My fifth-grade team wanted to give their students an opportunity to form a deeper understanding of human rights, the theme they were covering in their EL unit, so we collaborated to have students create an artwork on that theme. The fifth-grade teachers provided me with their human rights unit and the novel Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan (Scholastic 2002). This book follows the journey of fictional character Esperanza Ortega, a young girl who was born into a comfortable life in Mexico during the 1930s. She is forced to flee to California and encounters difficult circumstances along the way.
For the past twenty years, Iʼve taught in a large urban school district. All of our schools use the same curriculum and pacing to create an equitable learning experience for all students.
Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools use the EL Education curriculum for language arts and Envision curriculum for math. Both are scripted curricula with specific teaching and learning requirements. The curricula doesnʼt allow classroom teachers flexibility to create custom learning experiences for students. My fifth-grade team wanted to give their students an opportunity to form a deeper understanding of human rights, the theme they were covering in their EL unit, so we collaborated to have students create an artwork on that theme.
Interdisciplinary Work
The fifth-grade teachers provided me with their human rights unit and the novel Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan (Scholastic, 2002). This book follows the journey of fictional character Esperanza Ortega, a young girl who was born into a comfortable life in Mexico during the 1930s. She is forced to flee to California and encounters difficult circumstances along the way. While reading this text, students kept in mind the articles they read about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and how the human rights of these fictional characters are threatened.
Writing the Lesson
I am lucky to have a wonderful part-time art teacher to work with. Together, we developed the lesson by using the novelʼs primary themes and the unit topic to outline the lessonʼs essential points.
Our idea was for students to collage black-and-white photos together. The finished product of a large collage using black-and-white photos was similar to artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work. Before starting this project, we read to students the 2017 Caldecott-winning book Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat by Javaka Steptoe (Little, Brown and Company, 2016).
Collaboration
My partner-teacher and I asked the class to break into groups, choose one black-and-white photo as a team, and recreate a certain human rights violation or scene from Esperanza Rising.
We expressed to students that the photo they take must tell a story through images. Students took pictures using their Chromebooks. We collected the photos through Padlet and printed them out in the art room.
Students could manipulate their photos any way they chose; some layered objects over photos or added special effects, for example. Next, they added color to the photos using oil pastels. Students traced their own fist and forearm, colored it in, and cut it out. Every student in the class had a fist displayed on black poster board along with their team’s black-and-white photo. When the teams were finished arranging the photos and fists, they collaborated on how they wanted to add words or images in oil pastels. When students were finished, they used a sealant over the collage.
Reflection
While we were working on this project, I felt the joy and pride that my students felt every time they came into the art room to work on it. I feel that our project objectives were met: they worked collaboratively to tell an important story through photography, and they had fun in the process. Our students will remember this experience for a long time to come.
Teresa Strohl is an art teacher at Elon Park Elementary School in Charlotte, North Carolina. Teresas.Strohl@cms.k12.nc.us
National Standard:
Connecting: Relating artistic ideas and work with personal meaning and external context.
Resource:
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Art teachers encourage students to explore and express empathy. High-school students construct narrative photographs that express an emotional mood, middle-school students design personal map compositions inspired by a meaningful place, elementary students share an important message about human rights through collage, young students create vibrant canvas paintings inspired by artist Jeff Hanson, and more.
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