The Mapping Exercise

The straight path might seem to be the safest and most efficient, but it usually isn’t the most interesting.  Staying on it often keeps us from exploring other possibilities.

– Keith Hjortshoj

[The student] must be allowed something of a frontier mentality, an overall commitment, perhaps, to get to California, but a readiness, all along the way, to choose alternate routes and even sojourn at unexpected places when that seems wise or important, sometimes, even, to decide that California isn’t what the writer really had in mind.

— Mina Shaughnessy

The Mapping Exercise

Step 1: In the next three minutes please identify as many routes as you can to travel from Seattle, Washington to Albany, New York.  Be prepared to post (in the discussion forum) at least two different paths you traveled and why you chose each path you took.

Step 2: Read the other responses that come in and reply to two other posts.  Consider the following in doing so: Now that I’ve heard what everyone else has said are there other routes I’d take or consider?  If so, which routes and why?  Post your reconsiderations.

Step 3: Now read the responses that you received on your original post and answer the following question: Why did I do this exercise?  Respond at the bottom of your original post.