The Search for Self: Voices of Adolescence in Literature
Sean Griffin
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Art
As my school is an arts magnet school, whenever I do an extensive unit I try to incorporate art into the unit. In an arts magnet school, the arts and academics are linked in a way that promotes learning that is often overlooked in a regular school setting. In our school, students study math, social studies, science, and languages, [and math], but are also invited to explore the arts for half of their day. The students study drawing and painting, photography, video, dance, pottery, drama, sculpture, and music. It is through this vehicle, this arts magnet atmosphere, that students are allowed to explore and find their strengths and weaknesses. Virtually every student in the school finds his or her niche, his or her interest, and his or her means to succeed in an arts magnet school. In an arts magnet school students use the arts as a way to further explore and understand the academics simultaneously exploring new ways to communicate with the world around them.
I find that infusing art into my academic classroom is one way to help students succeed while tapping into their interests and finding routes to higher order thinking. Students can use art to enhance their search for their own voices. Decorate the walls with students art work. How would their voices look in visual art? What colors, shapes, textures do they see or hear in their own or in their classmates' voices? I will often ask students to illustrate their poetry in ways that their voices can shine through. I put up the students' artwork on the wall. I also ask students to illustrate music as they listen to music that came out of the Harlem Renaissance. Again the journals can be used for some of the artwork. Finally, on the final book project students will be asked to submit illustrations for the book.
