Worth a Thousand Words
Time Required: 30-40 minutes (maybe more?)
Goals/Purpose: This exercise encourages students to think of images more critically, to choose images to accompany their research paper that don’t just show the subject but communicate ideas on their own. This exercise also gives students feedback on their ability to choose effective images.
Required Materials: Student papers, access to computers/internet
Procedure:
1. Have students go through their own papers, and, for each paragraph, note the following things: Subject, Message (What is the paragraph’s thesis? What aspect of your over all claim is it arguing/explaining?). 2. Now for their favorite part: surfing the internet. Have students poke around the internet and find an image per paragraph. But the challenge is that the image needs to communicate the same message that the words do. “Images” can refer to graphs/charts, artwork, photographs, etc. Have students gather the images in Powerpoint or Word. 3. Break students into groups of 3. Have each student present his/her images to the other two group members who will try to translate the images’ messages back to text-form. After each student has a chance to present his/her images, have them compare the translations to the original paragraph notes and determine whose images most strongly communicated the original essay ideas.
