Interviewing is a terrific way for students to become involved in their own learning, and some of the most interesting oral histories done by my students have been inspired by Dorothea Lange’s photos. History seems to come alive in the voices of people sharing their past experiences.

As compositionists we want to encourage our students to look beyond the discreet units of evaluation and see themselves as developing writers. Portfolio methodology has provided us a way to view student writers’ progress over time. Recent work with electronic web portfolios allows students to incorporate both the textual and visual dimensions of their work as they revise for new audiences and purposes.

This assignment is the final take-home exam that I give to students at the end of the semester. It incorporates all of the ideas that we’ve talked about during the semester related directly to Seeing & Writing 2. Here, students are asked to pull together the photos that they have taken over the course of the semester into a final photo album with an accompanying essay that reflects on how their ideas of “seeing and writing� have evolved and changed over the semester.