Zine Fair Planning

End of semester grading looms…

Geoff: Instead of a final essay, to avoid AI-written submissions, I’m having my students create zines.
Nancy: Handmade with visuals and reflections? 
Geoff: Graphics, handwritten notes, sketches. 
Nancy: Could work for my drama course. Critiques of performances, rehearsals, and characters. 
Geoff: And what they learned from classmates. 
Nancy: In breakout rooms?
Geoff: Sure. After the 45 seconds of “Having problems with WiFi.”  For submission, I’m thinking scanned PDFs. 
Nancy: Good. But maybe warnings about about file sizes? 
Geoff: Right. Capped to say 16 MB. With instructions on how to compress.
Nancy: And allow phone scans. Not everyone has a proper scanner. 
Geoff: Agreed. As long as it’s readable and not photographed at a dramatic angle.
Nancy: Sometimes dramatic angles are a feature, not a bug. We should also balance creativity with substance. Some students will go full art project and forget the learning.
Geoff: Rubric contains criteria like reflection, course concepts, peer learning, and presentation. And of course, whether it reflects the actual voice of the writer.
Nancy: Speaking of handwriting “voice”, were you? Beautiful scrawl is still scrawl. So how do we showcase them? We can’t exactly pin them on classroom walls. 
Geoff: Virtual zine fair? Final class session. Shared folder, screen-sharing, short presentations. We could make it a joint event.
Nancy: Love it. Like a gallery opening, but with more unstable Wi-Fi. And fewer canapés.
Geoff: Bring your own snacks.
_________
Voice-over
Check in again next episode for a report on how it went.