This week, I got the opportunity to shadow Erin Maurelli again. She taught Letterpress 4, the last session in the letterpress class. Her class printed several copies of a small book that students bound together at the end of the day. They printed the poem “Auto Lullaby” by Franz Wright as well as images from the MCBA letterpress collection and Erin’s personal supply of letterpress images.
Erin prepared a guide sheet on how the papers would fit together by drawing a diagram and marking each page with a number that correlated to a stanza. She also brought several prints of an example book she had made the exact same way, and a poem that the students would print on the pages. The preparation beforehand helped the students out a lot and I will remember this trick in my own classes, especially for technically complicated skills. A visual diagram as well as a verbal explanation allows for students with different learning styles to understand the project.
I appreciated the way Erin broke down the project and how the class worked together to divide and conquer it. Students were paired up to set up the letters for each stanza and print several copies of each page. I think this benefited them and the class because they could work together to solve their problems. This also benefited Erin because she could help with more technically challenging issues. The end result was about 20 hand-bound books and each student got to take home two. The collaboration was fantastic to watch and be a part of, and I definitely want to make something collaborative with my students like this one day.