Paterson School 9 visits the Newark Museum

Second grade students from Paterson School #9 visited the Newark Museum for two guided tours.This school field trip was part of the Geraldine R. Dodge arts Integration grant at the school.

Students were introduced to the pottery and textiles of the Native American. people. The guide allowed the students to touch a moccasin with elaborate bead work.  Students were able to create clay pottery bowls using the coil method.

Touring the  various galleries of the museum students were excited to see art work  created in such a variety of  styles.

Students were even able to observe the symbolism in some early primitive paintings. In the afternoon, students were guided through the Ballantine House and were surprised at how the house was furnished in a  Victorian  style.

An Arts Integration Field Trip to Ben Shahn Galleries at WPU!

As part of the Dodge Art Integration grant program, students from the Don Bosco Technology Academy and New Roberto Clemente School attended separate field trips to William Paterson University’s University Galleries at the Ben Shahn Center for Visual Arts and Power Art Building in December., for their on-going* art integration/ social studies project.  

 

Kristen Evangelista, Galleries Director, took the students on a gallery tour of "For Home and Country:  World War 1 Posters from the Newark Library".  "Curated by WP Professor George Robb,  this exhibition showcases 26 Propaganda Posters to coincide with the United States World War 1 Centennial."

 


The students will be learning about World War I soon in their class at Don Bosco.*  At the WPU gallery, they learned about how enemies were depicted in propaganda posters at that time.  

Afterwards, WPU Art Professor Juan Robles conducted a workshop pertaining to creating a propaganda poster in the form of a collage.

 

After this workshop, students visited the Power Arts Building and toured the facility with WPU MFA students seeing the state of the art robot , three-d printer room, computer room, virtual reality room, painting, printmaking, and ceramics studios, and more.

Art integration clearly supports both social studies and the arts - enriching students’ understanding about War World I in many different ways, in addition to creating a collage and poster.  

"Arts Integration is an interdisciplinary teaching practice through which non-arts and arts content is taught and assessed equitably in order to deepen students' understanding of both"(NJPSA/FEA & Dodge, 2017).

*Recently, students just completed their large-scale Thomas Jefferson grid-art project with the help of their art teacher at Don Bosco Ms. Kamisnki, and their WPU Professor in Residence, Professor Samras.  The social studies teacher Ms. Simmen will follow-up with smaller Founding Father portraits in her class.

Arts Integration Collaboration: Kite Video. Ms. Conyers w Ms Sandler

At Paterson School 12, 4th grade teacher Ms. Anissa Conyers created a unit on "kites". The students read several books about kites and researched the history of kites through the years. Then, students identified famous people who have flown kites. Next, Simone Sandler, WPU Art PIR created two types of kites out of paper and tissue paper with her classes. After the kites were finished the students went outside to fly them. These students were also studying weather systems and created an anemometer to measure the wind speed.  At the culmination of the lesson students reflected on the problems that were encountered in the flying process. Enjoy the video below which documents this entire process!

Above:  Arts Integration Collaboration: Kite Video. Teacher: Ms. Anissa Conyers/William Paterson University Art Professor in Residence: Simone Sandler thanks to a WPU Arts Integration Grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

Arts Integration: Lego Workshops for Teachers at Paterson Schools 9 and 12!

Simone Sandler, Art Professor-in-Residence PIR from WPU, held workshops for teachers at Paterson School #9 and School #12 on Legos. Twenty-nine teachers participated by experimenting with hands-on projects that could be easily integrated into their curricula.

If designed thoughtfully and intentionally, Lego blocks can be used to encourage students to create a visual concepts in math, science, literacy and engineering. Additionally, Legos foster spatial reasoning and allow students to learn while they play. 

Skills Lego develop :

1. Lego provides tools that develop lateral thinking in a fun environment
2. It teaches kids to think in three dimensions
3. It improves literacy as kids work with instructions
4. It develops problem-solving, organization, and planning by construction
5. It improves creativity
6. It enhances communication and critical thinking
7. It boosts kids motor development.  LINK 

Some of the concepts explored at the workshop with Lego blocks were: multiplication, division, fractions, illustrating a story, creating architecture, simple  machines, robotics and even coding with Legos. In learning to code with Lego students discovered the binary alphabet where each letter, both upper and lower case, is assigned a set of numbers containing 1’s and 0’s. This is an example showing that when students use hands-on learning they are more apt to retain the information presented to them.

 photo credit: David J. Morgan on Flickr

A Founding Father Comes Alive at a Science Fair at Don Bosco!

This fall, an arts integration project combining social studies (American history and civics) and art has led to a new large-scale art work* for Don Bosco Technical Academy (DB).  William Paterson University Art Professor-in-Residence (PIR) Triada Samaras directed this collaboration with teachers and students at this first year Geraldine R. Dodge -funded "arts integration" middle school.

This art work, created mainly in Ms. Kaminski's art class with her students, is an image of Thomas Jefferson selected by students in the next-door classroom where Ms. Simmen's social studies students are studying American history and civics elsewhere.  At the moment they are learning about the "Founding Fathers."  The art PIR demonstrated how to use the grid method to achieve the desired ends, helping these teachers envision, plan and actualize this project together, using relatively inexpensive art materials: black and white construction paper, colored pencils, and glue.  First she edited the photo. Next she cut the image into tiny squares. Then, she gave the students 9 x 9 inch square white paper and asked them to reproduce the squares. 

The art teacher worked hard over many days with mainly eighth graders to  produce the needed drawings, eighty squares in total.  She emphasized the need for the students to perceive the correct proportions and color/tonal scheme of each tiny piece of the overall image. The social studies teacher learned about the artistic grid process as it occurred by observing and conversing with the art teacher and Art PIR. For example, she learned that the living artist, Chuck Close, uses the grid extensively in his own work.

Subsequently, she decided her social studies students would create smaller "Founding Father" grid images later this month in her classroom. She will also consult with the art teacher about how to integrate a South American street artist's aesthetic into this project.
Ms. Kaminski (left) hangs the large-scale art work and Ms. Simmen (below) stands in front of the art work.

Both of these teachers are also engaging with the National History Day Theme: "Conflict and Compromise" in their classrooms. Ms. Simmen plans a National History Day project submission with social studies students.  Historically, Paterson students have performed well in this highly regarded competition.

In the coming week, a field trip will be held. Both teachers will take their students to the WPU University Galleries to see a WWI Propaganda Poster Exhibit with Director Kristen Evangelista and some of the students' parents.  After the gallery visit these students will create hands-on art works with WPU Art Professor Juan Robles.
Below, the Thomas Jefferson mural hangs with a sign detailing the process for parents on Report Card night at DB, so that other teachers in the school might learn this method as well.

On Report Card night last week at DB, parents were invited to the media center to see the new Thomas Jefferson arts integration project together with other student art work as well as impressive student science fair projects nearby. Below are a few of these science projects:

*The large-scale grid drawing at Don Bosco of Thomas Jefferson was inspired by another large-scale art mural of Albert Einstein created by art teacher, Ms. Monica Aramayo, who works at New Roberto Clemente School/NRC.  NRC is another site where Professor Samaras is a WPU PIR funded by Dodge. This is NRC's third grant year and DB's first grant year. Thus the Art PIR plans to mirror some of the "best arts-integration practices" from NRC to DB, creating a connection between the teachers and the students at both schools. 

NRC is rocking with Arts Integration!

Arts Integration is thriving at the New Roberto Clemete School. 

In 3-D Art Teacher Ms. Mandal's art room students are working on a project to support the hurricane victims of Puerto Rico.  Students were first inspired to do this project after NRC held a school-wide fundraising drive for Puerto Rico's hurricane victims, collecting food and many other items to send to the island.  The flamingos project grew out of the students' desire to depict an bird whose natural habitat is Puerto Rico and whose natural habitat might be threatened by the storm.  In addition students were drawn to the elegant lines of this unique bird as well as its bright colors.

Above:  These flamingos were first constructed out of paper mache.  
Here they are drying in Ms. Mandal's classroom.
First students learned facts about flamingos using the former link and their computers to do research.  Next they learned how to construct a flamingo out of paper mache, a somewhat complicated and lengthy process. Ms. Mandal clearly explained each step to the students who eagerly added their own expertise.  The flamingos are still a work in progress as this blog is written.
 
Above: Ms. Mandal demonstrates how to add feathers during an art class.

Above: Student holds his flamingo after working on it.

 Above:  Students created this poster for the Puerto Rico hurricane victims using their own faces.
Ms. Mandal's class also designed a poster for this project.  The final "Flamingos" project will be an installation of many free-standing flamingo sculptures together with this poster in a public part of the school building.  Students will take photos of this installation to send along with a written letter to the hurricane victims. Another arts integration project Ms. Mandal is working on with Assistant Principal and former Math Supervisor Mr. Krankel is a "mathematical/color wheel" staircase project.  In this case four staircases are being turned into a colorful place where students can also see the table of square roots.  Even the number of staircases is a math project:  students will be painting 4 staircases of 9 steps each or 36 stairs total.  Mr. Krankel will help them divide up the table of square roots so that each step has information.  In terms of art, Ms. Mandal is having students use the color wheel to paint. The completed staircases will be colorful and informative.  Stay tuned!

In more Arts Integration collaborations, ELA Teacher Ms. Gencarelli has been working with 2-D Art Teacher Ms. Aramayo to create emoticon puppets for the classroom that will help the children learn their vocabulary words. This Art/ELA projects was originally envisioned by Ms. Gencarelli who attended the Dodge funded WPU Summer Arts Integration Institute and who was very eager to try some arts integration techniques and lesson plans in her classroom. While her ELA curriclum does not provide her with much time for art-making activities during classtime, Ms. Gencarelli paired with Ms. Aramayo to realize her dreams. Ms. Gencarelli plans to track the changes in her students' learning with and without the handmade emoticons...Stay tuned!
 

 
In a separate collaboration, Ms. Cunningham Science Teacher is currently planning with 3D Art Teacher Miss Mandal for an upcoming arts integration project involving the solar system.  The solar system is part of Ms. Cunningham's December curriculum and Ms. Mandal is happy to integrate this content area into her sculpture classroom. She is currently brainstorming solar system sculptures with her students.  Again, Stay Tuned! Pictures will be forthcoming!
 

In additional arts integration projects, 2-D Art Teacher Ms. Aramayo is teaching both photo silkscreen and stop animation video making in her art enrichment classes at NRC.  Both of these classes integrate science and technology directly with the art making process.  In the first process (photo silkscreen) students are learning how light affects a special photographic film designed to record an image.

Left: Solar System Sculpture by Alicia Merrett

    Above:  Ms. Aramayo holding a photo silkscreen ready to print.

NRC 6th grade student, Masiel, took the time to explain the photo silkscreen process to WPU PIR Triada Samaras  recently. 
Masiel explained:
"It all started with the first silkscreen frame (pic above left) . We used two of my logos. (pic above right). One of them is my Zodiac symbol which is the symbol for Virgo. The other logo is from a summer camp I go to.  Since it was mine we decided to start with this silkscreen. We followed the instructions from a book we read to make sure we are doing everything correctly. Here it is: (pic below)"

Masiel continued, "When we made this first silkscreen we did not use the same glass that we used the second time. It did not end very well the first time. We realized that when we looked at the book we had forgotten the glass!  So the second time worked better. When we scrubbed off the neon parts, it would not come off like all the others. That's because we didn't use the glass. But the second screen print came out almost perfectly!" (See images below).

Art and Science combined to make impactful and creative posters in Ms. Learn's 6th grade science class.  

First Science Teacher Ms. Learn and WPU Art PIR Triada Samaras spoke about the pedagogical similarities between art and science classes.  They both discovered that the science questions (in the above image) posted in Ms. Learn's Science classroom are very similar to the kinds of questions that are often asked by Ms. Samaras during art class.  Next Ms. Learn showed Ms. Samaras her recent and stunning bulletin board in the hallway of NRC, combining science, specifically the three laws of motion in physics, and art. Students in Ms. Learn's class made artistic posters using this science content and the result was an exemplary arts integration lesson plan.

Above, Art PIR Triada Samaras (left) Ms. Learn Science Teacher (center) and Betsy Golden

(right) standing in front of the "Fall into Force" Bulletin Board made by Ms. Learn and her students.