The Dot (El Punto) in English and Spanish at School 21

Recently Ms. Raquel Ford, art teacher at School 21, and Triada Samaras WP Art PIR have been creating an art lesson based on literacy skills and development. They chose the book, The Dot by author Peter H. Reynolds in English and Spanish as a starting point.

This arts integration lesson was further informed by the artwork of Alma Thomas, a world-reknowned artist and former public school teacher in Washington D.C. using this video: Alma Thomas. 

Above:  Alma Thomas in her studio c. 1968

The artworks of Thomas are often inspired by the use dots or other small repeating shapes. Below are two paintings by Alma Thomas that Ms. Ford showed to her School 21 students.

For the art lesson, Ms. Ford explains, "I usually use this as a 2 day introduction to paint. For Day 1, I introduce routines and procedures - setting up the canvas and painting the whole thing blue. On day 2, students create a radial design with dots."

For further instruction she gives her students questions from Bloom's Taxonomy such as:

"What will your dot art look like?"

"What color?" "What size?"

"Just one? Many?"

"With a crayon? Marker? Paint? Digital?"

"You are the artist, make your mark and see it where it takes you."

Such questions lead the student to higher level thinking skills.

Above: Student artwork (tempera on paper) creating with dots.

 (For the digital version of this art lesson, students are given a demonstration on how to use Google Drawings. Ms Ford, states, "I modeled how to open a drawing, how to use the shape tool, and how to change colors." 

Above: Student digital artwork creating with dots

For more books on Alma Thomas to supplement with this art lesson see:

The "Dot" can be heard read out loud In Spanish by Ms. Ford, School 21 Art teacher to Paterson students and their families on the Learning Art at Home Blog.