TALONS Digital Literacy Post #3

English 9: ZIP

ZIP is an open-ended inquiry project that we were tasked to complete as an English assignment. Each student was required to create an inquiry question for a topic which they wanted to learn or experiment with over the next eight school days. At the end of our project, we had to prepare a final learning artefact that would display our learning, also presenting our findings with the rest of our classmates. In the end, my ZIP inquiry ended up being, “What are the essential elements of creating an illustrated children’s book?”

The layout of my book got altered when I transferred it to word online, but this is the final print layout that I used for my illustrated children’s book

Link: Emma’s First Cake

Link: ZIP proposal

Link: ZIP bibliography

 

Criteria:

Communication and Collaboration (2)

I tailor my work to appeal to my intended audience, and use language and visual design elements appropriate for them.

For my final artefact of learning, I decided to create an illustrated children’s book. To tailor my work towards my intended audience, I tried to make elements of my book more playful by implementing brighter colors and made simpler, shorter text/language. To make my artefact more appealing for children, the characters within my story were created with a simpler cartoon-like style constructed using simple shapes and colors. I tried my best to make the mood as obvious as possible for a younger audience. In many cases, I used dramatic tones of colors to cue the audience visually that there was a change in mood.

 

Creativity, Innovation, Technology Operations, and Concepts (5)

I enhance the impact of my research or presentation through creative use of technology

When I started to create my illustrated children’s book, I had to decide what medium I wanted to use. In the end, I decided to create my illustrations digitally because I already had a drawing tablet that I could use for illustrating. There was also an online drawing program that I wanted to try out called FireAlpacha. Using FireAlpaca, I was able to access multiple different brush styles, and I was easily able to switch between different thicknesses. Using FireAlpaca I was able to use different layers to create my illustrations which helped to enhance the effect and impact of my research.

 

Digital Citizenship (13)

I attribute credit to ideas that are not my own by preparing a Bibliography/Works Cited and by using in-text citations

I am able to prepare a bibliography that attributes credit to ideas that are not my own. For the four days in which we conducted research for ZIP, we were asked to cite our sources and create an annotated bibliography in order to recognize the ideas that we used to support our learning.

 

Digital Citizenship (15)

My work demonstrates a positive, productive, and empathetic worldview

When I created my children’s book, I had to think of a moral that I wanted to encapsulate for my audience. In my story, the main character (Emma) tries to bake a cake which she fails to do multiple times. Emma almost gives up, but in the end she and her mother bake the cake together. Through this moral I wanted to convey that we always have loved ones who will guide and support us through our hardest moments, which I believe demonstrates a positive and empathetic worldview.