Teaching Materials
Audience Sketch
I love getting students to approach their writing projects from multiple creative angles. This project allows students to visual represent a member of their target audience. Everyone has to narrow their specific audience down to one person, being as specific as possible to determine their demographics and personality traits. Students then create a sketch of this person to give a face to the audience helps gives students a detailed understanding of their target audience. It gives them a concrete figure to come back to when crafting their project.
The idea for this project is based on the comic "Mo the Kid" by Caleb Murphy.
​
Flipped Perspective
This is one of my favorite activities because it combines really potent imagery and the ability to switch places with inanimate objects. They first write this memory from their perspective, being as detailed with sensory information as possible. Then, they swap! They have to become the object from their story, and write from its perspective. This not only gets them to play around with language in a fun way, it encourages a bit of imagination.
Both of the activities below are based on the poem "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyon
"Where I'm From" / "I Am" Poem Activity
I did this activity during the first week of class because it helps students get to know each other, building community in the classroom, so that they can quickly become comfortable working collaboratively. This also helps students begin their journey of self-expression. By starting this process as soon as possible, students can become more comfortable working through their own thoughts and emotions for later analysis projects. There are two ways I have planned to do this activity.
"Where We're From"/"We Are" Group Poem
I revisited the above activity for the final project in ENGL 102. For this assignment, students are put into groups. In these groups, they collaboratively create a poem based on the above poem, but instead of reflecting individually, they'll do so as a group. The poems can contain any influence they feel has collectively affected them. I gave them ideas relating to growing up, going to school, coming to college, their college lives, and the pandemic. I encouraged students to pursue whatever tone they wanted, whether humorous, serious,
Below is the assignment sheet for the project, as well as some samples they generated.
Interview Preparation & Constructive Criticism
This is a two-fold task, asking students to simultaneously think about conducting personal interviews, while also practicing constructive criticism. Discussing what makes good, constructive feedback and having them replicate the process helped students understand the value in their peer responses. The silly nature of the hypothetical questions really got them engaged with the process and helped them commit to the activity.
Observation Activity
The PowerPoint and observation template is based on Nicole Kras's Observation section of Ethnography Made Simple. The activity asks students to practice observation skills in a campus cafe. Using this activity at the start of their autoethnography project allows them to see the skills necessary to complete the project. It gives them a low-stakes way to practice the curiosity required for the assignment.