Catherine D. Yates
I teach English and Creative Writing at Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School (CO-OP) in New Haven, Connecticut. CO-OP is an interdistrict magnet school in the heart of downtown New Haven, in close proximity to the historic Shubert Theatre, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Yale Center for British Art, the Peabody Museum of Natural History, and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. New Haven is one of the largest, most diverse districts in Connecticut, and CO-OP draws its students from historic city neighborhoods such as the Hill, Newhallville, and Fair Haven, as well as surrounding suburbs, towns, and the coastline. Students interested in an immersive, arts-intensive curriculum come to CO-OP from a wide variety of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Some students have never played an instrument before, never danced on a stage, or written a play. Others come from families with intergenerational ties to international arts communities and to CO-OP. This unit is for teachers who enjoy writing and creating powerful classroom communities, and who are curious about where writing about cultural objects might take them personally and professionally.
This unit has a map with academic sources, as well as suggestions for classroom activities and sketches for how to construct meaningful writing. The premise is that by investigating and trying out the object-based methods of cultural anthropology, as well as descriptive strategies from art history, the unit can be therapeutic for teachers. The unit leaves space for teachers to create their own manuscripts, collages, displays, collaborations and performances. Creating alongside and in relationship to one’s students builds the relationships students need in order to learn.
The wide range of life experiences and academic skills of intergenerational New Haven families and recent immigrants from Africa, Central and South America, and Asia allow for wide-ranging academic and student-centered creative projects. I use writing in my classes to create a positive and supportive community. Working with strategies, developed to understand our human material culture, offers a range of ways for us to get to know one another by sharing cultural and family stories through objects. Storytelling through objects is an excellent model for teaching students to write. In Creative Writing we curate showcases, a newspaper, and a literary magazine to collaborate with the other arts students in Visual Arts, Band, Dance, Choir, and Strings.
Students at CO-OP, like most high school students, are focused on their identity. They constantly look for ways to find themselves within larger geographic and social contexts. Providing them with tools to show and share their personal values gives them lifelong skills. Being able to clearly identify individual and collective values is what makes life meaningful.
