Embedded Files
Expressing yourself so that others understand
"SEEQers tailor their communication to its context. They consider what their audience needs and expects—clarity and craft chief among them. SEEQers organize their ideas and select the medium that best serves their message. When they express, they show that they've also been listening."
My Understanding & Growth
My Understanding & Growth
Communicating Powerfully means to convey anything that can be presented to an audience, in a way that shows YOU know what you’re talking about and expresses a message or idea clearly to your specific audience. This Sustainability Skill means you must have clarity AND quality in your work. A piece that doesn’t have your best quality work won’t be able to resonate with your audience. Your work will also show that you have been focused on your subject, showing your audience you understand the topic you are basing your message on.
Communicating Powerfully has three big factors. Number one is to know your audience. As I said before, you must understand who you are expressing your message to. This matters because if you are Communicating your piece to five year olds then you won’t use the same language as you would when you’re presenting to adults.
The second factor for Communicating Powerfully is to understand your medium and how it can express your message. Your medium can be anything from a poem to a two hour long documentary, whatever suits your message and topic in your opinion. Additionally, your medium should add value to the message you are trying to express because it could make your piece even more powerful.
The third (and most important) part of Communicating Powerfully is to know yourself and your understanding of your idea. It is very clear if someone doesn’t know what they’re talking about and if you pretend to act like you do. When you Communicate Powerfully either show that you have a strong understanding of your message or that you are continuing to grow in it. Anything in the middle might throw off your audience.
Before I came to SEEQS I used Communicating Powerfully in my films and animation, but less in other subjects. Although I understood these concepts I did not have good examples of them at all and I wasn’t able to communicate my messages and ideas with clarity. I would also act in plays and short films where I had to portray new characters and messages that I wasn't familer with.
This shot was from a short video I made towards the end of my 6th grade year
In 6th grade I started to understand Communicating Powerfully better. For EQS I decided to write a short film with my friend, Max, about pollution and climate change. This project taught me about the importance of considering my audience. At first I wanted to make the film WAY differently than the final concept. But after feedback from teachers, I realized that it would probably be better to make the piece have more significance and deeper meaning than I had intended to make my film resonate with older audiences.
7th grade was a massive step up for me in Communicating Powerfully. This year I had classes that focused more on the message of my work. I also started getting more serious on my projects outside of school which helped me learn how to communicate ideas better in my own work.
Communicating Powerfully is my strongest skill currently. I use it daily, from presenting in class to making my films to even talking with my friends. Over my three years at SEEQS I have grown to understand that I have the power to control what I say and the messages and ideas I represent. I will continue to use this skill throughout my life and keep growing my understanding of it.
My Project
My Project
A good example of a project where I Communicated Powerfully was my 7th grade Public Service Announcement (PSA) for EQS Reciprocity: Identity. The purpose of this project was to learn how to make a PSA that communicates an important message to its audience in a clear and unique way. Before we started this project we learned what PSAs were and took notes on some example PSAs. We learned about different elements, such as music and visuals to make PSAs send a message to their audience.
The first step in this project was brainstorming. We only had around two weeks to make our project so we had to think quickly. We had a lot of freedom for this and it could have been about any subject that we had learned about so far in that EQS class. I decided to make a short LEGO film about bullying and discrimination. Since I couldn’t film anything at school I had to plan out what I would do in class. I decided to spend class time scripting and storyboarding my film. This process took most of the class because I drew out each scene exactly how I wanted it to look. When I got home I worked on filming my project.
While filming I had to really think about timing and camera angles because I learned that they are really important for making a message stand out to your audience. In editing I had a really hard time choosing the music I wanted to use for my film, but after thinking about the message of my piece I came to a conclusion on the music I wanted to use based on the tone and mood of it.
After we all finished our PSAs we presented them in front of the class. We let them view our projects and then asked for questions or feedback at the end. Afterwards we reflected on our project which helped me understand the message of my piece better because I was able to write down my thoughts about it. While simple, I think this project was a great milestone for me because it was my first film where I had a defined message that I was trying to communicate.
How My Project Connects
How My Project Connects
This project (PSAs) relates to Communicating Powerfully because we had to learn how to present an issue/message to our audience and make sure it was clear. To do this we had to first decide on a good message that we wanted our PSA to represent. I learned that a good message makes a good PSA. This relates to Communicating Powerfully, since we needed to think about who our audience was, and what they would expect from our PSAs. My audience was people who have either experienced bullying in any perspective, from the victim, bully or a bystander. I wanted these people to be my audience because I wanted my project to have them stand up for what they did or didn’t do and grow from there.
When I Communicate Powerfully I try to make my messages show that I have been paying attention to the topics I convey. This project required me to fully understand the topic I based my video on because it was a lot different from any other that I had based projects off of. I needed to be respectful and yet show the effects of my topic in a way that my audience could understand.
I chose this project to represent Communicate Powerfully because I personally believe that this is the first project that I successfully communicated a message to my audience with enough power to have it stick with them. This project has helped me understand how to include deeper messages in my films in a way that I show instead of tell. I think I successfully Communicated Powerfully in this project because I clearly delivered my message to my audience and had appropriate music, imagery, camera angles and overall feeling in my project. I didn’t struggle with this project (besides finding the right music) because I had an intent and kind of a flame that pushed me to finish it with quality.
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