Project 3: Collage for Activism

This project is inspired by the book "A is for Activist" by Innosanto Nagara. This beautiful book uses collage and illustrations while going through the alphabet introducing young readers to different concepts surrounding activism. My lesson related to this book is to create collage-based posters with representations and slogans surrounding an important cause chosen by students. Students would be required select and research an area of activism that interests or speaks to them, and then use this knowledge to create a short statement or slogan that could be used to (1) grab attention and (2) inform readers about this issue. For my prototype, I focused on housing, and came up with the slogan “everyone deserves a home”. The different windows represent different types of homes that people need, and the colors represent the planet as our home. I love collaging so this was definitely fun for me, but I would have to have my students do more pre-planning than I did in order to create an intentional and powerful poster.

I could do this in a low budget student with basic art supplies (construction paper, glue sticks, markers), but it would be amplified by using old magazines which can be difficult to find or even expensive. This project adds value to students’ learning because the get to practice researching a topic, identifying key points, summarizing information, and translating an idea into a visual representation. This lesson could be altered to fit various grade levels, from young students representing a cause important to them to older students developing a research or activism project and creating a collage based flyer for it.

Prototype

Inspiration

Project 4: Sculpt the Unseen

This lesson was inspired by the poem “The Dream Keeper” by Langston Hughes, but could be adapted to fit into a childrens’ picture book or young adult novel. In this lesson, students will imagine and brainstorm a physical and written rendering of something invisible to the human eye. In my example, inspired by the poem, as well as a cartoon I saw online that depicted “invisible things” as little drawings, I tried to create my physical representation of a dream. Students will be asked to consider the relationship between concepts and tangible items, and consider the feelings and associations they have with elements of the world that are invisible but real to them. In my example, i was inspired by Hughes’ description of dreams wrapped in blue cloth, as well as images I’ve seen/concepts i’ve learned about of brain circuitry and wires connecting our thoughts.

This lesson could connect to our fifth grade unit on figurative vs. literal language, as well as poetry. I think my students may struggle with the more figurative, imaginative task but also enjoy it once they find the confidence to express themselves.Sculpture materials are on the more expensive side but we could use found objects.

Inspiration