Turning Assignment into an Art Project

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Turning Assignment into an Art Project

Svitlana Podkopayeva

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Fresh Approach

Words help me think and it’s the words that make me

visualize a story or a concept. My high school Literature teacher

used to invite us to “meet” the writer, revealing his/her

personal life, the circumstances for creating the book in

question, giving some insight into his/her other works. Such

introductions made the reading an adventure for me, when I could

visualize the heroes and imagine the person who created all the

magic by just words. As strange as it sounds and despite my love

for literature, I am not a very artistic person. My parents used

to fight with me almost every week over my studies at the Music

School (I spent seven years learning to play violin). I had good

ear for music (not the absolute one, though), which only made my

suffering worse, because I could hear how bad I was at playing

the instrument due to the lack of practice. I graduated from the

School, but to this day, once in a while, I have nightmares about

struggling at the solfeggio exam. Speaking about my other non-

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talents, I am not very good at drawing. I could copy somebody

else’s work (in pencil, not paint), but always have trouble with

visualizing and realizing anything original.

For this project, I needed to explore just the modalities I

felt the most uncomfortable about – drawing and/or singing, not

only to step out of my comfort zone, but also explore the world

of arts. Upon my reading of different material on arts

implementation, I came across some interesting ideas. Patti

Saraniero (2013) in her article “Constructivism: Actively

Building Arts Education” points out that learning through arts is

a social activity, which requires higher level thinking,

necessity to test students’ own questions and answers, reflection

on their work, and their own interpretations of the concepts

learned. This independent learning puts teacher in a position of

a facilitator who provides a topic and necessary resources for

students to explore. The outcome of this journey could be quite

unexpected, but that’s what makes it exciting and unforgettable

for the students. They become the owners of the knowledge

acquired. Another article, written by the same author, “Getting

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Schooled: When Arts Teachers Become Students” (2013), brings even

more reasons that speak in favor of learning through arts. When

working on an art project, people with different abilities and

points of view contribute to one goal, trying to make the final

product as beautiful and understandable for the audience as

possible. This is a truly collaborative effort that challenges

students with different learning styles and provides a new look

at a curriculum. Christy Farnbauch (2012) also adds that learning

through arts is beneficial for communication skills (oral and

written), innovative thinking, and collaboration and creativity.

This last author gave me a certain ground to start thinking about

a group project for my unit, while the others outlined all the

skills that my students desperately need to master – higher level

thinking, reflection on one’s work, and ownership of one’s

knowledge.

Planning of the Unit

Armed with the innovative views on arts and learning, I

started thinking about a unit that could accommodate drawing and

singing modalities into a classroom group activity. Rhetorical

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modes used in writing have always been a “barely touched

territory” for my students and I know for a fact that after the

assignment is finished, the majority could not recall most of the

modes’ characteristics, except the ones that are used often, i.e.

compare-contrast and narration (maybe). As a homework assignment,

students are normally asked to fill in the Matrix, briefly

explaining when or why each of the modes is used, what

organizational method works best for each one, and also providing

tips for writing in each rhetorical mode. I decided to stretch

this assignment, turning it into an art project. First, to help

students recall their prior knowledge and establish previously

made neurological connections, I’ll ask them to fill in the KWL

Chart (see Appendix A). The chart’s first column asks to

establish what students already know about the topic, while the

second one requires them to make estimation about what they could

possibly learn about the topic during our classroom activity. The

last column, which I plan on introducing at the end of the unit,

asks students to share what they learned as the result of the

whole unit.

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After the KWL Chart, students will be divided into groups of

3-4 and asked to define one of the rhetorical modes and summarize

its usage, creating at least 4 cohesive sentences (not sharing

their work with other teams). Each student takes his/her turn,

contributing one sentence to the paragraph. This exercise should

not pose any difficulties since students are to possess certain

knowledge on the topic after working on it at home (home

assignment asks them to fill in Rhetorical Modes Matrix, briefly

explaining when or why each of the modes is used, what

organizational method works best for each one, and also providing

tips for writing in each rhetorical mode). When the teams are

finished with their paragraphs, I will ask them to pick 4-5

meaningful words for the future activity.

The time has come to explain all the secrecy. Initial

paragraphs and meaningful words, picked out of them, were

performed to prepare students for the game of charades. Based on

their summaries, teams would need to draw pictures on the board

for other teams to guess which modes their counterparts have been

working on. As for the words, picked out of the summaries,

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students would use them to create short poems to go under their

pictures and make the guessing process easier for the classmates.

This could an overwhelming exercise for some students, especially

for those who shy away from drawing and arts in general. To help

overcome these fears and model the activity, I am going to

present a Process Analysis Mode, by drawing a picture of a

farmer, who has a dilemma of taking a chicken, a fox, and a sack

of seeds across the river to the market. The farmer’s boat could

only carry him and one of the merchandise at a time, and there is

a possibility of either a chicken or a sack of seeds being eaten,

while left on a river bank without supervision (see Appendix B).

Students will be asked to solve this riddle and present their

answers, describing the whole process in full cohesive sentences.

While doing that, I hope, they will realize that they are using a

Process Analysis Mode. If not, I am going to help them, by asking

a couple of leading questions. To go with my picture, the

following poem will be used:

Tell me how to do it;

Set the goal;

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Put it in a chronological order, and

Do not forget about the steps that are very important

I anticipate that this game and all the conundrums related to

coming up with ideas for pictures and a process of drawing them

would let all the students find their places and contribute to

the best of their abilities. Final products would require truly

collaborative effort of all team members, involving oral, written

and visual communication.

When all the charades are solved, I would give my students a

choice to either create a poster or a brochure that would

summarize their knowledge on the topic and provide future

students with useful tips on which modes are mostly often used in

academic writing. Just as the game itself, this activity would

require all students to use their analytical skills in order to

come up with the idea, and their artistic and written skills to

implement it.

Experiential Implementation of the Unit

On September 23rd, 2013, I had a chance to use my Fresh

Approach techniques in order to re-teach the Rhetorical Modes. As

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a homework assignment, my students were asked to fill in the

Matrix, briefly explaining when or why each of the modes was

used, what organizational method worked best for each one, and

also providing tips for writing in each rhetorical mode. I must

say the girls did quite an extensive work and filled the Matrix

with detailed explanations for each mode. So, I explained the

rules of our game of artistic charades and drew my riddle on the

board accompanied by the poem. In that riddle, a farmer has a

dilemma of taking a chicken, a fox, and a sack of seeds across

the river to the market. The farmer’s boat could only carry him

and one of the merchandise at a time, and there is a possibility

of either a chicken or a sack of seeds being eaten, while left on

a river bank without supervision. Donna and Jamie needed some

help in solving this riddle, but they did not have any in

describing it and guessing the compare-contrast mode that riddle

represented.

I decided to give the girls a chance to work in together

first and then apart. They started with describing one of the

rhetorical modes, creating 5 cohesive sentences. After finishing

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their paragraphs, the students picked 4-5 meaningful words for

the future poem. The idea of writing one got them a little

confused; they said they could not make their sentences rhyme. We

agreed the poem should not necessarily rhyme, but should have

short sentences. The discussion about the picture, from which I

needed to guess the mode, took some time, and I could say, the

girls really enjoyed all the secrecy and excitement of the

process. They drew big and detailed picture of the nature’s water

cycle, which got me thinking that they had cause- and- effect

mode in mind. When I read their poem, though, it leaned more

towards illustration mode. The picture guess was the correct one,

and I made a note to myself, that the written words are not my

students’ strongest skill and this art project was a good

alternative to just writing and explaining the new material.

In the next round, the girls each picked a mode and

presented it with the pictures and short explanations (they did

not look like poems at all). And again, the pictures gave more

clues than the written words. I started thinking that the girls’

writing skills need more work than I had expected.

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As for the rhetorical modes-turned-charades, I consider

this to be a great project, which was enjoyed by all of us. Jamie

even took home the poster that they drew together with Donna

(summarizing the modes that were frequently used in academic

writing), saying that she was going to proudly show it to her

daughter.

Conclusion

Learning through arts is a very engaging process that

involves a lot of skills that are crucial for academic writing.

When planning my unit, I had to overcome my boundaries and fears

about drawing, and results exceeded my expectations. It does not

matter if a picture is done beautifully or professionally, what

is important is that it should relate to the context and bear

just enough information for the audience. All the “rough edges”

just add to the excitement and bring additional topic for

discussion. I was really impressed by the harmonious work of the

girls and their eagerness to present their projects. Although, as

I mentioned earlier, all the unit activities picked a lot of

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interest in students, the reflective work is just as important as

the unit itself. Additional planning is required here.

References

Farnbauch, C. (2012). The Key to a Strong Workforce . Retrieved from

http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/how-to/advocacy

-essentials/workforce.aspx

Saraniero, P. (2013). Constructivism: Actively Building Arts Education.

Retrieved from

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http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/how-to/from-

theory-to-practice/constructivism.aspx

Saraniero, P. (2013). Getting Schooled: When Arts Teachers Become Students.

Retrieved from

http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/how-to/getting-

schooled.aspx

Saraniero, P. (2013). New Paths to Learning. Retrieved from

http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/how-to/from-

theory-to-practice/differentiation.aspx

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Appendix A: KWL Chart

Name: __________________________________Date: ______________________

KWL ChartIn the first column, write what you already know about the topic. In the second column, write what you want toknow about the topic. After you have completed your research, write what you learned in the third column.

What I Know What I Want toKnow

What I Learned

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Appendix B: Riddle

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