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Hi. I'm Sid Dobrin. This video addresses the Visual Proposal Project that asks students
to create a visual that proposes a new design for the classroom.
I like to assign this prompt because it provides students with the opportunity to create a
visual proposal about a space they encounter in a different way that I do. That is, I find
it interesting to see how students think about learning spaces, particularly the one we share
together regularly, but for a limited amount of time, and one they might actually share
in other contexts of other classes. And, this is something I ask them to think about in
terms of situation: how does the space of the classroom when combined with our class
differ situationally from the same space when you use it for a different class?
I designed this assignment because when it comes to using visuals in conjunction with
writing to propose strategies, spatial representations are one of the most evident ways to use visuals
to communicate proposed ideas. One of the key aspects of this assignment,
though, is for students to concentrate on the visual, not the written proposal. That
is, students are not asked to write about their proposal or to explain their visual
in writing. Instead, they need to convey all of their proposed ideas to their audience
in the visual. Part of what makes this feasible is helping students understand that the physical
space of the classroom is part of the situation in which they and others participate. Thus,
when proposing other uses for the space, it is the space itself that is already familiar
to the audience. The proposal, then, should make connections for readers between the proposed
space and the familiar space. So, for example, when I give this assignment, I also add the
constraint that they can't alter the dimensions of the room. They can't, for example, propose
that the classroom be as big as a town. I tie this constraint to conversations about
identifying the problem and identifying the scope. Thus, what I want students to see is
that the objective of the assignment is to propose a new design for the space not an
entirely new space. This clarification, I find, is also useful
in helping students understand that part of how I will assess their visual proposals will
be based on the ability of the audience—both me and the other students—to identify the
proposed solution with the current situation and to see the alterations the proposal makes.
That is, the proposal must account for the current situation and current space.
190 Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Chapter 15: Writing to Propose
With this in mind, I do try to provide some in-class time for them to work on the proposals
so that they can photograph, sketch, measure, or whatever else they need to do in the space
itself. One final note about this assignment, I do
encourage students to use digital tools to complete this assignment rather than hand
drawing their proposals. I emphasize this for two reasons: first simple professionalism
in delivery and, second, the possibilities that digital tools offer in terms of invention
and, most important, revision. I encourage students to see what software is available
to them through the university and what is already available on their personal computers
or mobile devices. That's a little about how I approach this
assignment. Thanks for using Writing Situations and thanks
for watching.