Constructing Flag Star Books

As the Kennedy Center residency comes to a close, 5th graders construct a flag book illustrated with drawings from the zodiac constellation. 

It's In The Stars: Our Personal Constellation

My personal constellation star book

Students writing their star stories

My 5th grade students in a S.W. DC school are finishing up their accordion books during my Kennedy Center bookmaking residency this fall. In ten sessions I led students in creating their own personal constellations based on their lives and values. Students created three star patterns, choosing an object and animal to illustrate and outline for the first two. The third star pattern was created from individual photos I took of them striking a pose. Each object was traced and outlined.

Students had to identify character traits that resonated with who they were inside. Words had to be translated into Latin. The objects and animals they chose had to be researched and students had to justify their choices in writing. Finally, after hearing stories about how ancient cultures created myths about the stars, they wrote their own star stories based on the animals, objects and characters in their constellations.

Anacostia Lantern Walk

Adjoa leading workshop                    Photo by Mike Briscoe

The Lantern Walk was inspired by the story of African American families who built their homes in the historic Barry Farm / Hillsdale neighborhoods in Anacostia by candlelight after returning home from a long day’s work. Presented by the 11th Street Bridge Park and Washington Performing Arts.

More photos of lantern walk

Photo by Matt Campbell

Self-Advocacy & the Arts Training

I had an opportunity to train with Master teaching artists Erica Rooney and Nancy Volante from Everyday Arts in Special Education (NYC). They led teaching artists in training on arts activities that promote self-advocacy skills for high-school students with disabilities. They demonstrated multiple activities in dance, theater, music, and visual arts with a special emphasis on:

• How to extract multiple lessons and value from any given arts activity
• How / why / what makes arts valuable tools for teaching and learning in a special education classroom
• How to create new activities and adapt your own activities with the above in mind

Thanks to Susan Oetgen for organizing this valuable training opportunity!

Connecting Text and Image

Wow! I found this video of me and writer Joy Jones discussing how to connect text with images in books that the National Museum of Women in the Arts did over 7 years ago for their Arts, Books and Creativity (ABC)  a model arts integration curriculum that marries visual art and language arts in bookmaking. 
http://artbookscreativity.org/video/connect-text-and-images/

Step by Step Collage portrait

Before 3rd grade students start their cut-paper collage portraits I show them an exemplar to demonstrate the steps.