(1) Hi everyone! I’m excited to be presenting at the Pop Culture and Pedagogy Conference on Twitter this afternoon. Welcome to my presentation – “Pop Culture in/as Arts-Based Writing Pedagogy.” #POPC1
First of all, I’m Dr. Kristin LaFollette. I’m an Assistant Professor in the English department at the University of Southern Indiana, and I serve as the developmental writing specialist. My research is focused on arts-based approaches to scholarship and pedagogy! #POPC1
While my doctorate is in rhetoric and writing studies, I have a background in creative writing (and I am a visual artist and a photographer). As a doctoral student, I struggled to reconcile my identities as a writer and an artist and a scholar. #POPC1
I began to realize that the scholarly vs. creative binary is false. Cydney Alexis argues, “Binaries are leaned on in order to praise one thing and devalue another. This is the case with the phrase creative writing.” #POPC1
I started referring to myself and the work I do as “creative-critical,” and my work as a scholar, creative, and teacher frequently intersects writing with art and collage and poetry and prose and photography. #POPCON1
My doctoral dissertation, then, advocated for the use of art as a tool in writing studies research and pedagogy. This research has carried into my teaching, both during my time as a graduate teaching assistant and now as an assistant professor. #POPCON1
I use an arts-based approach in my writing classes, and that often requires students to create original artwork as part of their projects. A recent project asked my developmental writing students to write a profile on a professor at our university. #POPC1
In addition to a written profile, they also had to create a visual that represented, in some way, the person they profiled and the interview responses they received. While the students were skeptical about the assignment at first, I received some cool projects. #POPC1
One student interviewed a professor in the English department and created a book based on that professor’s favorite author – Sylvia Plath. The book was completely handmade/bound and contained quotes from Plath’s work throughout. #POPC1
Here's a snapshot of that student's project. #POPC1
In addition to creating the visual, students were asked to write a brief justification of their visual where they articulated their rhetorical strategizing: Why did you choose to create your visual using that form? How is the visual representing your profile? #POPC1
As I’m wrapping up my first semester as an assistant professor, I’ve learned a few things about my own arts-based pedagogy. For one, students need to clearly understand why you’re asking them to do something. #POPC1
This presents a perfect opportunity to talk to them about rhetorical thinking, strategizing, and decision-making. Using rhetoric effectively is essential for any writer or communicator, and creating art presents opportunities to clearly discuss rhetoric with students. #POPC1
Students may not be able to as easily articulate the rhetorical decisions they made in their writing, but it can be easier for them to explain the form they chose for their art (painting, drawing, collaging, etc.) and why they used particular materials, colors, etc. #POPC1
Second, students respond better to unconventional assignments when the instructor models the work for them. I frequently share my own artwork (and specifically the work I do that combines image and text) with my students. #POPC1
I encourage my students to move beyond having the artwork simply “illustrate” the text (i.e. writing about Christmas and then drawing a Christmas tree). Instead, I teach my students to create tensions between image and text to create new meaning. #POPC1
Because of this, I teach my students about Dada and Surrealist artists and artwork. The intersections of art and writing developed out of these movements, so we talk about how the writing and the text don’t need to merely illustrate each other. #POPC1
Dada and Surrealist artists were interested in using text and image together to make the audience experience the work and think in new and exciting ways, so I take some time to show students examples of this (my favorite examples are from Max Ernst’s collage novels). #POPC1
While multimodal approaches to pedagogy are becoming more popular, we still tend to teach writing as only words on a page. There are so many more forms and modalities available to students, and they can use these to be more effective composers. #POPC1
I challenge them: What rhetorical strategies will you use in your artwork to better achieve your goals and reach your audience? How will you use the writing and the artwork together to further these goals? How can you accomplish this beyond mere illustration? #POC1
This is a difficult task, and some students default to creating straightforward artwork (which is acceptable if they can clearly articulate the rhetorical thinking that went into it). Other students embrace the challenge and create intriguing and exciting projects. #POPC1
Many students are inspired by the Dada and Surrealist artwork we look at, and we have great discussions about how the tenets of these popular art movements translate to the writing they are doing: Be original. Think outside the box. Think critically. Be engaging. #POPC1
I love this arts-based approach because it introduces students to popular art movements they may not know about otherwise. As we talk about the artwork, we also spend some time analyzing the images: What was the artist attempting to communicate in this image? #POPC1
Thank you for tuning in! “Pop Culture in/as Arts-Based Writing Pedagogy”: END THREAD. I am now open to Q&A! #POPC1
