3. Presenting text, sound, and images... From Reading to Writing In his story “Ambush,” Tim O’Brien examines his experiences as a soldier during the Vietnam War and concludes, “Even now I haven’t finished sorting it out. Sometimes I forgive myself. Other times I don’t.” Multimedia Exhibit

4. Presenting text, sound, and images... It may be difficult to understand the strong feelings people have about war unless you know something about this emotional topic. One way to explore complex subjects is through multimedia exhibits. Multimedia Exhibit

5. Presenting text, sound, and images... In such exhibits, video recordings, music, visuals, artifacts, and other media are used to engage viewers and teach them about particular topics. Multimedia Exhibit

6. B a s i c s i n a B o x GUIDELINES & STANDARDS Multimedia Exhibit A successful multimedia exhibit should attract viewers’ attention with appealing visuals, interesting artifacts, and clear text present information about a topic logically and clearly contain a variety of objects and materials appropriate to the subject include specific and accurate written information lead viewers along an easy-to-follow pathway with clearly labeled beginning and ending points

7. Creating Your Multimedia Exhibit 1 Planning Your Exhibit Since your exhibit will probably be a group effort, you might begin by brainstorming possible exhibit topics with a small group of your classmates. Try to come up with broad topics—such as sports, war, peace, and childhood— that you can later refine.

8. Planning Your Multimedia Exhibit 1. Narrow the focus of your subject. You will need to break down your topic into more specific parts. Use a web to organize various elements of your subject that you might cover, then pick one or two elements as your focus. 2. Brainstorm a list of materials. What objects, materials, and media are most appropriate to your content and focus? Where will you find these things? Are there any items you will have to make yourself?

9. Planning Your Multimedia Exhibit 3. Conduct research. Make some notes on what you already know about your topic and what you need to find out. Conduct library research to identify key ideas, dates, and facts that relate to your topic. As you research, consider what will interest your audience. What might they already know about this topic?

10. Planning Your Multimedia Exhibit 4. Sketch a rough floor plan. Where will you set up your exhibit? Draw a sketch of the area and imagine how you might arrange items in it. Keep in mind the flow of traffic through your exhibit. To avoid traffic jams, make sure you put enough space between items in your exhibit. Also think about how many electrical outlets are available and where they are.

11. Creating Your Multimedia Exhibit 2 Preparing Your Exhibit After you have gathered all of your materials, use these steps to prepare your exhibit.

12. Preparing Your Multimedia Exhibit 1. Revise your floor plan. Depending on what materials you’ve gathered, you may need to revise your initial sketch. Will you group your materials chronologically? thematically? Which organization will offer the clearest and most interesting path through your exhibit? 2. Create visuals. You may need to create charts, graphs, or maps for your exhibit. Make sure the visuals you create are neat, clear, and accurate.

13. Preparing Your Multimedia Exhibit 3. Write the text. For the beginning point of your exhibit, create a sign that includes the title of the exhibit and a paragraph explaining what viewers are about to see or why you created the exhibit. Also create labels that identify the items in the exhibit, pointing out their important features and explaining their significance. Finally, write a paragraph for the end of your exhibit, summarizing what viewers have seen. Your text should be clear, specific, and accurate.

14. Preparing Your Multimedia Exhibit 4. Proofread the text. Although your exhibit may not include a lot of text, everything you write should be grammatically correct. Share the task of editing and proofreading with other group members. 5. Arrange your materials. You may want to experiment with the layout, but use your final sketch to guide you in setting up your exhibit.

15. Creating Your Multimedia Exhibit 3 Refining Your Exhibit After you have constructed your exhibit, ask several friends or classmates to walk through it and share their impressions. Use their feedback to make your exhibit as interesting, informative, and clear as possible. The following points can help you review your work.

16. Creating Your Multimedia Exhibit 3 Practicing and Presenting n Look at the exhibit as a whole. Consider how well your materials work together. Does everything fit in the exhibit space? Does the order of the items make sense? Do any of the media overpower other points of the exhibit?

17. Creating Your Multimedia Exhibit 3 Practicing and Presenting n Evaluate your information. Have you presented enough information about the items? Have you presented too much? Are your facts accurate? Is the writing specific and clear?

18. Creating Your Multimedia Exhibit 3 Practicing and Presenting n Review your media choices. Audiences often ignore lengthy text in favor of visuals. Do you have a good mix of sound, visuals, and text? Look for places where a visual would present your information more effectively than text.