AP Lit &Comp
Illuminated Poetry
We live in an increasingly visual world, and as a society, we are becoming adept at reading images. We recognize how nuances and subtleties of color, shade, objects, and size enhance the written message. However, the idea of illuminating texts is not new; as early as the 1780’s, William Blake and his wife were creating illuminated texts. Through the addition of images to his poetry, Blake was able to make more concrete the experiences he hoped to share through the words he wrote.
Our class has focused on imagery and figurative language as we have studied poetry. For this assignment, you are going to choose a poem to illuminate through PowerPoint or through a video. You will:
Choose a poem that passes the good poetry test and is by a renowned author
Put the poem on PowerPoint, adding appropriate images and sound OR create a video that showcases the written words and appropriate images/sound
Include slides that explain the poem (consider title, paraphrase, imagery and figurative language, tone, form, and theme) and how your images and sounds relate to and illuminate the more obscure meaning of it (What more did you realize about the poem as you added the images/sounds?--don’t try nothing)
Present your finished product to the class in an organized oral presentation
This assignment is a test grade and is due on ______. It MUST be saved to my completed folder under your class period and name. You MUST have your completed file and the music file in the folder by 7:30 am on Monday, May 16th.
I know I give too many handouts – but one handout, if read can save a lot of grief. Here are some last minute reminders and pieces of advice.
1. Have you illuminated or shown something new and exciting in a new and original way? I have shown you several examples and have more if you need to see them. What makes the most effective ones so good? Don’t steal their ideas – but do steal their enthusiasm and creativity.
2. Does the presentation use the format of the poem to its best advantage? Do you use the natural flow of the poem to “power” the ending of your own presentation?
3. In many ways you are creating your own piece of art here – that will stand apart from what the poet has done – yes, it will Illuminate – but like “Cat in the Rain” it should also have its own elements of “awwwwww.”
4. Is your music appropriate and fitting (including the time).
5. Is your presentation worth the grade?
Before you upload or turn in your assignment you must check off all of the following – in other words, make sure each of these is done.
_____ Have you tested your presentation on a computer other than the one you created it on? Do not use the
rehearsal mode of Power Point – put in exact times for each slide otherwise it will run differently on each
computer.
_____ Were you able to save your music as part of your Power Point? (This is ideal.) Is it named according to
the directions in the following handout EXACTLY? (You should have a saved music file as well for back-up.)
_____ Is your music file an MP3 file and its name is LESS THAN 10 CHARACTERS with no spaces
in the name?
_____ Is your music either timed perfectly or did you fade the music out at the end? Big points off otherwise.
_____ Are there NO Start After (this is in custom animation in Power Point) in the first slide? For
the first slide you need to use Start With and use the timing or delay option to arrange your
animations.
_____ If you did a Flash Illuminated Text does the folder also include the FLA file (Power Point is preferred)
_____ Did you make the Flash file the same size as the examples (so it can be viewed fullscreen comfortably)?
_____ Do you have a back-up copy saved in either “My Documents” or on a usb drive?
_____ Did you submit your text to the appropriate folder on the S:/ drive? My Computer | S:/Drive | OTHS
Student | Completed | Teacher’s folder (Stuckey or Park) | Class Period folder | your name
PowerPoint and Illuminating Text[1]
Tips
1. To make your picture less intrusive try making so light that it will serve as an effective background for your text without “upstaging” what your words & text are doing. To make a picture a background, click on your picture, then right click on that picture – choose format, then for color (see the figure to the right) choose washout. If this leaves your picture too light you can customize the brightness and contrast till you get it just right. Pictures should always play a secondary role to what you are doing with the text.
2. To make your letters (or words) behave separately within your text boxes (see the figure to the right), right-click on effect options – then choose Animate text: By letter (or by word) – you can also choose the delay between each letter’s entrance (or emphasis, or exit) – see the figure below right.
3. You can also get some awesome text effects by positioning single letters over preexisting textboxes – such as putting a red i in the middle of the word pig then having the red i fly away. In order to line up such text use your arrow keys – to get it exactly right – hold down the control key while using the arrow keys – it lets you nudge the letter just enough (and yes, you can use this to put words (that may later fly out of or into) into phrases.
4. Remember you can draw your own motion paths. If motion paths confuse you – see the help file on PowerPoint devoted to motion paths.
5. BIG TIP: When doing animations: Do NOT use the START AFTER PREVIOUS option on your entire first slide (it doesn’t seem to effect later slides). For some reason this makes everything stop – instead use START WITH PREVIOUS and use the EFFECT OPTIONS and put the amount of delay you wish between each of your animation effects.
SOUND – sound is without a doubt the biggest problem that students have with Power Point – follow these directions and you’ll be fine.
Ideally, the music and sounds (yes, you can have more than one sound file – and you can have a combination of music and sound effects) should end at the moment the visuals in your presentation end – however, if it does not you do not want your music to end abruptly in the middle of the song. A way to get around this is to use a sound editor to edit your music so that it fades out at the end of your visuals. You can get a free sound editor called Audacity at http://audacity.sourceforge.net. Go to the help file on fade – the rest is easy.
Saving your Presentation
You must save it to the S:drive (directions see FOLDER below) and save a copy either to “My Documents” or on a USB drive. Be sure to save your presentation and your music file, and any pictures (just in case) in a single folder – that folder you should then save. Music files MUST be in MP3 format (preferably at 192 kbs). WAV format music files will not be accepted for this assignment (due to size constraints).
The name of the music file should also reflect the name of the song (things get messed up easily) and not simply “track 1.” Important: All MP3 and WMA files have “tags” that identify the song and artist – make sure that your tags have at least this information (even better if it includes album information). You can check if your tags are filled in by opening your song in Media Player – it must list the Title and the Artist. You can convert WAV to MP3 files using the Audacity Program mentioned above, you can convert WMA files to MP3 files using Itunes (www.itunes.com).
FOLDER
Your presentation must be saved in the folder with your name on the S:/drive. Open the S:/drive, open completed, open my name, open your class period, find the folder with your name. Music and Power Point files must both be in here. Your work should be saved either in your documents or on a usb until you are done. Once work is saved on the S:/drive, you cannot retrieve it to modify anything. Remember to keep a copy as back-up, just in case.
FILE NAME
Your file name should reflect what your presentation is about. Simply type the name of your poem and your name, ie: sonnet116_JimSmith.ppt – if it’s a song, give the name of the song, its placement, and your name in your filename – ie: AutoWreck_slide3_JimSmith.ppt
IMPORTANT: Do NOT use spaces in the name of your file or in the name of your music file; instead of spaces use the underline character just_like_this. If you don’t follow these instructions, your file and your music may not play on all computers!
SUMMARY (if this summary information is missing points will be deducted from your score)
Before you save the final copy of your presentation – go to the summary box of your presentation; to get there click on File (up at the title menu), then Properties, and finally at the Summary tab. Now put the title (in the Title part of the dialogue box) of your presentation (should be the same as your filename or just about) and the author(s) – your complete names (that would go in the author box). For subject put the title of your work you are illuminating. Finally, in the Comments box, you need to give the following information (in this order)
the title of the poem and its author
the title of the song (its full name), the artist who sang or played it
any other comments that you care to put.
Remember you must test it out on another computer than the one that you created it on (and that is not networked to the one that you created it on – this will ensure that everything (especially the music) is working.
Don’t forget!
· The folder should be named as above
· Check the size: If the music file is less than 1 megabyte then you don’t have the entire thing!
· If the folder with your presentation is smaller than 1 megabyte 1000 k, you don’t have the whole thing (you can right-click on the folder, then click on Properties to get the folder’s size).
· Keep trying it out on different computers (not all at school or your house) till you are comfortable you’ve got it all.
· SOUND: Don’t forget to click on your little speaker (your sound file) – move it out of the picture (to the left is good) – make sure you’ve right-clicked on it – done the custom animation that asks for how many slides you want it to play for. I always put 99 in that box – that way if I add slides later I’m covered.
Yes, you can import your PowerPoint presentations into PhotoStory (or MovieMaker.) All you have to do is save your PowerPoint slides as JPEG files. To do that:
1. Open the PowerPoint file you wish to use.
2. Go to File/Save as. When the dialog box opens, go to the label next to Save as type: and select JPEG file (*.jpg).
3. Click Save. The dialog box below will appear. Select Every Slide.
4. Each slide in your presentation is saved as a separate JPEG file in the original order of the PowerPoint. A separate folder will be created with all the files in it.
5. Open PhotoStory. Go to the Import Pictures tab and click on Import Pictures.
6. Find the folder you just saved and open it.
7. Select all the files and then click OK.
8. PhotoStory imports the slides as pictures into PhotoStory. You can then work with them as you normally would in PhotoStory.
[1] Much of the following – especially about the conception and planning of your Illuminated Text also refers to Adobe Flash.