A Place of Your Own

Our individual library display cases include our experiences from our fieldwork and our lesson plans.  My lesson, A Place of Your Own, focuses on the theme of visual story-telling and memory.  Romare Bearden and Faith Ringgold were used as inspiration for my students as they discussed what visual cues are needed to tell a story, such as color, line, shape and form.  We differenciated between abstract and literal elements, and I encourages my students to  evoke a mood through both kinds of imagery.  The students had already completed their two-point perspective city-scapes, and once they scanned their images into Photoshop, students digitally collaged over the buildings, adding texture, color, and figures to their work.  Since I only observed on Wednesdays, I got to see the work in progress but I did not get to assist with the process all that much.  For the most part, I saw students choosing colors and forms for reasons that related to their personal memories, and I was very pleased that they understood the assignment.  The two-point perspective buildings were not perfect, and more practice might have been needed, however the unique shapes gave the work personality, which was a positive outcome of the project.  I felt I succeeded in creating a lesson that allowed students to put themselves into it, that encouraged students to make their city-scapes personal to them.  The finished works came out great and students put the time and energy into the pieces that made me proud to display.