Literary Portfolio

For the elective term of my senior year, I decided to take the class Book Bound, which is a course that explores the relationship between the reader and the materials used to read in this day and age. Many people these days read online or not at all, and we looked into how this affects our society. My class was assigned to read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a very well known book that is in the literary canon. I personally am not a fan of the book, simply because I strongly dislike many of the characters, and I am someone who prefers to read a book where I like and make a connection with the characters. I didn’t believe this was a book that belonged in the canon, but I understood why it was there. We also talked about libraries, because we were supposed to design our school’s new library. I pictured it with bean bags, work spaces, and hundreds of books. Unfortunately, we are no longer getting to be a part of the construction process as much as we had planned, but our suggestions are still being considered. I enjoyed the field experiences we went on because I got to experience all different types of libraries; there was a huge variety and they all strongly differed, which surprised me. For our action project, we put together a portfolio of our best work that we did throughout this course. I liked the fact that we are showcasing a digital portfolio, because it shows all of our work throughout the term, as opposed to just one assignment that might not be the best reflection of how hard we worked. I included my favorite project in my portfolio, which was the My Choice for the Canon Slideshow.

Storyboard

For this assignment, we were told to create a storyboard that tells a story about us reading, and more specifically, learning to read--it had to include at least 5 frames and captions. This related to our course because it had to do with reading, and it helped us make connections between us as individuals, and the act of reading. I selected this assignment to showcase because not only did I think I did it well but also due to how much fun I had with it. I think this was one of the assignments I enjoyed the most. When I began my project I struggled with what exactly to show in my story. In the end I decided to show my reading progression over time, from when I was a baby until now. I later also made revisions to perfect the images and add captions to help explain the story shown. I really love how it turned out in the end.

Made with Storyboard That 

  

Literary Journal 

For this assignment, we were put together in a group and told to create our own literary journal. This included pieces of writing from all group members, as well as images, and some external submissions. This related to our course because it has to do with all different types of literature and shows the huge variety. I selected this assignment because it shows not only the work I have done, but also my peers’, which I think is just as important as my own. When going about this project we began by splitting up the different tasks among members and making a time frame for deadlines. There were some challenges along the way - as there often are with groups - about miscommunication and timing, but in the end we got everything we needed and published our journal. I was really proud of my entire group for getting to that point. To get it ready for our blog there were some final touches I needed to make, and some page setup changes, and afterwards it looked as great as we had planned.

Literature Poster 

For this assignment, we had to make a poster based upon a guiding question we created about literacy and reading. We then had to research the answer to the question using valid sources. This poster is to help promote reading and literacy, especially in the new library space, which is what our entire course was about. I thought this was a very important thing to add to my blog because it brings up the issue of illiteracy which is shockingly still a big problem in our world right now, and because I gave a lot of facts and data that I think people should know. I want to encourage reading to everyone as much as possible and I think this assignment helps to do that. I decided to make my poster on a design site called canva.com. At times it was difficult to size everything and make it look the way I wanted, but I overcame that and made it as perfect as I could. I’m proud of the final product because it all looks really neat and eye-catching in my opinion.

AG Literature Poster 2016

Slideshow

For this assignment, we had to chose a book that we believe belongs in the literary canon, explain why, and present/defend the book as best as possible. This project was about the canon which is an important concept in literature. The reason I chose to publish this assignment to my blog is because of how enthusiastic I was about both this project and the book I chose. I want to get the word out even more about this series because it really is amazing, in my opinion. I chose the book series The Night World by L.J. Smith and made a slideshow about it, including all of the components that were required to teach others about the book. I struggled very much to find a good video to add to my slideshow because there were very few that related to the series and the audio books don’t portray the books very well. To get my slideshow ready for the blog, I just perfected it as much as possible by fixing any typos and grammar mistakes. I’m really proud of this project because I’m helping to spread the world about a book I love very much. The audience seemed to really like the series and asked a lot of questions about the plot and characters, many of them agreed that it should be included in the canon.