Road Signs
Florida

The context:
Cooking up a new assignment for Fall's 101 class which involved making Life Maps (not the touchy-feeling Oprah kind) but more evaluating their life kind. Oprah's wants your hopes, dreams, goals, aspirations (cue the music) but I want the student to use the skills of evaluation to talk about where they've been, where they are and where they see their future to be. A slightly different twist--analysis is the name of the game rather than fairy-tale wishes.

Some can be done in map-form, so I was searching on Google image for Life Maps and found this gaggle of signs.

The others I posted on the newest Eng 101 blog: Assign Me Something.

If anyone in the reading audience wants to make me a map for a sample, I'd love it. Deadline?
1 October of this year. I'm trying cook up a few myself.

If I get any takers, mail them to me and I'll take photos and post them on the blog. Or--if you don't want to part with it, mail me a photo and a description.


Below is the assignment sheet, thus far. I may add more. . .
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Assignment: Evaluate where you are, create a visual representation of that. In addition, write a short essay (1-2 pages) about your memoir, your evaluation.

To begin, read the text pages: 258-9 (intro to chapter), and "Analyzing Writing Strategies" 265-267. Although it may be tricky, we will morph the idea of evaluating a movie or book to evaluating your place in the universe, county, county, family, world, university, education, etc.

In other words, you choose the context and place yourself in the middle. Think of it in steps:
1) Evaluate first by presenting the subject: you and the place where you have set yourself. However, this is more than a simple timeline of Big Events. A timeline is linear in form, and yours may be more far reaching, loop back on itself, or twist over the top.
2) Then somehow give an overall judgment of this. Are you satisfied with where you came from? Where you're going? Your progress thus far on this journey you have identified? Are you satisfied with your place?
3) Next, provide support for this judgment. Identify the reasons why you are where you are/what you are/who you are and somehow create a visual representation of this in the form of a map. You identify the reasons, and how each section of your map provides support for the judgment.
4) You know yourself the best—or do you? Discover your own voice, your own journey, your own map by freewriting first, brainstorming ideas. Look at the ideas on the blog and remember that Thoreau said "Simplify, simplify." You'll have too much information. Simplify so you don't visually overwhelm the viewer, saving the best, discarding the rest.
5) Now you will, in words, reflect on the map you made, explaining what you have done and what it means. In the 500-word essay, include the basic components of evaluation.

Joseph Cornell, a famous artist who created small boxes of art, first wrote and wrote about his subject. Then he would circle words that either jumped out at him, were easier to illustrate, or had significance to the project as a whole. You may choose to work this way: writing your essay first, then mining that for visual ideas.

Lastly, I want you to take your analysis a step further. By looking at this map the way you would any map, where does this map point to? You will have to think beyond yourself and anticipate how others will respond to your creation. This further means that as you work on your map, you need to think about why we make maps, who your audience is, and how your self-portrait map reflects cultural, familial, socio-economic issues and how this all relates to you.

On the day we present these in class, I'll expect some sort of oral explanation from you (1-2 minutes), but please please don't merely read your essay. I'll also be taking photos of your maps for future postings on the web. Head to http://assignme.blogspot.com/ where you'll see a collection of maps made by other students.