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Service Learning experience through the University of the Arts

Deselvestro After School Playground – Spring 2010

I had the pleasure of providing art instruction for a group of children at the Deselvestro after school program in south Philadelphia. It was a fun and challenging learning experience, however was extremely rewarding.

The group of students I was working with ranged in age from 4 to 13 years old and many of them were Bi-lingual or low level ESL learners. Most came after school from Philadelphia public schools however there were a few from a local private school. Needless to say it was a very diverse group of students, who for the most part were reluctant to partake in any kind of organized lesson. It was a challenge to hold the attention of the entire group as they were usually bursting with after school adrenalin.

The lessons:

The kids all made their own recycling posters for a citywide competition. I was still getting to know the students. They all tried to finish to quickly, a few of them liked to say "I'm done!" over and over again, I respectively responded "no your not" and tried to get them to add to their drawings. I continued to ask them "what else gets recycled?" and tell them to draw it. One little girl thought hard to my question and responded with "computers?" I told her computers are recyclable, but they do not go in the blue recycling bin. She said, "So I can draw it?" I told her she could, and she drew a very small computer screen in her picture of large pink recycling bin. It was a great little lesson with an important message, however I feel that the act of recycling is overlooked and rarely practiced in our schools.

I tried my classic, the draw your own superhero lesson, however had less success with this group. I brought in a book of supper heroes for them to look at, but encouraged them to make up their own superhero with a unique superpower. The kids had a hard time beginning their drawings, and I spent much of my time showing them how to lightly draw stick figures and then add details on top.

On March 23rd and 30th I did a collage lesson on gestures and Keith Haring. I introduced Keith Haring to the kids; I showed them some of his work but was careful not to show them the book I had because of some of the more inappropriate images. I did however tell the kids that he died of AIDS. The kids traced a stencil of a human figure I made onto construction paper and cut out each individual piece (arms, legs, head ect.) We talked about what a gesture is and how gestures can imply action and emotion. The kids then decided on their gesture and glued their cutout pieces onto construction paper. There was a good variety of work; some of the work included strong men lifting up barbells, playing soccer, eating, stretching, and a ballerina (my favorite).

PA Dutch Hex Symbols, April 6th, 13th, and 20th. I introduced Pennsylvania Dutch folk art and the tradition of painting Hex signs on barns. I had the kids fold 12' squares of white paper corner to corner, in half, and so on to get creases for guidelines. It was a little tricky drawling the circles because I only had one compass. I drew the circles for the younger kids and let the ones I trusted use the compass to drawl their own circles. I showed them how to do a kind of nautical star and tried to get them to do make any creative shapes within the circles. Painting was fun; we used tempera blocks, which are cheap and last forever. On the 20th I tried to get some of the hex symbols ready to submit to a student show. Kids finished painting, outlined their work in markers, and cutout the circles and glued them to construction paper.

Philosophy of Art Education

Art is a vast and complicated thing and it is essential to be educated in the arts to appreciate the world and survive. Art is the sum of culture, including the visual, performing, and language arts. A rounded knowledge of arts is essential for an educated well-rounded person. Simply to be conversed in the forms of art and have experimented with them is vital to development of young people. Children need to experience as much as possible as they grow. By learning and practicing various forms of art they will better understand themselves and their world. Everything from writing to baseball is a form of art, it needs to be practiced and it requires thought, patience, and endurance. Art encompasses a tremendous amount of ideas and practices; a wealth of knowledge that needs to be addressed in all public and privet schooling.

Sense of Place Silhouette: The City Paper

I decided that I would place a silhouette of myself within the City Paper. I feel very much apart of the city of Philadelphia and very much enjoy the City Paper. I thought about my sense of place and realized my sense of place is more the city of Philadelphia than anything else. I don't feel at home at 2131 Catharine (my current residence), if anything my home is the entire city of Philadelphia. I read the city paper, somewhat religiously; I've read the city paper more then any other text. The city paper is a gateway to experiencing the city and in many ways is the embodiment of the city in a weekly news paper. I chose to place a silhouette of myself within one of the pages of the city paper to symbolize my sense of place in Philadelphia. The paper silhouette in the City Paper symbolizes me in Philadelphia and all the great things I've experienced in Philadelphia.

Lesson Idea: have students place a silhouette in one of their favorite texts and have them explain why they have chosen their text, why, and what it means to them.

Silhouette Lesson Plan, abbreviated for Web viewing

Teacher: Mr. Tyler Anewalt

Grade Level: Middle school

Title: The Silhouette and its Place

Brief History and Background:

A silhouette is a view of an object that consists of only the outline. Details within the object are left blank, creating a flat shape (usually in black) that is still recognizable without interior detail. Silhouettes can be thought of as seeing the outline of a dark image against a light background.

Silhouettes became a popular form of portraiture in the 18^th century and are still used today in all kinds of visual art. Kara Walker is an African American artist who uses silhouettes in much of her artwork. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_Walker

The Silhouette can carry with it a tremendous amount of emotion and meaning. By seeing only a black outline of an object the viewer is forced to think about the object as a whole and it’s meaning. The silhouette of an object can be used as a vehicle to express wholeness or emptiness by not being able to see detail within. A silhouette is the ghost image on an object.

PA Standards:

9.1. Production Performance and Exhibition

9.3. Critical Response

9.4. Aesthetic Response

1.4. Types of Writing

3.6 & 3.7 Technology Education and Devices

NET standards

1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

Goal: Students will make a silhouette of themselves either with digital manipulation or drawing, cut their silhouette out of black paper neatly and paying attention to details, and then place it according to their choice. Write a short response about their silhouette, the place they chose, and meaning created.

Objectives:

Students will recognize silhouettes and identify silhouettes as images

Students will illustrate a feeling by putting their silhouette in text or a place and discussing it

Students will be able to use techniques in cutting, drawing, and photo manipulation

Students will address an emotion by creating meaning in the place they choose to put their silhouette.

Resource Materials/Visual Aides: PowerPoint with links to artists’ works, exemplars

Supplies/Materials: Digital camera, black paper, scissors, glue

Teacher Preparation: PowerPoint on silhouettes, examples, meanings for examples, history, current uses in arts and media.

Teaching:

Introduction: Show PowerPoint on silhouettes and history, how does a silhouette make you feel? What is the purpose of a silhouette? If silhouette is a ghost of an image, where would the silhouette of yourself be? What book or text?

Directions: Take a photo of each student and have them think about where their silhouette should be placed and what it should be doing. Show students how to Photoshop a silhouette, print it out, enlarge and cut out of larger black paper. Create meaning in the placement of silhouettes.

Critique/Evaluation/Assessment: Students can be graded on a rubric including criteria for craftsmanship, meaning to their placement of the silhouette, and a brief response to the meaning of their silhouette and where it’s placed.

Time Budget: two to three fifty minutes classes

Vocabulary:

Silhouette – outline of an object, profile image of a person in black against a light background

Contre-jour – French ‘against daylight’, photography taken with camera pointing directly toward light source

Shadow – area created as an object blocks light source

Shadow Play – Shadow puppetry

Safety Concerns: N/A

Bibliography/References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silhouette

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/walker/index.html

http://www.henri-matisse.net/cut_outs.html

E Lecture Visual Representations in Text: Illustration

E Lecture Visual Representations in Text: Illustration

Written language and pictorial representation are crowning achievements of the human race. These innovations are what make the human race significant and separate mankind from the animal kingdom. The ability to record information and convey ideas with marks, characters, or symbols’ as physical recordings of ideas is arguably the most important achievement of early mankind.

The evolution of written language and pictorial representation has transformed into many things over the span of human existence. The earliest form of writing date to the Neolithic age, also know as the Bronze age and the late 4th millennium. Since then written language has evolved from hieroglyphics to Latin to a hundreds of distinctive languages. The earliest forms of pictorial representations are cave paintings. Some paintings that appear on cave walls are some 32,000 years old. The oldest forms of writing and pictorial representation have evolved with time from the most primitive of mark making into all kinds of illustrated literary works.

Written language has been accompanied by pictorial representations in all kinds of works throughout history. If we trace the history of the written word in combination with pictorial representations we find that the practice of illustration itself ancient. Illustration of text in its earliest surviving forms are handwritten manuscripts. Scrolls and illuminated manuscripts are some of the earliest forms of illustration, done by hand. Today illustration is everywhere from the media to children's books and graphic novels. What other kinds ways are pictures and texts combined and used?

Scrolls

The Joshua Roll: 10th century, illuminated manuscript. Illustrations of the Old Testament Book of Joshua.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Roll

A scroll is a roll of paper or other material that has been written on and/or illustrated. Scrolls were first used in ancient civilizations for documenting information and communicating information, ideas, or stories. Scrolls originated as a way of recording and keeping information much like a book is to keep text.

People of ancient Egypt used scrolls made of material from the papyrus plant. Jewish people in Syria and Babylon used scrolls made of deerskin. Moses copied Hebrew religious texts onto a scroll made from kosher animal around the year 3300 BCE. Scrolls continued to be used throughout the Mediterranean by Greeks, Romans and the Early Christian Era. Scrolls remained the primary way of recording written language until the Middle Ages as books and print became more widely used. In Asia, scrolls were used Islamic religious text such as the Koran and were sometimes colorfully decorated and embossed with gold.

In modern times, Jack Kerouacs story ‘On the Road’ was originally typed on a 120-foot roll or paper and rolled into a scroll. A piece of literature that has defined america at the time and the beat generation.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11709924

Books

Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press around the year 1440. Up until this time people hand wrote books. Illuminated manuscripts and the practice of decorating and illustrating of books became a respected art form and trade, usually reserved for monks.

Illumined manuscripts are simply pieces of literature decorated with borders, decorative initials and other illustrations. Some scholars refer only to illuminated manuscripts only to those which have been painted with god or silver. Books of Hours are the most common type of medieval illuminated manuscript. Books of Hours contain religious text, prayers and psalms. Decorated with capital letters, borders, and illustrations and written in Latin

Illuminated manuscripts from medieval Europe are some of the finest examples of western calligraphy. Books such as the Book of the Kells, the Book of the Durrow, and The Lindisfarne Gospels are illuminated manuscripts that have survived since the middle ages, hand written and illustrated by catholic monks in the British Islands. These illuminated manuscripts are religious texts of Christianity containing the books of the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible as well as other texts such as hymns and notes.

The Book of the Kells is one of the most widely known illuminated manuscripts. It is now on permanent display at the Trinity College Library in Dublin Ireland. The Book of the Kells consists of the four gospels of the New Testament written in Latin and was transcribed by Celtic monks around the year 800. The Book of the Kells is an example of Insular art Insular art is also known as Hiberno-Saxon and referees to the style of arts produced by the people of the British Islands in post-Roman medieval Europe.

Book of the Kells

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Kells

Book of the Durrow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Durrow

In modern times text is combined with illustrations in everything from children’s books to graphic novels. What kinds of books are popular today? name examples of illustrations and texts. What kinds of books do you enjoy and why?

Lesson Idea: Hand Illustrated Manuscripts: Scrolls and Books

-Have students research scrolls of different cultures. Then have them transcribe and illustrate a story about themselves onto a scroll to resemble their chosen culture and time period.

-Have students study hieroglyphics and let them come up with their own hieroglyphics to represent themselves. Have them use their own hieroglyphics in their scroll.

Fashion and Textile Design WebQuest

Fashion and Textile Design

A WebQuest for the 9^th grade (art)

Designed by

Tyler C Anewalt

Tanewalt@uarts.edu

Introduction

Fashion design is a multi billion-dollar industry. Textiles are fabrics like denim, linen and silk. Raw materials used to make textiles come from three main sources: animals (such as wool from sheep and silk from silk worms), plants (like cotton, flax and jute), and synthetic materials (like nylon, polyester and acrylic). Fibers of these materials are spun together to make longer workable fibers like thread and yarn, which are then woven or knotted together to make fabrics.

Some textiles are designed and made for specific purposes; some can be very expensive and even give status in some cultures. Weather it be a robe worn by royalty in the 18^th century or Armani Exchange jeans, fashion and textiles are important in many cultures for different purposes and reasons. This WebQuest will focus on patterns and textiles and their place in contemporary and world cultures.

The Task

Pick a culture to research and answer the following questions in complete paragraphs and make completed sketches as if you were presenting them to a fashion design firm as a proposal for a new line of clothing.

· What is the culture you are researching and from what time period? Provide a brief history and background on the culture.

· What are the kinds of traditional and contemporary fashions of your culture?

· What are the kinds of traditional textiles, textile designs, and patterns of the culture?

· What are the unique characteristics of your cultures fashion and textile design?

· Make sketches of the traditional style of clothing worn by your chosen culture. Put together one completed out fit labeling each piece of clothing with a name, material, and process for making each.

· How is this style of your chose culture different from that of contemporary American culture?

· Design a hybrid style of contemporary American fashion and your cultures traditional fashion.

The Process

· Pick any world culture. The only restriction is that is needs be before or around the 1800’s.

· Research the culture making notes. Make sure to be aware of time period and geographical location being researched. Make a few notes on history and traditions of the culture.

· Research the traditional fashions of the culture. List and describe what was worn daily and for special occasions. What kind of fabrics are used, what kind of patterns are indigenous to the culture. Notice details, define fashion vocabulary, and make quick sketches, notes on colors, etcetera.

· Answer the questions in the Task section

· Make a design for the layout for presenting your cultures fashion, including full sketches of people wearing the traditional clothing, labels, and color and pattern samples.

· Sketch ideas first then arrange on 36 x 40 matt board or foam core; sketches can be cut and pasted to presentation board, not computer printouts of pictures!

· Repeat last two steps to design a hybrid fashion style of both contemporary culture and the cultures traditional fashion.

· Present both fashion designs to the class as if they were selling it as proposal for a clothing line.

Evaluation

Learners can be evaluated with a simple rubric with the following criteria

Research/Written answers

Creative effort

Neatness and craft

Presentation

Conclusion

Students will have learned about all the cultures the class presents and the traditional fashion of each culture. Students will also exorcise creative thinking skills to develop the hybrid fashion. The students will learn confidence and public speaking by pretending the project to the class as fashion designers. Communication and teamwork skills can be developed if learners work in teams.