Unit 3: Stories
Artists: Thomas Hart Benton & Diego Rivera
- Group Murals: Drawing and/or collage
Artist: Faith Ringgold
- Story Quilts: Watercolor
Artist: Jean Shin
- Mini Sculptures from Found Objects
Unit 3: Stories Reflection
These studios were all surrounding the big idea of "Stories". To me, this unit was the most fun and most relatable to work with. I was naturally drawn towards the big idea of Stories because stories make up who we are as a person. Our life is surrounded by stories, and we wouldn't be where we are today without the stories of our lives. Our first studio was the Political Cartoon and I chose to do mine about standardized tests, specifically the ACT because that is something I struggled with in high school. I think that standardized tests are dumb, and do not characterize who you are as a person and what your future will become. Personally, I am a horrible test taker, so the ACT was not my thing. But when I was going through ACT prep classes, I did fine. I do not like how we are judged and looked upon by colleges and other areas from our ACT score, because it does not define our ability, intelligence and personality. The second studio we did in class was the Story Quilts which I absolutely loved doing. I liked that we got to use watercolor, crayons and the idea of resist. You can see in my piece of art work that I used resist with the floor boards, the brick and other areas in the photo. A little background behind the scene, I was in, let's say, 4th grade with my friend, Sarah, at her house. We heard a scream from her mom in the kitchen, and we came running down. We saw her freaking out and told us to lift the hood of the grill outside. To our surprise, there was a giant, hissing opossum sitting inside the grill. It would not budge or leave, so for an hour. Sarah and I starting throwing pebbles and poking it with a stick from inside the house until it moved. I thought this story could easily become a funny story to tell children, because they never really get to experience anything with an opossum. A quote in Pink's book really stuck out to me. This quote is said by Roger C. Schank, "Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories." (Pink, pg. 102, 2012) I thought this quote connects to the thought of stories, and the story quilt by explaining to students that stories are the best way to express themselves and how they are feeling. It is ok if you do not understand something logically at first, it'll come around. The last studio I had to create on my own, since I missed class, was a sculpture made from Found Objects. I gave thought to this, and realized I have a ton of different ribbons laying around my house and usually, these get thrown away once used or taken off a package. What I did was write pieces of advice from family members that used to have experience being a teacher on each piece of ribbon. I intertwined these ribbons into a Fishtail braid to keep. I like the thought that all of these pieces of advice are stuck in one place, and also not to focus on individual's pieces of advice when entering my first classroom but to create my own ribbon of ideas and memories from my first year of teaching.
Since my group discussed integration a lot within our popplet, we came up with a lot of great ideas for this unit of study. I would love to use my political cartoon as an example in my class to tell students that school is important, and tests you take in the future are important, but do not let them define you. Then we could go into a social studies lesson about other political cartoons off the internet and break the class into groups and have them describe and define what their political cartoon is about. They then can create their own political cartoons with artistic materials that we used in class. For the second studio, the Story Quilts, I could have students create their own quilt with a story from their life, just like we did in class. Then I could integrate literacy behind it, and have them write out a story for their quilt or even could create a musical piece for their quilt that would tell their story as well. I really like how the story quilt in general, has a lot of meaning and can show personality and a piece of the student's life. Lastly, the found objects could be an awesome idea for any course class. As a group, we talked about using the found object idea by having student collect recyclable items and create a campaign and send a message to other classes or community. This could be used in science or social studies, even literacy if the campaign was used. Another idea is to have everyone just bring in a single found item, like we did in class, and somehow create an art piece with everyone's item together. Give it a name, and keep it up in the classroom and it will remind the class of being a whole community as one. In Pink's book, it is quoted by Anna Castelli Ferrieri, "It's not true that what is useful is beautiful. It is what is beautiful that is useful. Beauty can improve people's way of life and thinking." (pg. 81, 2012) I liked how it's saying that what is useful becomes beautiful. I think that all children's art is meant to be useful, and this campaign that could be created in a class would be very useful therefore, their art is beautiful even if it is just "trash" or "found objects".
Since my group discussed integration a lot within our popplet, we came up with a lot of great ideas for this unit of study. I would love to use my political cartoon as an example in my class to tell students that school is important, and tests you take in the future are important, but do not let them define you. Then we could go into a social studies lesson about other political cartoons off the internet and break the class into groups and have them describe and define what their political cartoon is about. They then can create their own political cartoons with artistic materials that we used in class. For the second studio, the Story Quilts, I could have students create their own quilt with a story from their life, just like we did in class. Then I could integrate literacy behind it, and have them write out a story for their quilt or even could create a musical piece for their quilt that would tell their story as well. I really like how the story quilt in general, has a lot of meaning and can show personality and a piece of the student's life. Lastly, the found objects could be an awesome idea for any course class. As a group, we talked about using the found object idea by having student collect recyclable items and create a campaign and send a message to other classes or community. This could be used in science or social studies, even literacy if the campaign was used. Another idea is to have everyone just bring in a single found item, like we did in class, and somehow create an art piece with everyone's item together. Give it a name, and keep it up in the classroom and it will remind the class of being a whole community as one. In Pink's book, it is quoted by Anna Castelli Ferrieri, "It's not true that what is useful is beautiful. It is what is beautiful that is useful. Beauty can improve people's way of life and thinking." (pg. 81, 2012) I liked how it's saying that what is useful becomes beautiful. I think that all children's art is meant to be useful, and this campaign that could be created in a class would be very useful therefore, their art is beautiful even if it is just "trash" or "found objects".