In teaching AP US History to 10th graders last year, I often found my students tiring of lectures and notetaking. In order to bring some variety to the classroom, I decided to incoporate one of my favorite historical primary documents: political cartoons. In doing so, I realized that in showing political cartoons and asking my students to analyze them I had stumble upon a way to encourage critical thinking. Now having read these essays, I see that I had also incorporated a form of visual rhetoric.
Until this class, the evolving visual nature of composition (and pop culuture in general) has not really occured to me. The visual nature of pop culture and also composition must warrant some devotion of classtime. For example, what does the design of my blog say about the what I am posting here? Afterall, I chose it for a reason, even if it was subconscious. What does visual rhetoric add to the field of composition? There is much more to be considered besides the words on the page. In one sense, I find it exciting, but also daunting.
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