In several of my literature classes, I’ve asked students to explore course themes through creative multimodal projects. These assignments require students to reflect on the relationships between form and content and to choose a medium that allows them to investigate effectively the questions that have inspired their project. Past projects have included podcasts, social media accounts, fictional lab reports, visual art, e-books, one-act plays, alien abduction forensic mystery kits, and much more. Engaging their imaginations, students apply critical thinking, writing, research, and design skills to develop projects that interrogate challenging questions from class. Along with their final projects, students submit an analysis paper in which they discuss their design choices and the project’s implications.
You can browse archives of student projects, published along with brief excerpts from students’ analysis papers, at the links below.
Introduction to Fiction, Global Postcolonial Lit (Advanced Composition), Spring 2019
Fairy Tales and Gender Formation, Spring 2017
Modernist Literature and Culture, Fall 2016
Science Fiction, Fall 2014 (Selected Projects)
Valerie E. O'Brien 