My kids are pouring through pieces by Ralph Emerson and Harold Bloom. A PPT where kids show what the two authors were thinking lilts on the horizon. I think that will be my first dance with this visual essay format. Of course, that’s just so their ideas are firm for the written essay assignment, not an end in and of itself. Still, should be interesting and could pave the way for some kind of semester final.

Funny you mention editing because most students (in case you haven’t noticed) don’t believe in editing at all. Once written, they turn it in. I suspect the same of something like this.

Basically, authoring a visual essay is identical to authoring a written one in all the most important ways. Primarily, they are edited the same.

Also for the record, in case it spurs your thoughts along, if you do this like I have it in mind, video won’t happen for awhile. This will stay good and static for a week or two.

Do you have Photoshop on those machines?

But more than these kinds of logistics are the logistics of what defines this kind of essay writing. I’m working on some ideas, though, so I’ll let you know when I’ve got a few things together. Some stuff occurred to me today and I might have some thoughts to share on how to actually assign this in an English classroom. It’s more than just showing examples, in much the same way that teaching writing is more than just having students read good writing.

Still, it worries me that I would ever assign something to my students that a) I’ve never done and b) I question my own skills in completing. I like assigning writing because I can write and I have ideas about how to help students write better. I’m trained in that kind of instruction and I’m paid for that expertise. I don’t have many ideas about how to help students create a better film project and the only film project I’ve worked on sits on my desktop computer, likely to never see the light of day (and not a visual essay, by any stretch).

Or no computers at all.

What do you see your students using to make this?

One of the pressing things I have on my plate from your blog recently, Dan, is how to design the lesson that gets the visual essay going. Yeah, examples help. But what are the basic requirements of the visual essay? How is the visual essay (did you coin that phrase, by the way, or is that an industry-standard term?) different than a plain old video project?

Someone have an idea about this? Has anyone already designed that handout and/or lesson that rolls this out for the kids? I’m ready to bring it into my classroom in place of a written masterpiece (read as: essay), but I’m struggling with how to introduce it. That and I’m really weak on video (both resources and skills).

if I did, I’d be falling victim to your aforementioned ratio.

and it would be all downhill after that.

You can take the humor of the joke (or the poignancy of the remark) to the teller and you divide it by how much you’ve gotta explain it to the listener.

For example, the 1.20.09 bumper sticker. Fantastic design. But is it too obscure? The answer is yeah for some, which will require some explaining, which will dilute its poignancy.

In class today I was like, I need you to draw a histogram. We’ve got this kid in class named Graham. I started writing it on the board “histograham.” A buncha kids got it, chuckled, felt sorry for their teacher.

But one kid said, you should capitalize the letters in his name so more people will get it. I had something similar to this discussion with him. Like, how much explaining is too much? At what point do you just say, alright, not everyone’s gonna get it, and preserve the humor of the joke or the poignancy of the remark.

My vote, my choice almost always, is to explain less rather than more but I think it’s a matter of preference. I’m willing to bet that a random sample of high school teachers would proffer the same answer. As would elementary teachers.

But so does a bumper sticker I’ve seen that reads:
“1.20.09”

No special effects needed. Just adhesive…oh, and a bumper.

PS–I completely agree with you about the Stranger Than Fiction movie. That ending was just way too easy.