Immersive Tactics

“Hooks” look very different on the screen. How can you use an interactive mode to help your reader feel a part of the story?

There is a reason why Mary Shelley and Joseph Conrad framed their narratives with narratives.  Framing content of any kind can help readers feel like they have the inside scoop, making the text more engaging.

Think about framing one mode with another mode…

  • Embed a Google Slideshow of images into a site so that the reader must click through each image, becoming more and more immersed in the content as they go, until they get to the final slide with a link to written content.
  • Think about framing images with text, or text with images.
  • How could you frame a visual mode with an auditory mode like a brief podcast or recording?  Maybe even use a song relevant to the content to bring the reader into the story?

Easily frame your content with different modes by spreading it across multiple pages with easy-to-use site-builders like…

WordPress.com

Weebly.com

Wix.com

Adding images, clickable links, text, and even videos to a Google Slideshow can make an excellent frame for content of a different mode. Simply make the slideshow on Google Slides, copy and paste the embed code, and enter it into your free site. Add links to other pages in your site and you have a new modal frame!

Canva and Piktochart provide free, online tools to design your own graphics, logos, and documents.  With free layouts and images, creating compelling images is easy. Think about nesting some of these graphics between different modes to engage your reader.

Timeline tools like TimeGlider, Timeline JS, Sutori and TimeGraphic allow students to quickly create interactive timelines with images and text. A timeline could work as a great frame for historical content or even make a great works cited page or literature review.