This week each student was expected to have their 20 sketches completed for the public service announcement of their choice. Unlike the previous weeks session that consisted mostly of lecture with little discussion—this week was quite the opposite. All 16 students gathered around a set of large work desks. One-by-one students presented their topics and spoke to each sketch as they shared their work. Prof. B does an excellent job of challenging students to provide critiques for each other. At the same time his ideas are thoughtful, calculated and strategic. This first critique focused on analyzing for sound concept not so much the quality of the sketch. As to be expected, the students work varied in cleverness and execution. Several students presented multiple stand out concepts. These students clearly understood the assignment and engaged in it as intended: not to take their first favorite idea, but to explore the content and subject from different angles. There were several students however who arrived with the allotted quantity of sketches—but lacked any conceptual direction. Rather than taking up too much valuable time talking about how they missed the mark completely Prof. B challenged that student along with the rest of the class to take one of the ill-fitting sketches and treat like an agency brainstorm. He asked questions like how could we… and what would you do to make this more clear? Who’s your intended audience…? As an instructor Prof. B shared with me that tearing students work down in class is not his style. He feels the grade book will get his message across just as clearly. So rather than focusing on the negative aspects of the less than acceptable projects students focused on what could be done to communicate more clearly. Along these same lines, critique is not meant to express personal opinions as much as it is share design observations. One can disagree with the content of the design but still give an insightful review of the work. All but one topic was an easy sell. By this I mean everyone can agree that literacy is good, you should quit smoking, the oil spill was harmful, suicidal vets should receive help, trees are huggable and recycling helps the planet. It’s more challenging to convince an audience that BDSM should be a more widely accepted practice and that the stereotypes are false. This critique appeared particularly challenging for many students as well as the professor as no one wants to be insulting or ignorant about the subject matter. Prof. B did an exceptional job playing both sides of the argument that by the end of class I really couldn’t tell what his personal perspectives were regarding the topic itself.
Reflecting on the class there were a couple questions that I had regarding discussions and direct student tasking. As a professor how when do you stop and just let the class critique itself? Can teacher’s give too much of their own creative input into the students work? How do you challenge students who are ahead of the rest of the class without leaving behind the struggling students?
As a professor there are many things to cover with each assignment. It’s easy to get off topic when students ask questions—regardless how appropriate they might be. When the first project was announced, specific directions were not given regarding the size or layout expectations for sketches. Because of this, students work was all over the place. It made it challenging for each student to communicate their ideas when they were small 4″ line drawings, or every idea was on one sheet of paper. For the following project the this specification will be clarified. It was a good example of how without direct guidance you get a full spectrum of executions. This can be a good or bad thing depending on the situation—but for this it made it difficult during critique. Next week: digital comps!