Introduction & Telling stories through images

Title:Telling Stories Through Images

Author:Christine Petro

Subject:Creative Arts

Grade:6

Week:1

Unit/Lesson Plan #:1

Unit theme:Murals and mural making

Textbook references:

Learning objectives:

-To introduce students to mini-course

-To introduce students in the foundational elements of murals: the images used to tell stories

-To engage students in thinking about their final project to create a mural together

Key Questions, Concepts, or Themes:

What are murals? What meanings can we find in images? What stories can images tell? What are the challenges of telling stories through images? The challenges of "reading" a mural?

Stage 1:Introductions:

Introduce course to students and what they will be accomplishing by the end.

What are we doing in this mini-course?
- Engaging in the art of murals
- "Read" and analyze murals around the world and in NYC
- Design a mural, make a mural as a class


Ask preliminary question and chart students’ answers: What are murals? Where have students seen murals? What are murals made of? What kind of stories might be told through murals?

1. What meanings can we find in images?
Introductory Activity: Long piece of butcher paper is tacked up to board/wall. Each student has their own piece of colorful paper. Students draw an image that they think represents part of their identity (e.g. language, culture, ethnicity, personality, etc). Image could be animal, place, food, symbol, abstract drawing, person, etc. Each student tacks their drawing to the big paper and explains what their image means to them and how it reflects part of their identity. Why did they choose that particular image?

Purpose: To generate discussion about meanings in images. To document students pre-course ideas.
Materials: colorful paper, pencils, markers, long butcher paper, tape or glue stick
Students’ work: documented with a photo.

2. What stories can images tell?
Exercise: (Writing, Drawing, Group Work, Reflection) Students listen to part of a recorded story about a woman who in her adulthood receives her African name and tells how it is a part of her identity. Students break up into groups of three. Each person from the group draws a part of the story on their piece of paper - either the beginning, middle or end. Students can discuss in their group what they each will draw to tell the story. Each group shares how they represented the story. What images did they choose? How did they put these images together to make a bigger picture? Comparing the groups, what were some of the parts of the story they represented? What images were the same across groups? What ones were different? What was challenging about telling a story through images?

Purpose: To generate discussion about telling stories through images.

Materials: recorded story (Title: “I said, ‘Is this going to actually be me?’”) Nzingha Masani tells her friend, Noah Hairston, about receiving her name at an African naming ceremony. (www.storycorps.net), laptop, speakers, paper, pencils
Students’ Work: Stored in portfolio.

Stage 2:Mini-trip to see neighborhood murals. Travel to PS 180.

Students bring pencil, worksheet, and something flat to write on (binder). On a worksheet, students record their observations of the various elements of the mural.


Worksheet:

What images do you see in this mural?

Draw an image that is especially striking to you. Why did you choose it?

What do you think this image could mean?

Describe the colors

Record any language you see.

Describe the composition (the layout and placement of the images).

What do you think is the overall story being told through the mural?

Purpose: For students to closely observe the elements of a mural. 

Materials: pencil, worksheet, camera

Students' work: stored in portfolios

Stage 3:Return to the classroom. Students share some of their observations.

We discuss what stories they draw from the mural. Did we get the full story from closely observing the mural? What are the clues that make up this story? How much do we know about the history and identity of PS 180 the school? What’s challenging about “reading” a mural when we don’t already know the full story? What kind of knowledge would help us understand what story is being expressed through the PS 180 mural?

Purpose: To generate discussion about the challenges of telling stories through murals.

Homework: Thinking about our mural

You are a unique group of students – the first class of CSS! In 2027, twenty years from now, there will be a new class of CSS students who don’t know you and don’t know what it was like to experience the first year of this school. Though we are only in the third month of school, how would you tell the story of the first year of CSS so far?

Students' work: stored in portfolios

Assessments: (attach/link copies)

__ Group assessment

X_ Observation of process/student work

__ Self-assessment by student

X__ Teacher generated assignment

X__ Written project

__ Test/Quiz

__ Other: ____________________________________