Unit 3: Stories
Benton and Rivera: Editorial Cartoons
This project was about stories because we got the opportunity to tell a story about something we see as a problem in schools. I like being able to tell a story using a cartoon because it is a short, concise way to share my opinion, and the few words help the picture speak more clearly. The story I told here is that I feel like schools are still very segregated based on race, gender, and economic status. In school we talk a lot about segregation as a thing of the past, but it is important to know that it still happens and as teachers we need to show kids how much they have in common with each other. It is easy for us to assume we are different from others before we get to know them, but we need to teach kids (and practice ourselves) to look past what is on the outside and find what great friendships we can have when we get to know each other. I think this would be a good project for kids to do in social studies. They could choose a historical event that they found wrong or unjust and create an editorial cartoon about it. We could talk about what we can learn from hearing other people's stories from history, and how we can relate these to our own stories.
Faith Ringgold: Story Quilt
Through this project, we learned about telling a story through a quilt. We had the option to tell a story from our own experience, or a story from a favorite children's book of ours. Using a quilt in this way was a cool way to tell a story because you can show the actual scene through the painting in the middle, but you can express a different aspect of the story or expand upon it using the patterned squares around the edges. I chose my favorite book, Froggy Gets Dressed, to portray in this piece. In the book Froggy gets so excited about playing in the snow on a snow day that he keeps forgetting to put on articles of clothing to go outside. He gets so exhausted from running back and forth from the house to outside that he ends up crawling back into bed. I chose to depict this scene at the end when Froggy goes back to sleep because my favorite part of a snow day is snuggling up in bed and sleeping in. This part of the book always makes me feel very warm and cozy. I chose to make his room this blue color to depict how calm and serene his sleeping is, but I used a lot of colors and shapes along the outside pattern to show how fun and crazy your dreams can be in contrast. This project could be cool for kids to use in science class when they are learning about plants and animals. They could tell the story of a tree's life cycle, how an lion finds food, or how a snake sheds its skin. This would be a cool way for kids to tell a story through art about the plants and animals they are learning about in science class, and to relate their own experiences to those of these organisms.
Jean Shin: Found Object Sculpture
This project was a new way to look at stories because we were thinking about the story of a mundane object, instead of the story of people or characters. We were supposed to use a simple, found object that is often overlooked, so we had to do some thinking about what it's story would be. I chose my hair tie as the focus of my sculpture, and I explored the different situations when I tie my hair back. I realized that I usually wear my hair down when I am trying to look good, and I tie it back in situations where I really don't want to worry about it or have it get in the way. I used magazine cutouts to show the different situations when I pull my hair back such as when I'm working hard in school or on homework, when I'm dancing or playing, or when I'm snuggling in my bed and not trying to impress anyone. I used colorful pipe cleaners to represent my hair when it gets crazy and I need to get it out of the way. I think this activity would be really neat to do with kids in a recycling unit. During science class, you could have students look through recycling bins or find objects at home that would be thrown away and make something creative out of it. Kids could explore all the possible uses of their object to get ideas like we did. Afterwards we could talk about how important recycling is for the environment and what cool new things we can make without even buying the materials.