawings to read. They can also understand these things and learn from them. They could write about these things in a creative manner using visual elements and messages to communicate how they feel about the topic they are writing about.

Another thing that I found very interesting in the article was the sample evaluations on the way the teachers grade the students. It has seven different areas including overall effect of the visual essay, composer/designer’s development/feelings, visual coherence, visual salience, organization of the essay, documentation of images, and reflection that they students are evaluated on. I think this is a very good way to grade the students. It gives them more than one area to be graded on. The teacher also leaves a spot for comments. I really liked this because in the sample ones given, the teacher told exactly what she did or didn’t like. I think that is great feedback for any student and should be something that all teachers do.