activity – A Closer Look

Drawing and Writing

Practicing visual literacy skills throughout the year opens opportunities to explore new combinations of reading and writing. In this exercise I wanted to explore creative writing using a film, a painting, and drawing. As a whole class we had recently watched a film. I spent some time looking through the online collections at YCBA and I chose this image due to the film’s content concerning the inner workings of a court life. The first part of the exercise was to draw the whole picture in their journals.

ba-obj-877-0004-pub-large — The North Prospect of Hampton Court, Herefordshire by Leonard Knyff, 1650-1721, Dutch, active in Britain (by 1681)

The following day we used the painting as the setting for a scene between characters in A Midsummer’s Night Dream and the film we watched. They had to pick at least one character from each story. Inside the painting they had to choose a place for their scene to take place and draw a mini-scene.

The story was opened ended, but had to be accurate to the characters in the stories. Each student chose their own characters, imagined what characters from two different stories would say to each other, and then chose the best visual location for the story to take place.

The creative writing prompt gave them very specific tasks. Each student had to draw the whole, but then within that whole had to choose a specific location that would be meaningful for their story. The writing had to construct a story with characters from two different stories (and mediums) and place these characters (in character) into a third space. Within these requirements the students were free to imagine and explore. Although some students chose similar characters, no one story was the same.

–James Shivers

Using the Online Collections — Part Two

Students are accustomed to searching for materials online. Often the search comes from the browser they use. Using a curated collection like the one at YCBA is a different matter. All the materials exist, have been researched, catalogued, placed in the community for viewing and dialogue. I regularly search the collections and encourage my students to do the same. I have even designed lessons around the searching through the collections.

When we were reading Speak, I wanted a tree the class could draw. I found James Ward’s (1769-1859) ‘Mr. Howard’s Large Oak, August 5, 1820′ to be perfect for the assignment. As this was our last unit of the year, I was able to ask the students to draw in a different way. I asked them to draw the image of the tree as they felt at the beginning of the year. In other words, I asked them not to just copy the tree, but to use the tree as a starting point for a visual interpretation of their own experience. Their images were very personal and full of surprises. One student drew the tree with very little leaves. The only leaves he had, he wrote ‘a new hope’ for this year. The students were able to look back at themselves at the beginning of their High School experience and reflect using their visual literacy skills. The assignment also stretched their sense of drawing. Instead of drawing as ‘copying’ drawing was a way of seeing. They were free to modify, add, enhance, alter the image in order to communicate a particular experience.

As a general rule, I do the assignments with the students. I decided to draw the tree, but to fill the limbs from some comments written in my journal from quarter one.

Since I do the assignments with the students and tell them if they want to see my work they can. Occasionally, I will show them what I’ve done. But, I am careful here. I do not want them to fall into the mimetic role: only do what the teacher does, then copy it slavishly, and then you are finished. More important that seeing my work is seeing me work along side them instead of answer emails, grading, working on something for another class. Obviously, at times, I need to work the room and take care of paperwork. However, I don’t ask the students to do something I haven’t done myself.

–James Shivers

Visual Summaries

Reading Shakespeare is a challenge. Yet, with an annotated text, students find their way. Along with the normal strategies of reading an old text, in an unusual language, I have also explored using visual literacy skills to enhance meaning and explore the progression of the story.

Drawing and working with visual mediums as a regular practice affords many opportunities to work on critical and creative skills in order to develop insight, awareness, understanding, and enhance articulation.

For this exercise, I asked students to make a visual design of the particular act. A design that communicates both the meanings of the play, but also their interpretations and understandings of the play’s story.

I encourage students to pay attention to the page design, to incorporate place, subjects, people, even conversation that seems significant. I also suggested that they create a visuals that will tell the story but also remind them of their reading experience. The page becomes a canvas of visual knowledge, open to any arrangement that is meaningful to them. The journal without lines gives us this freedom. A freedom they completely explore. The page in the journal becomes a composition and like all the images we view, discuss and draw, a visual medium awaiting discovery and dialogue.

–James Shivers

The Visual Word

Having established a journal practice in class, I found multiple ways of using it for day to day assignments. One advantage of the journal is archival. Students begin with their work at the beginning of the year and keep adding to the pages as the year progresses. They can look back, refer to their previous work, re-read and use as a source. Students have a record of their ongoing learning, an archive.

The assignment here was to place image work along side their word-work. I don’t do this with every set of vocabulary words. As a visual literacy strategy, the word and the understanding spill into the experience of learning. Later, the student can look back and ‘see’ what they know. As is the case with drawing and designing, they often feel the urge to re-vise both. I ask the students for context, part of speech, definition, an example, and a visual.

Students learn words live in contexts with a narrative. Students create a unique iconography and links outside the text. The word then has a visual component along side a link outside the reading. Since the goal is practice and exploration, I can look at their work as a process of knowing and be flexible in my assessments. As their language use expands from ongoing practice in various modalities, students find more nuanced ways of communication. As their journal becomes an archive they see a residue of their growth or even see places where change is necessary. They continue to learn on their own.

–James Shivers

Seeing Perspective – Part Two

Perspective is an essential narrative feature. Each page of a book, each scene with a character provides another way of seeing the story. In many texts, the narrative has recursive features of time and knowing. We see the story different when we have finished and look back. We see the story different when we are given another vantage point. We see the story from our perspective as we read.

Each perspective generates a narrative of seeing, feeling, and knowing. If this is the case, then the exercise of drawing a sculpted figure from different vantage points should generate unique insights (follow the link to see what the students drew). As with reading a narrative, we see what we are given and what we look for. So, I asked students to draw the image first and then describe the mood. The act of description calls forth their own knowledge and experience: How is this person standing? When I stand this way how do I feel? How have I seen this stance before? What does this stance communicate?

“[L]ost, lonely, depressed. It seems as if this man is outside and is alone and thinking to himself. He is in a situation (stuck) but doesn’t go for help. He is desiring something without reaching out”.

“Nonchalant. He is on his phone but it’s cold out so he has one hand in his pocket and is wearing a sweater and pants. He must have heard something so his head is turned in a casual way. He is not in any rush. Maybe he is waiting for a bus”.

“Confused, Pondering. Maybe he’s thinking. I watch this man, he’s thinking or looking for someone. He’s looking for me. He doesn’t know I’m right behind him”.

Each student brings their world to bear on their expression and interpretation. Students can discuss what they see and why with each other. Students can also look at the progression of their work. What did they think at first? How do the three perspectives construct a whole? Some students wonder why I would show the “same” object three times, suggesting nothing is different. This leads to further conversation and closer looking. What would we know if we only had one of these vantage points? A question like this brings the sense of perspective to the forefront.

But why do this exercise in an English class? Simply, it’s a story of reading. As we go through a book, we are building a sense of the story. The longer we read, the more we ‘see’, and soon, we are living with a story with various narrative strands linked. Each link has value. Some students will see this quickly. Others, will need more time. If we choose not to ignore this multiplicity, we allow change and growth to occur. Allowing room for the process of knowing and practicing this skill makes the classroom a rich environment of dialogue and discovery.

–James Shivers

Growing the Abstract – Part Two

If we think of abstraction as a practice, we open a way for students to build meaning with themselves in mind, negotiating moment by moment their inner and outer worlds. In an ongoing space of practice, they access and utitlize their own experience of story, viewing, memory and imagination. Their work then becomes a fusion of the old with the new embedded with creative and critical acts of knowing.

“The statue represents the balance between order and protection.”

“As I lay thinking I wonder how to get to the top. There are so many obstacles. I don’t know if I’ll even be able to do it. Once I get to the top should I…what should I do? Life is an obstacle that is hard to get past.”

“Life itself is very boring, but with a little twist and a little bit of personality, life can be something that is spectacular.”

Each student response was unique. The next day we had open sharing. Students read their work to the whole class or conversed one to one. Orderly chaos ensued: words and worlds, stillness and laughter filled the room. As we debriefed on the exercise, discussing why we did the assignment and how we felt, everyone realized that ‘growing’ the abstract opens the door for a seeing and making of the “spectacular”.

The full period was nearly over and we began collecting our bags and journals. Just before the bell rang– in that one quiet moment before we ended, one student asked with some interest, ‘What are we doing next?’

–James Shivers

Physical and Emotional Techniques

Our class has been studying stars and space, and while looking for space themed paintings, Sylvia and I came across John Hoyland, an abstract expressionist.

After viewing several of his paintings and making observations, the children in our class learned about Hoyland’s techniques. He generally used very large canvasses and “stained” the backgrounds first, and then he poured, puddled, squirted, or splashed paint onto his canvas. He generally did not mix colors on a palette or apply the paint with a brush. In addition, Hoyland brainstormed a list of topics/themes that got him excited about painting. Our students did the same. Some of their ideas included “riding on a falcon”, “water bending”, and “skiing and chairlifts”. Next, we found out that Hoyland’s application of paint tied closely with his emotional state that day. The children brainstormed a list of possible emotions and surprised us by not only giving the expected “happy”, “sad”, or “mad”, but also including “confused”, “frustrated”, and “disappointed”. Our students loved experimenting with new painting techniques in Hoyland’s physical/emotional style.

After painting, the children about wrote their own titles by stating an emotion and a noun that described their paintings:

Thoughts of a Donkey

Our current exhibition, Sculpture by Nicola Hicks, lends itself to storytelling. Check out the podcast interview between the artist and 9 year old Eva Heitmann Levenson to get a sense of how the objects resonate with young people. They talking about living with animals, sculpting with hay, how to start a drawing, and much much more. It’s a great discussion about working throug the creative process.

We have also created a gallery guide with drawing and writing exercises based on the interviews so you and your students can join the conversation. Please let us know what you come up with!

hicks6

Twilight Comes Twice

The book Twilight Comes Twice by Ralph Fletcher, illustrated by Kate Kiesler is a wonderful book to use in conjunction with our Clouds and Skies Pinterest Board (found here).

This book, through eloquent text and lush paintings, explores the magic of dusk and dawn. Fletcher’s text is simple and accessible to children, yet rich in its imagery:

“With invisible arms

dawn erases the stars

from the blackboard of night.

Soon just the moon

and a few stars

remain.”

The illustrations are equally appealing. The pages depict common daily activities such as early morning walks, streetlights flickering off and spiders rousing themselves from the night. The colors are calming; yet evoke all the senses as we remember the special time that passes ever so briefly each day. Use the images provided on Pinterest to compare and contrast with the words and images in the book.

We abstract from letters, worlds.

A salient feature of strong reading is ‘picturing’, a fostering of words to create a visual terrain in our heads. We stroll along in a story, adding detail after detail, slowly shaping, ‘drawing’, or seeing a room, a chair, and conversation. We hear the words in what we imagine. We abstract from letters, worlds. A process in time. A skill in need of practice. As teachers we want to cultivate this participation, this move from letters on the page to figures in our minds.

How might a visual activity bring to light the power of words, the power of participation? Even in the 19^th Century in our School Readers and Primers we wove together words and images, picturing and story, seeing and telling. Here’s one example from a Appletons’ School Readers Third Primer (1887).

Continue reading We abstract from letters, worlds.

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