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.

Hieroglyphs at Don Bosco Technical Academy

Recently, at Don Bosco Technical Academy art teacher Patty Kaminski and her 6th grade art students studied hieroglyphs and created handmade cartouches at home. (See images below.)

This hieroglyphs lesson integrated art with social studies, language arts and math to create a wholistic, arts integration project.  Students engaged with the academic content using technology including Google Classroom to both research the topic of hieroglyphs and create cartouches from home which they later submitted back to their on-line classroom. Students learned to create a personal cartouche using their names and hieroglyphs as inspiration.

WP Art PIR Triada Samaras collaborated with Ms. Kaminski on this lesson to integrate it with the other content areas.  In addition, Professor Samaras read the book Hieroglyphs by Kremena Spengler for the students and their families at home.  

Above:  Professor Samaras reads Hieroglyphs by 

Kremena Spengler to students and their families at home.

This link can be found on the Learning Art at Home blog at this LINK.  The Learning Art at Home blog was created earilier this year in response to the COVID 19 crisis. Professor Samaras will develop a second hands-on project for home which will be soon featured.

Stay tuned!

For more information on Hieroglyphs see: www.facthound.com 

Use the ID 1429619171

Or go to: 

Hieroglyphs 

http://www.greatscott.com/hiero/

Hieroglyphs: Say What? 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pyramid/hierogly...

  

Dodge Grant Schools to Work in Conjunction with Smithsonian Learning Lab Team on a New Grant Project

This year the four Geraldine R. Dodge-funded Arts Integration schools in Paterson have also received a grant from the Smithsonian Learning Lab.

A team of William Paterson University (WP) and Rutgers University have begun meeting with a team from the Smithsonian Learning Lab and with faculty and staff from WP before the 2020-2021 school year gets underway to plan the scope and implementation of this project. Future meetings will include administrators and/or teachers from the Paterson Schools. 

This new grant funding aims to increase awareness of the Asian Pacific countries and their cultures.  The focus will include: social and emotional learning, cultural diversity, arts integration and culturally responsive teaching pedagogy.

Stay tuned as this for coming developments!

WP Online Arts Integration Workshops 2020

This week, several online Arts Integration Workshops were offered to Paterson Public School and neighboring teachers in all grades/content areas.  Funded by the Dodge Grant for Arts Integration, the WP COE served over 60 teachers using Zoom and other educational technology.  Art PIR'S Triada Samaras and Simone Sandler presented four Arts Integration Workshops for the teachers over two days.  

Below are images from one online workshop entitled: "Revisiting The Artist Workshop" presented by WP Art PIR Simone Sandler. Teachers worked on artworks at home while they attended the workshop online.  Simone Sandler captured images of artworks created by the teachers who later presented their drawings to others on Zoom.

The examples below are taken from the online workshop, "Storytelling, Literacy, and Making Books, presented by WP Art PIR Triada Samaras.  Professor Samaras used an interactive Padlet for this workshop. On Padlet, teachers first learned about making "Squash/Explosion" books using the solar system as inspiration. Next, teachers sent in comments, photos, and videos of their ideas and artworks to the Padlet using its interactive and collaborative technology features. 

Below is the Padlet created by Professor Samaras featured in her workshops. The "Squash/Explosion Book" bookmaking activity was done live in Don Bosco Technical Academy and School 21 in March of this year with both teachers and students participating in this Art Integration lesson. See LINK and LINK

Artworks Sent in from Home!

Here are some new artworks sent in from home.
These are high school students at Panther and HARP Academies in Paterson working with WP Alum and Arts Integration teacher, Katherine Machere.

On-Line Arts Integration Lessons Developed by WP PIR Simone Sandler

Simone Sandler, WP Art PIR, recently developed several on-line, arts integration lessons 

for her students at Paterson Schools 12 and 9:

Line Designs

Math and Art

Foldable House Lesson

Engineering and Art

This lesson involved creating foldable houses for the upper grades. 

Tree Lesson

Science/Trees and Art

Radial Symmetry

Math/Circles and Art

Bi-Lateral Symmetry

Science/Butterflies and Art

 

 

Flowers

Science and Art

The egg carton project (below) was a project this student came up with 

on her own using her imagination with items she found in her house.