Grade Level(s) and Subject(s): 4th Grade Language Arts

Big Idea: Heroes in our lives

Inquiry Question: How can we connect themes from stories read in class to students’ lives? How can we use the visual arts to explore bravery and heroism from a personal and societal perspective?

For this collaboration, students explored the concept of heroism and heroic figures from a personal perspective and a societal lens. Inspired by the contemporary artist, Kehinde Wiley, students began by creating portraits of people in their lives who exemplified everyday acts of bravery. Students used colors and shapes to express the person's personality and developed a pattern from these which was used as a background for their portrait. This led to a discussion about statues in public spaces and the history of the heroes that America celebrates. Students discussed the contentious history of Christopher Columbus and the statue that commemorates the man in Grant Park. Based on their new understanding of Columbus’ past, students created a counter monument that offers their vision of bravery and heroism.

We wanted to connect themes from the book Number the Stars, which is about a little girl living in Denmark during the nazi invasion, to events and topics that students could connect to in their daily lives. We looked at the theme of heroism from a personal lens and then we discussed it from a societal perspective, such as, identifying everyday acts of bravery by people in their communities to briefly analyzing statues of heroes in public spaces. We talked about how heroism required taking risks and making sacrifices. This prompted one student to share how they thought their mother was a hero because she had had to give up work to look after her and her siblings. The 4th graders had been learning about Christopher Columbus in their social studies class so we connected that to our unit by discussing the empty plinth in Grant Park where the Columbus statue once stood. Although we only discussed the Columbus statue (and briefly) we thought it was relevant to bring this topic to students' attention since in the past year there had been so much news coverage about controversial statues being taken down.

Inquiry was introduced to the students by drawing themes from the book Number the Stars which we tried to connect to the students' lives. For example, we discussed scenes from the book where characters displayed bravery and then students drew those scenes as vividly as they could. We built on this theme by then asking students how family members or friends displayed small acts of bravery and students drew portraits of their chosen person. One student drew her grandfather who along with suffering from a chronic illness, she believed, showed courage by moving to Illinois from Mexico. She used a firework like pattern in her background to visualize his strength and risk taking.

VA-Cr 1.14 a. Brainstorm multiple approaches to a creative art or design problem.

Our final project required students to design and build a sculpture and plinth out of cardboard or a drawing for the sculpture. Students sketched out and then either drew a final drawing or created a 3d sculpture that could be displayed on a plinth in a public space to celebrate their idea of heroism. A cardboard sculpture with a large bow and arrow was created by one student which he said was used to represent the strength people had to display to protect their land from intruders. Another student created a plinth which they said was like a camera that was recording the history happening right now.

As students drew sketches of their designs they made decisions to either create a more refined 2d drawing or create a 3d sculpture. Some students built sculptures that conveyed their idea while others had to go back and forth to refine their idea and choose whether it was more impactful as a drawing or as a sculpture.

My main concerns about my work with CAPE this year was the uncertainty of what it would be like to resume teaching in the classroom. I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of students' attitude to being back in the classroom. How to handle their feelings of anxiety or excitement as well as what their engagement would be like towards our project given the fact that they had been learning online for almost a year. I was also uncertain about how I would feel being back in-person in the classroom.

As our project unfolded I felt less anxiety about being in person and enjoyed the process of really getting to know the students. I noticed how much support they gave each other if a particular student was struggling with a task. I've observed that students of this age often seem reluctant to respond in writing to reflection questions or worksheets but this year there seemed to be even more resistance. However, students (many of whom were already skilled at drawing) seemed to really enjoy creating sketches of scenes from the book they were reading or ideas for sketches for their 3d sculptures. Their drawings were well thought out and included a lot of detail.

I also noticed student emotions were heightened -- a few students got extremely upset when they weren't able to achieve a given task. As our project evolved I realized that some of the students were finding the inquiry quite challenging. So I focused on the individual needs of students by providing scaffolding. I wanted to challenge the students through our CAPE integration but felt I also needed to provide them with lots of learning support to help them succeed. This resulted in some students not achieving the objectives of the lesson but still making artwork that they felt proud of.

One of the important lessons I learned about my teaching was that I needed to breakdown the project into smaller manageable parts for the students rather than trying to cover a lot of material during our project. I also need to be prepared with instructional support for students who may find the lesson challenging or just be open to modifying or adapting lessons based on students' needs in the moment.