Assignment Author
CWRL Assignment DatabasePedagogical Goals of the Assignment
Throughout the semester, my class has considered how letters in anthologies are “packaged” and “framed.” I have challenged my students to go beyond thinking of letter writing as a private act or one that strictly involves pen and paper. Now that many letters are archived online and many more will be scanned and transcribed, technology provides an ideal way for looking at the many different ways to archive material.
I have consistently found that students produce lively and creative work when they design their own project assignments. After a semester of discussing writers and readers in relation to letter writing, I gave my students a final assignment that would not only examine the relationship between readers and writers but would also challenge them to look at communication in their own lives.
In considering the audiences of personal letters, they develop a greater awareness of audience in their own writing. In creating an archive or anthology in which they frame letters (or other types of epistolary texts) with forewords, discussion material, and epilogues, the students consider how contextual information shapes the reading experience. They have to think about how to organize the archive and information to help the reader better understand the significance of these personal texts.
Assignment Description
I introduced the final project during the first week of class so they could start thinking about what they wanted to do as well as what technology and texts they needed to complete their project. They could do one of four things:
1. Create a webpage with correspondence and pictures to tell the story of a
relationship or event in letters. The letters can be written by family or friends or be an analysis of the correspondence between two (or more) well known people. Hyperlink keywords within the text to help the outside reader grasp historical context, unfamiliar terms, or other commentary. Write introductions, forewords, glosses, or epilogues to frame the letters. (I encouraged them to start looking for family letters early on)
2. An anthology or scrapbook: The above project but without a webpage.
3. Online Correspondence Project
4. CD with Liner Notes: The songs had to double as letters or at least reference them. Students write liner notes for the songs, justifying the inclusion of the songs as well as the organization of the CD.
While revising their second paper, students received final guidelines and deadlines for the class project. I gave my students a month to write a proposal, conference with me, brainstorm with other students, and finally, present a semi-finished project to the class on the last day. I limited in-class work to one brainstorming session during the last half of class as well as two thirty-minute, in-class sessions devoted to developing their projects in groups and with my assistance. Students used this time to help one another with technical glitches and share what they learned as far as tutorials, troubleshooting, and shortcuts. I will spend the last class day letting the students show off their project and give them an opportunity to ask for any last minute help from both classmates and myself.
Even students who have chosen to do traditional scissor-and-glue scrapbooks have found themselves relying on scanners, printers, web research, and digital cameras. Students are creating websites, sophisticated slide-shows through i-Movie, CD collections with liner notes of songs that double as letters, blogs, and narrative essays involving images and scanned-in letters.
A Few Projects:
1. Note Passing in Junior High: This student is interviewing junior high school teachers and children for a documentary about note-passing, instant-messaging, and text-messaging experiences in junior high. In comparing their experiences to her own, she wants to explore how technology has changed communication for adolescents.
2. One student created a blog that discusses with other bloggers the epistolary elements of blogging. His posts consist of mini-essays as well as spotlights on particular blogs with commentary/response from the authors. He will write a 1-2 page assessment of the project.
3. One student is creating a musical slide show/essay documenting fan letters and newsletters for a band. She will be discussing generic conventions of the newsletter and the relationship between fans and celebrities.
4. Post-it note scrapbook: A scrapbook essay that shows the significance of post-it notes as a way to communicate between friends, family, and roommates. Along with a history of the post-it note, she is defining types of sticky note communication.
5. Another student is making a website archive of graffiti around Austin that directly addresses someone (like a letter). Think bathroom wall conversations/debates that people cross out, respond to, and edit.
6. CD compilation with Liner Notes: Letters from Eminem: This project examines songs by Eminem that directly address the women in his life – his mother, ex-wife, and daughter.