A second strategy involves the ability to define the narrative or storyline development operating in a text, a process that varies according to differences in form. Interpreting literary texts requires readers to infer the relationships between specific events and, to construct the plot development, how certain events cause or can be explained by other events. They are also detecting conflicts between characters, and how those conflicts will be resolved. And, they are continually predicting subsequent events, predictions that help them determine the nature of the storyline based on their knowledge of prototypical genre types. If, for example, they predict that the ending will be a happy one, they know that they are operating in the familiar world of a comedy storyline.

In examining film adaptations, students may compare the differences between storyline development in the original text and the film version. In doing so, they may note instances in which certain events were omitted, added, or rearranged and reasons for these changes in the original text. In many cases, the film version cannot include all of the events of the text or certain events in a story may be truncated given lack of time. The film version of the nonfiction book, Seabiscuit, omitted events from the book that portrayed the several times the horse lost in a race with a hundred-thousand dollar purse.

Students could compare the storyline variation in the many different versions of King Lear (from Shakespeare Magazine).

Students may note how shots and editing techniques are employed to help audiences make predictions. The use of an establishing shot serves to help audiences predict that a particular setting or context may play a role in subsequent events. Or, a close-up on a certain object or person may suggest that this object or person will play an important role in later shots. The use of off-frame action - in which a person may be lurking, suggests that an audience may eventually learn of that person's identity. And, cutting to future events or flashbacks to past events serves to develop the storyline.

The film version will also rely on images, signs, and music to help audiences predict outcomes. Certain images, such as the changes in the boys' face paint and behavior in Lord of the Flies, help audiences predict changes in the character's behavior - the fact that the boys are going to become more war-like. And, in horror or mystery story adaptations, the use of eerie music implies that something untoward will occur.

Students may list different predictions they are making and the shots, editing techniques, images, and sounds they used to make these predictions.

Students could also examine how they construct narrative development in other forms. For example, in hypertext or computer game forms, audiences construct their own narrative versions based on their choices of certain optional paths or directions. Students may keep track of the choices they make in navigating a hypertext or computer game and reasons for those choices based on their narrative knowledge.

This suggests that computer games may be used to teach narrative structures, particularly given the increasing popularity and increasing quality of computer games, which now outnumber DVDs and videos in sales (Carlson, 2003). Zoeverna Jackson (2003) suggests having students identify certain games and their experiences in playing those games based on the following questions:

What character did they choose and why; What was their quest; How long did they play the game; How many times did they play the game; Did they play the game alone or with friends; etc. Was the narrative in the video game interesting? Why or why not?

She then suggests that students create their own video games by creating a narrative and a storyboard for such a game, and, if possible, an actual web-site. Students would then reflect on the following questions:

How does your video game function as a storytelling device? What is the most powerful narrative aspect of your video game? What is the weakest narrative aspect of your video game? How does your video game relate to or interact with its intended audience?

Game Research

GameResearch.com
Joystick101.org
Ludology.org

Game Studies [ a journal of computer game research ]

Games-to-Teach Project [ educational game development at MIT ]

For further reading:

DiSessa, A. Changing minds: Computers, learning, and literacy. Boston: MIT Press.

Gee, J. P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Herz, J. C. (1997). Joystick nation: How videogames ate our quarters, won our hearts, and rewired our minds. New York: Little, Brown.

Myers, D. (2003). The nature of computer games: Play as semiosis. New York: Peter Lang.

Prensky, M. (2000). Digital game based learning. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Module 12: Word document

Drawing on Existing Media Studies Curriculum

Studying Film Adaptations of Literature and Theater

Different Modes of Adaptation

Interpretive Strategies for Organizing Curriculum

Comparing Differences in Experience of Different Reading and Viewing Modes

Defining Narrative Development

Interpreting Characters’ Actions, Beliefs, Agendas, Goals

Contextualizing Texts in Terms of Cultural and Historical Worlds

Defining Intertextual / Hypertextual Connections Between Texts

Adopting Alternative Voices and Discourses

Judging Quality of Literary and Media Texts

Designing Units

Techniques for Developing Units

Evaluation and Assessment of Learning

References

Ideas for Integrating Media into English/Literature Instruction