Civic Identity Poster Guidelines

What causes are you passionate about? How do you want to make a difference in the world? Are you already creating an impact in  your communities? Who are you as a citizen and civic being?

In this poster session, you will consider and express your “civic identity” by relating your experiences (or lack thereof) with civic engagement. The purpose of the poster, which you’ll be sharing with the class, is to show our classroom community who you are as a citizen (and for you to reflect on that, as well) so that we can better help each other as civically engaged writers throughout the rest of the semester.

You’ll express your experiences visually, exploring your passion-causes and the civic issues you care about. Through this project, we’ll start deciding on a topic to pursue through your future projects this semester.

Technical Requirements:

• This can be a hard-copy poster using poster board and printed-out materials, or it can be a digital “poster” made using a platform such as Canva, Prezi, etc.
• Text and images should be used. (If you’re going with a digital format, feel free to use audio clips as well!)
• The design of the poster is entirely up to you – feel free to bedazzle it, make a collage, keep it simple, make it thematic, etc. Just make sure  it’s readable for your audience.
• Any outside sources should be cited using MLA or APA citations.

Other Specifications and Advice:

• Include personal stories as well as factual information when you are able.
• Be creative and have fun with this! Remember that this is a self-reflection as well as a conversation with the class, so dig deep into what you care about.
• While factual information is helpful for context, keep it brief – remember that this is a poster, not a research paper. (But don’t forget to cite!)
• Keep in mind that some images may be triggering for people. Use your best judgement when deciding which images to use to represent your topic(s).
• You’re welcome to have more than one topic/cause represented on your poster. If you’ve been involved in multiple civic causes, wonderful!! 🙂 Just make sure your audience can tell the difference between each cause and that the organization of the poster is clear.

What You’ll Be Graded On:

• Design – Is the poster visually pleasing, readable, and have multimodal elements been incorporated?
• Organization – Is the poster readable, regardless of how it’s organized?
• Genre – Since this is an autobiographical project, does it focus on a personal reflection and/or stories?
• Research and Evidence – Does the poster include factual information from reliable outside sources as well as evidence from personal stories to support claims being made?
• Formatting – Are citations formatted properly and is the poster proofread?