In my composition 2 class, I have tasked my students with completing an assignment I added to the Guide to First-Year Writing’s Chapter 7 on Writing about Visual Images. Each student has to create a blog in which they create three memes using only the text “Haters gonna hate” with differing backgrounds and subsequently explain the way the picture can change the meaning. I don’t write blogs alongside my students all the time, but I thought I would take the chance to join them on this one.

First, though, I always have to explain how a “meme” came to be a thing. Most of my students who have had this lesson plan with me previously thought a meme was simply a picture with some words on it. I am always glad to share this little ditty with them to give them a broader perspective: 

But here are three memes I have created from files on my social media accounts from across the ages. I apologize in advance for not sharing my senior portrait; it was a hard choice to go with a squatty potty instead!

These examples are for in-class use with my students, but stay tuned to the world’s least successful Twitter account, @GrimmProspects, to see what comes up from these images tomorrow!