Why I Teach Book Cover Design (& How You Can Too with My Free Resource)
This week, I am wrapping up teaching an eight-week, online version of my “Putting the Lit in Literacies” Intro to Fiction course here at IU Bloomington. To celebrate the occasion, I’m sharing an updated look at one of my favorite summative assessments.
One of the best parts of my job is prompting students to use digital tools to engage with literature in unexpected but productive ways. Six years ago, I created the first iteration of what has become one of my “greatest hits” assignments: a multimodal project in which students design and market a book cover for an assigned text.
My goal was to design an authentic assessment
inspired by a real-world scenario
that prompts students to think about the business of books
that turns the traditional close-reading essay on its head
that increases students’ creative confidence
and that encourages them to think critically about audience, genre, and how their close reading skills can translate from text to image.
It may seem like a long list of aspirations, but I’ve found that it works. Students regularly tell me, even semesters after they took the course, how impactful this assignment was for them as creators and critical thinkers preparing for their future professional lives.
Selecting Digital Tools
The tools I recommend to produce the cover have evolved over the years.
Initially, I recommended the usual suspects: Google Slides, Microsoft Publisher (RIP!), and Canva. As I now teach at an Adobe Creative Campus, I encourage students to use Adobe Express, an intuitive and accessible tool for designing polished, professional artifacts, regardless of their experience level. Though we use Express throughout the semester for various tasks, they are welcome to use whatever digital design tool they are most comfortable with or that will help them best realize their creative vision.
A Peek at Student Work
Above, you can see some examples of student work (shared with permission!), including one that was created by hand. Any time I have artists in the room who want to break out their supplies and create, I encourage them. After all, I most often pair this assignment with Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, a novel that I use to spark conversations about one’s right to their own creativity, or creativity as a potentially liberating force. Another text I have successfully paired with this assignment in my Intro to Fiction course is Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad.
I wouldn't go so far as to call grading purely joyful very often, but seeing the diverse range of cover concepts that get submitted and detailed rationales for why the artwork they chose is the best possible choice for marketing the text to new readers is always inspiring. Aside from my creator portfolio assignment, this is by far my favorite project to grade.
Want to Learn More?
It’s no secret that I enjoy sharing teaching materials as open educational resources. If you would like to download an updated copy of my project prompt and consider how to adapt this project for your own unique teaching context, click the button below.
And to learn more about the “Putting the Lit in Literacy” course design, scroll through the embedded course spotlight.
As always, thanks for reading. If you have questions about any of my content or have ideas for collaboration, please contact me at gabrielle@gabriellestecher.com.
