Mary Lou L. Narowski
This unit is designed to address several areas of concern to me as a teacher of middle school in New Haven, Connecticut. First and foremost, it is the carrot that is needed to bring my bilingual/ ESL students to the place where the clarity of thought they possess as Spanish thinkers and speakers can be expressed in effective written English. Pedagogically, it will provide me with opportunities to apply a range of strategies so that my students will have opportunities to see, hear, read, speak, and write in a safe, stress-free environment by exploring the question, "What is art?" As a teacher of seventh and eighth grade Language Arts at John S. Martinez School, I am charged with the responsibility of ensuring that my students have every opening possible to increase their writing fluency. Demographically, my students are predominately Hispanic. Although they come to school rich with heritage, they lack basic language and writing skills in English.
The purpose of this unit, then, is to provide a change of pace, a different venue for learning. Students will not be engaging in language in a vacuum but rather as a vehicle for something that interests them. Art will provide ways to respond using language, creative skills, and critical thinking. Because the emphasis will be placed on the piece of art and not language as it is typically taught, students will feel a sense of freedom. Their writing will not necessarily be under the microscope. Their ideas about the piece will be. Students will also explore an artist's life, thus seeking answers through a biographic search using computer technology. The more opportunities my Spanish students have to experiment with language, the better their chances are at success with fluency and proficiency.
This unit is divided into two parts. Part One uses photographs from 9/11 to reinforce language proficiency as well as art understandings. These ideas are then used in Part Two to develop an art gallery. The expressed purpose of both is to use the vehicle of art as a means of arriving at effective language skills.
