Hello and thanks. Haven't been here for a while due to frustrations in posting which seem to be resolved on my tablet. Go figure:-).
Bunki, as always I'm deeply indebted. You took on a frightened, green middle school teacher, and with a lot of patience, made him see what was possible, thank you
As for prompts, there are a number of different things in play here. First of all these keep getting better because my freshmen are top dog in our school and they have been seeing these journals and hearing about them since 7th grade. Built in motivation, now:-)
As for class prompts, i give several blog assignments that send students out to journal websites for inspiration and my level of expectation. The kind of work i want from them cant be created in a vacuum.
I only give one actual content assignment, a social cause entry.
Assignments are free for content, but I hammer the point of using lyrics poems and text as visual elements and a source of inspiration.
Since it is my design unit, strong design is emphasized using my mantra borrowed from a calligrapher i know. Shout, Speak, and Whisper, this sums up my objective about design hierarchy. Without, most will ignore contrast, and pile junk on the page.
Besides design, the other objective is to mix, mix, media and experiment..Sometimes i will introduce a technique or material challenge as an assignment or the challenge them to combine 3, 4, 5, media. All entries must include some drawing.
