Playing with Multimodal Response: Text Animation for "We Don't Have Time for This" by Brianna Craft (Blog Post 7)

    

We Don't Have Time for This Text Animation/Book Trailer

    In response to the texts that I read on environmental justice, I decided to create a text animation/book trailer for We Don't Have Time for This by Brianna Craft. Initially, I had hoped to create a text animation as a summary of the entire novel because many of my favorite parts of the novel (when the plot ties in nonfiction historical events of environmental racism into its events, the outcome of speaking at the city council meeting on halting the creation of the pipeline, why the cover speaks of romance when Isa and Darius are initially pinned as enemies) happen in the later half of the novel. However, when I began looking for clips to include in my multimodal creation for the text animation I quickly realized that finding clips and creating a animated summary for an entire novel would be far outside of my comfort zone (and may infringe of the content that is considered "fair use" of the original novel). The good news is, now all of you viewers can indulge in the reading We Don't Have Time for This on your own, spoiler-free.

    The process of creating this video on Canva was transformative for me as I thought about how I could capture scenes from the opening of the novel in ways that would capture an audience's attention. As I searched for snippets of video on Canva for Education (thank you MPS) I found myself buzzing with ideas for what I wanted to include. As I read, my mind was full of images as I came to imagine the characters I read about; however, for students who struggle with reading comprehension, these practices of visualization can be a struggle. Taking time to pause throughout the reading of novels and include multimodal expressions, such as text animations, can be a strong support to amplify student learning, simultaneously supporting them in finding areas of the text that lead to selecting images and summary based text like I included and helping increase their engagement. However, it's important to discuss with students what they are engaging in as they appropriate and revise the works they read so students understand the importance of when it is necessary to cite the original text, video, or audio they have included. This website has lots of great lessons, resources, and videos that are ready to be shared with students in regard to creating multimodal compositions that are very useful!



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